Category Posts in Custom Menu
Dynamic menus: List all posts from a category in your menu. Also works for tags, custom taxonomies as well as pages and custom post types.
The facts
- Rating
- 4.8★ from 43
- Active installs
- 2k+
- Price
- Free
- Last updated
- 28 Aug 2026
- Added
- Nov 2011
- Requires WP
- 5.4
- Tested up to
- WP 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
- Downloads
- 109,284
Our analysis
AI-assistedCategory Posts in Custom Menu is a WordPress plugin that enhances the default custom menu functionality by allowing you to automatically list posts and pages from specific taxonomies, such as categories and tags. It also supports custom taxonomies and custom post types. You can configure how many posts to display, their order, and customize menu item titles using various wildcards.
This plugin is suitable for users who want to create dynamic menus that reflect the content of their site without manually updating them. It is particularly useful for those using the Gutenberg Block Editor, as it supports Full Site Editing.
Best for: This plugin suits WordPress users looking to create dynamic menus that automatically reflect their site's content.
What it does well
- ✓Automatically lists posts and pages from categories or tags
- ✓Supports custom taxonomies and custom post types
- ✓Configurable options for post display and ordering
- ✓Customizable menu item titles using wildcards
- ✓Compatible with Full Site Editing in Gutenberg
Where it falls short
- •Breaking changes may affect users upgrading from version 1.x
- •Limited to a maximum of 10 posts per menu item
Verdict
Category Posts in Custom Menu provides useful functionality for enhancing WordPress menus. It is a solid choice for those wanting to automate the display of posts in their menus.
From the developer
Diana van de Laarschot's own description of Category Posts in Custom Menu, lightly tidied.
The default custom menu in WordPress only allows adding a link that leads to a list of posts and pages belonging to a taxonomy (category, tag, etc). If you want to list the posts and pages themselves and if you want WordPress to do this automatically for you, then I hope you will find this plugin useful.
Also works for custom taxonomies and custom post types
NEW: CPCM V3 now provides support for Full Site Editing with the Gutenberg Block Editor
WARNING: Coming from version 1.x? There are breaking changes, read the changelog before upgrading.
Using it
Enable the plugin and go to either Appearance > Menus or Appearance > Customize or Appearance > Editor. Add a category (or other taxonomy like tag or custom) to the menu. Next, you can choose if you would like to replace the category by the posts or pages themselves.
For each Category in your menu, you now have the following extra configuration options:
- Replace by posts in the category y/n;
- specify the (maximum) number of posts you want to show for this item (max 10);
- their ordering ascending or descending by Title, Date or Menu Order;
- specify the title for the menu items. For this you can use %post_title, %post_author and other wildcards, see ‘Other Notes > Wildcards’. Default value: %post_title
Wildcards
You can control the title of the menu items generated by the plug-in with the following wildcards:
- %post_title
- %post_author
- %post_date for the unformatted post date: 2012-11-10 18:14:23
- %post_date() for a formatted post date with the following default formatting: November 10th, 2012
- %post_date(<your formatting here>) for custom date formatting. Example: %post_date(l jS \of F Y, h:i:s A). See https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time for formatting options.
- %post_date_gmt
- %post_date_gmt()
- %post_date_gmt(<your formatting here>)