How to Get the Page or Post Title in WordPress (PHP)

To get the current page or post title in WordPress with PHP, use get_the_title(). It returns the title as a string and works with any post type, including pages, posts, and custom post types.

// Return the title
$title = get_the_title();

// Or echo it directly
echo get_the_title();

// Pass a post ID to get the title of a specific post
$title = get_the_title( 42 );

Below I’ll cover every common variation: getting a title by ID, the difference between the_title() and get_the_title(), escaping titles for HTML attributes, getting the site title, archive page titles, and the fastest way to fetch a raw title without WordPress filters.

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Get the current post or page title

Inside the WordPress loop (or any template file where the global $post object is set), get_the_title() returns the current post’s title:

// Inside the loop
while ( have_posts() ) {
    the_post();
    $title = get_the_title();
    echo esc_html( $title );
}

It works in single.php, page.php, archive.php, and anywhere else inside a standard WordPress loop. Always esc_html() the output when rendering it as HTML content (WordPress escapes it for you in most core functions, but not when you echo a variable).

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Get a title by post ID

Pass an integer post ID or a WP_Post object to get_the_title() to grab the title of any post, regardless of whether it’s the current one:

// Title of post ID 42
$title = get_the_title( 42 );

// Or pass a WP_Post object
$post_obj = get_post( 42 );
$title = get_the_title( $post_obj );

This is the method you want inside a custom WP_Query loop, a widget, a shortcode callback, or anywhere the global $post isn’t reliably set. You can get the post ID with get_the_ID() when you need it.

One thing to watch for: if the post is password-protected or private, WordPress automatically prepends Protected: or Private: to the title. Use get_post_field() (below) if you want the raw title without that prefix.

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the_title() vs get_the_title()

WordPress has two similar-looking functions that do different things:

Function	Returns or echoes?	Typical use
get_the_title()	Returns a string	When you need to manipulate the title (truncate, concatenate, pass to another function)
the_title()	Echoes directly	When you want to print the title immediately, optionally wrapped in HTML

Quick side-by-side:

// the_title() with HTML wrapping (echoes immediately)
the_title( '<h1>', '</h1>' );

// get_the_title() when you need to process it first
$title = get_the_title();
$short_title = wp_trim_words( $title, 5 );
echo esc_html( $short_title );

When in doubt, reach for get_the_title(). It’s the more flexible option and you can always echo the result when you don’t need to manipulate it.

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Use a title inside an HTML attribute

When a title goes inside an HTML attribute like title="" or alt="", use the_title_attribute(). It strips HTML tags and encodes quotation marks so your markup doesn’t break if the title happens to contain characters that would:

<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"
   title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
    <?php the_title(); ?>
</a>

To return the escaped value instead of echoing it, pass echo=false:

$safe_title = the_title_attribute( array( 'echo' => false ) );

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Get the WordPress site title

If you need the overall site name (not a post title), use get_bloginfo(). It returns whatever’s set in Settings → General:

// Site title
$site_title = get_bloginfo( 'name' );

// Site tagline / description
$tagline = get_bloginfo( 'description' );

// Home URL
$home_url = get_bloginfo( 'url' );

For a Multisite install, get_bloginfo( 'name' ) returns the current site’s title, while get_site_option( 'site_name' ) returns the network’s name.

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Get the archive page title

On a category, tag, author, date, or custom taxonomy archive, get_the_title() will return the title of the first post in the loop, not the archive itself. Use get_the_archive_title():

// Returns something like "Category: Tutorials"
$archive_title = get_the_archive_title();

// Just the term name, no prefix
single_cat_title( '', false );     // category
single_tag_title( '', false );     // tag
single_term_title( '', false );    // any taxonomy
post_type_archive_title( '', false ); // CPT archive

To remove the Category: / Tag: prefix from get_the_archive_title() without switching functions, hook into the get_the_archive_title filter:

add_filter( 'get_the_archive_title', function( $title ) {
    return preg_replace( '/^[A-Za-z ]+:\s*/', '', $title );
} );

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Get a raw title without WordPress filters

get_the_title() runs the result through the_title and private_title_format filters, which is why password-protected posts come back with Protected: prepended. If you want the raw value straight from the database, use get_post_field():

$raw_title = get_post_field( 'post_title', 42 );

This is faster than get_the_title() when you’re fetching thousands of titles in a loop and don’t need filtering applied. Just remember to escape the output yourself (esc_html, esc_attr) since you’re bypassing the sanitization filters.

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Frequently asked questions

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Bottom line

Most of the time you’ll want get_the_title(), with or without a post ID. Switch to the_title_attribute() when you’re dropping the title into an HTML attribute, get_bloginfo( 'name' ) when you need the site name, and get_the_archive_title() on archive pages. For raw, unfiltered database values, get_post_field() is the escape hatch.

Related: how to get a post ID, get the current page slug, or browse the full WordPress code snippets library.