Add media to a post/page - Classic Editor

NOTE: This tutorial is archived for those using the Classic Editor still. Most people will need our Block Editor instructions.

Adding media like images or videos to a post or page in WordPress is easy with drag-and-drop support.

After preparing your images for the web follow these steps:

Upload and insert media from your computer

While working in the WordPress Post/Page editor, click the Add Media button directly above the editor box.
In the popup window, click, Insert Media > Upload Files > Select Files and choose one or more files from your computer, and click “Open” – or, simply drag images onto the popup.
Click to insert the files, seen here:

Files are uploaded in the same order they appear on your computer – typically this is based on the file name. You’ll notice at the bottom edge of the upload popup the order your files will be inserted into your page. Click the Edit Selection link to modify the order with drag-and-drop.

Even though images are shown in reverse order in the Media Library popup, they will be inserted in the order you see them along the bottom of the popup. To learn more about reordering images, see our guide Reordering images .

Insert media from the WordPress Media Library

This process is the same as described above except you will use the Media Library tab to view files you’ve uploaded before.
Select and edit all the files you want to insert. You may use the dropdown options to filter the media library by media type and by date.
When you are done selecting images, click to insert them into your post or page.

Remember that you may insert anything you’ve already uploaded into WordPress – you do not need to upload the same images again if you have already uploaded them for another page, post, or ProPhoto gallery.

Media alignment

There are four options for aligning images/media in your posts & pages:

left – when there is enough space, text and other media will wrap around the right side of the item
center – the image will be centered in the page with nothing on either side
right – when there is enough space, text and other media will wrap around the left side of the item
none – the item behaves like a character in a sentence, appearing inline with other text or items

Generally, you should insert images and other media as center aligned unless you have a specific need to wrap text or other items around the sides.
(to achieve side-by-side images, consider making a composite image, described in our Composite side-by-side images guide)

Choose alignment before inserting media

You may select your alignment for individual items before inserting them into your page. Find this option by uploading/selecting a media item, and scroll down in the right-side pane in the popup, as seen here:

WordPress will save your alignment selection when you insert something into a page, so remember to upload/select one file at first when you need to change your alignment. Then, future items will adopt the same alignment selected for your last insert. This is helpful when you need to insert many images center-aligned, but a previous image was inserted with a different alignment selected.

Choose alignment after inserting media

If you have only one or a few items which need to be aligned differently, you may click to select the item in your editor screen. A popup tool allows you to change alignment quickly, seen here:

Avoid using text alignment buttons in the editor toolbar – you should always use the media alignment options.

Image size

There are four options for the display size of images in your posts & pages:

full size – images will be inserted at the original resolution* of the file, e.g. an image 2000×1333 in resolution will be placed in the page at that size
large – images will be inserted at the “large” size (1024px by default)
medium – images will be inserted at the “medium” size (300px by default)
thumbnail – images will be inserted at the “thumbnail” size, and cropped square (150px by default)

The default size of downsized images are found in the “Settings > Media” screen, and you can modify the sizing to suit special needs, seen here:

*Your images are loaded at the highest resolution possible, up to 100% size, but a downsized version may be created automatically if the browser window is much smaller than the 100% size. Learn more about automatic downsizing in our Automatic image downsizing guide.

Choose size before inserting media

You may select your size for individual items before inserting them into your page. Find this option by uploading/selecting a media item, and scroll down in the right-side pane in the popup, as seen here:

WordPress will save your size selection when you insert something into a page, so remember to upload/select one file at first when you need to change the size. Then, future items will adopt the size selected for your last insert. This is helpful when you need to insert many images full size, but a previous image was inserted with a different size selected.

Choose size after inserting media

If you have only one or a few items which need to be sized differently, you may click to select the item in your editor screen. A popup tool allows you to edit image properties quickly, seen here:

Typically you will find that inserting images at full size works best for a responsive website layout.

Linking

There are four options for the linking of images in your posts & pages:

none – the image will not link to anything, it will only appear in the page
media file – the image will link to the original uploaded file
attachment page – the image will link to the WordPress attachment page which is a display page for the image alone, styled by your theme complete with the normal page layout – the template assigned to the individual posts pages will be used for this special attachment page
custom URL – images can be used to link to any URL that is pasted – within the site or on any other site

Typically images won’t be linked to anything, but if you want to link an image or graphic inside a page or post, these options can be useful.

Remember that it’s also possible to link images with the Graphics widget within the layout of your template.

Change size or alignment for many images

If you have placed a large number of images into your post or page, and you want to change the size or alignment for those images, you can use the Media Library tab of the Add Media popup to filter the library to only the items which were originally uploaded in the current post or page:

Select a single image and insert it with the size and alignment you need for all of your images, and insert the image.

Then, you can return to the same view in the Add Media popup to select and insert the remaining images in the group – they will be inserted with the last size & alignment you’ve used.

Remove any images you previously inserted that you do not need.

Add media to a post/page – Classic Editor