Title: WordPress hogging all CPU Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # WordPress hogging all CPU * [natli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/natli/) * (@natli) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/) * I noticed wordpress is hogging 50% to 100% of my dedicated server’s CPU on a single request so I started to do some testing. * (Watch in 1080p or you can’t see anything) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIkSgdjRUoI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIkSgdjRUoI) * Debian6, 2GB RAM, 2x 1.6GHz * So I made a copy of the website and put it on a VPS with Debian5, 512MB RAM, shared 4x 2.5GHz . I disabled all wordpress plug-ins prior to this test. * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z7l1Cb_kRE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z7l1Cb_kRE) * It’s using *way* too much. 10 simultaneous connections causes 100% load on all 4 cores. * So, it happens on both servers, so it’s obviously something wordpress related. Plugins are off so it can’t be that. So I tried installing xcache, it didn’t help ;( * [http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m577/kakaboeie/xcache-nohelp.png](http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m577/kakaboeie/xcache-nohelp.png) * I use lighttpd as a webserver, btw. I read some people’s posts over the internets saying they get ~50.000 pageviews per day and don’t even come near to the resources I am using up with 10 requests. * What can be causing this? Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) * Moderator [cubecolour](https://wordpress.org/support/users/numeeja/) * (@numeeja) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373104) * You’ve taken the plugins out of the equation but as a matter of interest were the tests conducted with your theme or the default theme? This may help you to pinpoint whether there’s something in the theme causing the issue. * You may want to enable the error log to see whether you get any clues there [http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php#Configure_Error_Log](http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php#Configure_Error_Log) * Thread Starter [natli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/natli/) * (@natli) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373120) * I switched the theme back to TwentyTen and tried both error logging methods, but both php_error.log and wp-content/debug.log remain empty even though they are chmodded to 777. I’m assuming that’s because no errors are found. * The default theme vs. my own theme made no difference either. I’m currently trying to set up another copy on apache2 rather than lighttpd but I keep getting the Blank Page of Death with the following errors; * Notice: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /var/www/xxx/wp-config.php on line 35 Deprecated: Function set_magic_quotes_runtime() is deprecated in /var/www/ xxx/wp-settings.php on line 32 * So I’m currently trying to figure that out. * Thread Starter [natli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/natli/) * (@natli) * [14 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373138) * I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the blank screen so I made a fresh install with apache2 + mysql + phpmyadmin + wordpress and nothing else. Then I imported the posts from the original wordpress install and this is the result: * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Dnjhw5k5g](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Dnjhw5k5g) * Is that load (~80% at 4 to 7 requests per second) normal? It’s an Intel i5-2500 @ 3.3GHz CPU with 1GB RAM. I imported nothing else except the ~10-or-so posts, not even categories. * [cocoa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cocoa/) * (@cocoa) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373255) * If it makes you feel any better, I have the exact same issue on shared hosting. Switched off all plug-ins, reverted to default theme and yet still the CPU is spiking and maxing out. It is extremely frustrating and at the moment I do not know what to do.. * Thread Starter [natli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/natli/) * (@natli) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373256) * As it turns out, this is normal wordpress behavior.. * What I did was install WP_Super_Cache to prevent PHP from re-generating pages that haven’t been changed. * I’m not sure how this affects plugins like StatPress, but I ended up completely bypassing PHP by using lighttpd with LUA rewriting. An LUA script now checks if a html page is already generated by WP_Super_Cache and servers that page immediately. If not, it continues as it would normally. * I can now serve 100 pages per second With the CPU not even reaching 20%. But I don’t think this would be possible with shared hosting since you probably can’t install lighttpd with LUA support without root access. Nevertheless, using WP_Super_cache will be a big improvement on it’s own! * I still wonder why wordpress uses so much CPU to begin with, though… * [cocoa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cocoa/) * (@cocoa) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373257) * Hmm, I’ve gone from SC to W3 and am now happily on Quick Cache. Also, as a side effect (since WordPress cannot generate the page that is needed) I get 404 messages If I try to view Jetpack Stats. I have to reload the page several times for it to finally come up. Super frustrating.. * [k_nitin_r](https://wordpress.org/support/users/k_nitin_r/) * (@k_nitin_r) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373260) * cocoa, * I followed your path to Quick Cache. I’ve tried Super Cache in the past and although it was great for anonymous users, it didn’t do much for logged-in users. I had a quick go with Total Cache but didn’t want to take the time to go over all the settings. Quick Cache was easy to setup; it can cache for logged-in users too but do remember to change the setting. * Quick Cache took my CPU time down considerably. * Thread Starter [natli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/natli/) * (@natli) * [14 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373262) * Actually, I think super cache doesn’t do *anything* for logged in users. So yea if you do have allot of co-bloggers or commenters it’s probably best to use Quick Cache, although I have never used it before myself. * [Danageekgirl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danageekgirl/) * (@danageekgirl) * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373269) * I’m having the same issue with one of my sites. The CPU was jumping and crashing the site. We were getting 500 errors intermittently throughout the day. * I changed themes, got rid of all the plugins I could, turned on debug to see which plugins might be throwing errors. Some were, so nixed them and replaced them with good plugins. * CPU still spiked. Then my host said they thought it was from wp-cron.php running too many processes every minute. So I disabled wp-cron, and ran it manually twice a day. Got the CPU down from 13 to 2-3, but my host wants it around 1%! * I also installed WP Super Cache, which I like a lot. My site loads way faster and works great, but this doesn’t seem to bring down the CPU more. * This is really frustrating! Now I have a plugin called wp-cron so I can see what process WP’s plugins need from wp-cron.php from the dashboard, and I installed WP-Cron Control, which is supposed to prevent wp-cron from going nuts and running when I want it too, just twice a day. * Still the CPU spikes. But what’s really confusing is I have my personal site with 3 instances of WP from the same host, just as much traffic, more plugins, yet that CPU is always under one percent! I don’t get it! * Is it the host server set up? Or is WP just a memory pig? I don’t know. * [Danageekgirl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danageekgirl/) * (@danageekgirl) * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373270) * I’m having the same issue with one of my sites. The CPU was jumping and crashing the site. We were getting 500 errors intermittently throughout the day. * I changed themes, got rid of all the plugins I could, turned on debug to see which plugins might be throwing errors. Some were, so nixed them and replaced them with good plugins. * CPU still spiked. Then my host said they thought it was from wp-cron.php running too many processes every minute. So I disabled wp-cron, and ran it manually twice a day. Got the CPU down from 13 to 2-3, but my host wants it around 1%! * I also installed WP Super Cache, which I like a lot. My site loads way faster and works great, but this doesn’t seem to bring down the CPU more. * This is really frustrating! Now I have a plugin called wp-cron so I can see what process WP’s plugins need from wp-cron.php from the dashboard, and I installed WP-Cron Control, which is supposed to prevent wp-cron from going nuts and running when I want it too, just twice a day. * Still the CPU spikes. But what’s really confusing is I have my personal site with 3 instances of WP from the same host, just as much traffic, more plugins, yet that CPU is always under one percent! I don’t get it! * Is it the host server set up? Or is WP just a memory pig? I don’t know. Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) The topic ‘WordPress hogging all CPU’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [cpu](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/cpu/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 10 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [Danageekgirl](https://wordpress.org/support/users/danageekgirl/) * Last activity: [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-hogging-all-cpu/#post-2373270) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics