Adds shortcode [catthumb] to embed a thumbnail image for a category.
As of April 2026, Category Thumbnail is a WordPress post plugin with 40 active installations and a 0/5 rating0. It has been downloaded 10.0K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.5+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2011. Last updated 11 years ago — may have compatibility concerns. Top alternative: Header and Footer Scripts.
[catthumb id=”CategoryID” link=”true”] will find the most recent post in the specified Category with a featured image and return the thumbnail for that image. If link=”true” is specified, the image will link to the category specified.
You can optionally search custom post types with the post_type attribute, and specify the thumbnail size with the size attribute. IE [catthumb id="CategoryID" link="true" post_type="restaurants" size="full"]
The plugin will only search featured images, not attached images. It will not look for images embedded in the post itself, or other attached images. If a category does not have any posts with featured images, this plugin will not return a thumbnail image, even if the category has posts with attached images.
| WordPress | 3.5+ requiredTested up to 4.2.39 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.