BEGINNER'S GUIDE

How to Add Profile Picture to WordPress User (3 Easy Ways)

Last Updated: 11 mins By: Akriti Pant

Wondering how to add profile picture to WordPress users? Unlock the power of profile pictures on your WordPress site through this article.

Adding profile picture to WordPress user:

  • Boosts audience engagement and credibility
  • Creates a sense of connection and encourages interaction with content
  • Creates an experience similar to social networking platforms

Before diving into the written guide, watch our video tutorial below for a visual walkthrough.

If you prefer reading or want more detailed instructions, continue scrolling for our step-by-step guide


How to Add Profile Picture to WordPress User? (3 Easy Ways)  

Let’s explore three methods to add WordPress user profile pictures: Gravatar, the User Registration plugin, or the Avatar plugin.

1) Using the Default WordPress Gravatar  

Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) is an online service that allows you to upload a profile picture (avatar) and associate it with your email address.

Once you’ve uploaded your avatar to Gravatar, you can use that same picture across multiple websites that support the Gravatar platform.

So, instead of uploading your profile picture separately on each website you visit, you can upload it once on Gravatar.

Select Image and Change Avatar

Then, whenever you use the email address associated with your Gravatar account on a participating website, your profile picture will automatically appear next to your name or comments.

The good news is that WordPress has integrated Gravatar into its system, allowing users to add their Gravatar as their profile picture on your site.

To set up, visit gravatar.com and sign up.

Login or Sign up with Gravatar

From the Gravatar dashboard, you can select the email address for which you’ll use the image as a profile picture. You can also add other emails if you have them.

Next, you can upload an image and follow steps like editing it and providing an image rating, as guided by Gravatar.

Upload Image and Add Email

Your Gravatar appears on sites you interact with, provided you use the associated email. As a WordPress admin, you can also set avatar options under Dashboard >> Settings >> Discussion.

WordPress Settings

Scroll down below until you reach the Avatar section.

Avatars in Dashboard

The Default Avatar is for those who do not have a Gravatar account; it displays a generic logo for the user as the profile picture.

Default Avatar Section
  • Mystery Person shows the person’s outline as the profile picture
  • Blank option leaves the profile blank
  • Gravatar Logo shows its logo as the profile picture

Besides that, the icons that have (Generated) at the end of their label provide you with the auto-generated image without requiring you to create a Gravatar account.

Other methods also exist for adding profile pictures directly to the site. Those methods are suitable for users who prefer not to use Gravatar. Let’s explore both below.


2) Upload Profile Pictures from Front-end Registration Forms  

Users can easily add avatars to user profiles using front-end registration forms in WordPress. 

Simply add the profile upload field to the registration form, and users can add an avatar to their user profile.

To show how it actually works, we have chosen the best plugin—User Registration.  

How to add Profile Picture to WordPress using User Registration Plugin

User Registration is a top choice for WordPress registration form plugins. It’s user-friendly, making the creation of user registration forms super easy. And you won’t even require any coding knowledge.   

At the same time, you can let users add avatars to their profiles through the custom registration form you’ve created with this plugin.

Follow these steps to add a profile picture to a WordPress user using User Registration:

i. Install User Registration Pro and Advanced Fields Add-on  

First of all, you must buy the premium version of User Registration.

You’ll also need the Advanced Fields add-on to use User Registration in WordPress to let users add avatars to their profiles.

You can use any of the three plans for User Registration Premium: personal, plus, and professional. The price starts at $79 per year.

Complete the transaction by visiting wpuserregistration.com and creating an account. Then, sign in with the same account and go to the Dashboard >> Downloads.

Now, download the User Registration Pro file. So now, you have everything you’ll require to add image upload to the user profile in your WordPress site.

For a detailed guide, please read our article on installing and setting up the User Registration plugin.

Next, log into your WordPress Dashboard. From here, click on the Plugins >> Add New. 

Add New Plugin

It will now take you to the new page with plugins. 

Click on the Upload Plugin at the top and choose the User Registration Pro file you’ve downloaded. Install and Activate the plugin as well.

Upload Plugin And Install

After you activate the plugin, set it up. Your site now has User Registration (Pro) along with its pages. 

You’ll now need to enter the license key for the User Registration (Pro) plugin. The license key is available in the WPEverest dashboard under the License Keys tab. 

Or you’ll get the license key in your email.

After activating the plugin, copy the license key and enter it in the field under User Registration (Pro).

Enter License Key

Simultaneously, navigate to User Registration >>Extensions >> Addons. Look for Advanced Fields and toggle the button to activate the add-on.

Toggle on Advanced Fields

Therefore, your WordPress site now has two plugins related to User Registration, installed:

Installed Plugins

 ii. Create a New Registration Form with Profile Picture Field  

After this, let’s move on towards building the form. So, go to User Registration >> Add New first.   

