How to Bulk Edit Categories in WordPress (Add, Move or Remove, 2026)

Need to move dozens of posts into a new category at once? When we switched QuickOnlineTips from Blogger to WordPress in 2006, hundreds of imported posts landed in “Uncategorized”, and we had to fix them one by one until we found the Batch Categories plugin. Today you can bulk edit categories in WordPress without that old plugin: adding categories in bulk is built in, and removing or moving them takes a plugin or WP-CLI.

Quick answer: To add a category to many posts, go to Posts > All Posts, tick the posts, choose Edit from Bulk actions, tick the category and click Update. WordPress can’t remove or replace categories in bulk, so use a plugin such as Bulk Move to move or detach posts, or WP-CLI on your server. Always back up first.

Add a category to many posts (built in)

1. Go to Posts > All Posts and filter by the current category if needed.
2. Click Screen Options at the top and raise the number of posts per page (for example 100).
3. Tick the posts you want, or use the checkbox at the top to select all on the page.
4. Choose Edit from the Bulk actions menu and click Apply.
5. Tick the new category and click Update.

As the WordPress documentation explains, Bulk Edit can add categories and tags but can’t change or delete them.

Remove or move categories in bulk

Option 1: Bulk Move plugin

Bulk Move moves posts from one category, tag or custom taxonomy to another, or detaches them without assigning a new one. Note that it hasn’t been updated recently, so test it on a staging site first.

Option 2: Delete or merge a category

Deleting a category doesn’t delete posts. Posts that only had that category move to your default category. To merge two categories, first bulk-add the target category to all posts in the old one, then delete the old category, and add a redirect from the old category URL if it had traffic.

Option 3: WP-CLI (for developers)

If you have shell access, WP-CLI can remove a category from posts with commands like wp post term remove <post-id> category old-category, which you can loop over a list of post IDs.

Category tips for a cleaner site

• Keep categories few and broad; use tags for details.
• Give each post one main category to avoid duplicate-looking archives.
• Rename the default “Uncategorized” category to something useful.
• Consider noindexing thin archive pages; see how to noindex archive subpages.

Moving platforms? Our guide to redirecting Blogger to WordPress covers keeping traffic after the switch.

FAQ

Can I remove a category from multiple posts at once?

Not with WordPress alone. Use a plugin like Bulk Move or WP-CLI.

Does changing categories affect URLs?

Only if your permalinks include the category. If they do, add redirects when you move posts.

Is the Batch Categories plugin still available?

It’s long outdated. Use WordPress Bulk Edit plus a maintained plugin or WP-CLI instead.