Activate scheduling.
Schedule Terms lets you reserve a date and time for a category, tag, or any other taxonomy term to be attached to or detached from a post, instead of editing the post manually when the time comes.
It’s useful for things like:
- Featuring a post in a “Sale” or “Campaign” category only during a specific period, and removing it automatically afterwards.
- Adding a “New” tag to a post for a limited time after publishing.
- Hiding a post from a “Featured” listing taxonomy once a promotion ends.
Once scheduling is enabled for a taxonomy, a “Schedule Terms” panel appears in the post editor for every term in that taxonomy, with separate “Attach” and “Detach” date/time fields. WordPress’ own cron system checks the schedule and updates the post’s terms automatically when the time arrives, so there’s nothing else to do once a schedule is set.
Usage
- Go to the category, tag, or custom taxonomy management screen.
- Check the “Enable scheduling” checkbox when adding or editing a term (or via Quick Edit) to turn scheduling on for that term.
- Open a post in the block editor and find the “Schedule Terms” panel in the document sidebar.
- Set the “Attach” date/time to have the term automatically added to the post at that time, and/or the “Detach” date/time to have it automatically removed.
- Save or update the post. The term will be attached/detached automatically once the scheduled time passes.
FAQ
Does the term get attached/detached even if I don’t edit the post again?
Yes. Scheduling is handled by WordPress cron, so the post doesn’t need to be opened or saved again after the schedule is set.
What happens if I leave both the “Attach” and “Detach” fields empty?
Nothing is scheduled for that term on that post; the term is only added or removed when you do so manually, as usual.
Can I use this with a custom taxonomy?
Yes, scheduling can be enabled for any taxonomy that is shown in the admin UI (show_ui is true), not just categories and tags.