Add New Form

You’ll see the interface of User Registration, which looks like this.  

User Registration Interface

Click on Start From Scratch or use the existing form to edit them. You can now drag and drop the form fields to add them to the form.

User Registration Form Interface

To do so, click on the Add New button on the right side and drag and drop the required field.

Next, to add the profile upload field in your user registration form, scroll down below the Fields until you find Advanced Fields.   

Advanced Field

From here, drag and drop the Profile Picture field into your form.   

Drag-and-drop Profile Picture Field

After adding all the required fields, name the form if you haven’t already, and click on Update Form

To customize the options for the Profile Picture field, click on the field to open the Field Options.

The Field Options have General and Advance Settings:

  • General Settings lets you edit the label and add a description to the form’s fields.
  • Advance Settings lets you add custom classes for the fields. 

You can also set valid file types and the maximum size for the image. 

Set File Types And Size

Likewise, you can customize the General and Advance Settings for all other fields.

Besides that, you can go to Settings under User Registration for further settings.

User Registration Settings

iii. Place the Registration Form on Your WordPress Website  

Open the desired page or post to add the user registration form with the profile picture field. Go to the block editor and press [+]

Block Inserter

From the search bar, search for the User Registration block.  

Registration Form Block

Once you choose it, the block will appear on your post. From there, select the form you just created from the dropdown button. 

Select User Registration Form

Update the post or page and Preview to see how it actually looks.

The form might look like this on the webpage. However, the appearance will vary depending on the WordPress theme you’re using on your website.

User Registration Form in Live Site

Here, users can easily upload the file by clicking on Upload File. They can also click on Take Picture to take pictures using the webcam.

Furthermore, once the user registers using the User Registration form, they can also upload their profile picture from the edit-profile tab of the My Account page.

However, they must log in to their account using the same email address and password they created before submitting their profile picture.

Once they log in, a new dashboard for the user appears like below:  

My Account Dashboard

Next, they can click on the Profile Details and use the Remove button to upload a new image.  

Remove User Profile

Again, the user has two options for uploading the image: uploading the file or clicking the picture using a webcam. 

Once they Save the changes, the new profile picture will appear next to their name for their site activity on your site.

That’s how to add profile picture to WordPress user using User Registration. Let’s now move on to another method.


3) Upload Avatars from the Dashboard using Avatar Plugins  

The next method of adding a profile picture to WordPress users is uploading the avatars from the dashboard using plugins. 

When you install these plugins, you can use the avatar you choose for the users. 

So, here we’ve mentioned some of the plugins that are highly useful for uploading avatars for your users from the WordPress dashboard.  


i) Simple Local Avatars   

As the name implies, Simple Local Avatars is a simple plugin for adding an avatar upload field to the user profile in WordPress.

Simple Local Avatars

It generates the size demand on request, just like Gravatar, and allows picture cropping. Similarly, using the plugin, you can store the images in the upload folder where all your other media exist.

In addition, the plugin’s simple and native interface makes it easy to use. It fully supports the default avatar and Gravatar. You can also enable the rating of the local avatars. 

Key Features  
  • Supports jpg, gif, png, bmp, and tif images  
  • REST API support  
  • Supports front-end avatar uploads  
  • Translated into 13 locales  
  • Good documentation  

Price: Free  


ii) Basic User Avatars   

Basic User Avatars is a user-friendly plugin that allows you to add a custom profile picture to a WordPress user by adding an avatar upload field. 

Basic User Avatars

It’s also compatible with other popular plugins that use user registration on the front-end for profile management. 

At the same time, you can disable the user’s ability to update their profile picture using the Settings of your Dashboard. You can then allow them to upload only the file.  

Although the plugin is known for uploading avatars from the dashboard, it also enables you to use the front-end for avatar management and avoid giving users access to the dashboard.  

Key Features  
  • Seamless migration from the WP User Avatar plugin  
  • Compatible with other popular plugins  
  • Automatically added bbPress support
  • SSL support  
  • Completely free  

Price: Free   


Wrapping Up  

Considering how important profile pictures are in creating an engaging user experience, you must also let users add profile pictures to your website. 

You now know three easy ways to add avatars to the user profile: using Gravatar, the User Registration plugin, or WordPress avatar plugins. 

However, we recommend you use User Registration to add an avatar to the user profile to avoid Gravatar’s limitations. The plugin can also allow you to offer a user profile dashboard at the front-end of your site.

Further, the plugin is reliable for creating various types of forms. That’s all about changing a profile picture on WordPress.

But don’t stop here. Visit our blog to read more articles, including tutorials for WordPress. Also, stay connected with us on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

How to Add Profile Picture to WordPress User (3 Easy Ways)
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