What is Akismet?

Akismet ships with the WordPress download, so on most new installations you’ll find it waiting on the Plugins screen. With more than 5 million active installations (WordPress.org, August 2026), it’s one of the most widely used plugins in the official directory, and Automattic says Akismet has protected more than 100 million websites and blocked over 540 billion spam comments (akismet.com, figures as of 2023).

Who owns Akismet?

Automattic owns and maintains Akismet. That’s the same company behind Jetpack, which is why the two plugins integrate so tightly. The service launched on October 25, 2005, and the plugin has been included by default in every WordPress download since version 2.0, released that December. The plugin’s listing on WordPress.org is published under Automattic’s name.

What the name means

Akismet is a contraction of “Automattic kismet,” per the service’s original FAQ. Kismet is an English word, borrowed from Turkish, for fate or destiny, and dictionaries pronounce it KIZ-met.

How Akismet works

The plugin is a client for Akismet’s cloud service. When someone leaves a comment or submits a contact form, Akismet sends the content to its servers, which check it against a global database of spam collected from millions of sites and return a verdict. That analysis runs on Akismet’s servers, not yours.

Suspected comment spam never publishes: it goes to the spam queue on your Comments screen, each comment keeps a status history showing whether Akismet or a moderator flagged it, and a discard feature drops the worst offenders outright to save disk space. The service uses machine learning to analyze submissions in real time and recognize new spam patterns, and it works alongside form builders and other plugins, including Jetpack, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, and Formidable Forms. Jetpack’s forms are checked automatically; the other form plugins need Akismet enabled on each form.

Akismet beyond WordPress

The plugin is WordPress-specific, but the service isn’t. Akismet exposes a public API, and there’s an official Akismet plugin for the Discourse forum software. For custom-built forms on other platforms, Akismet publishes client libraries, PHP examples, and an OpenAPI spec in its developer documentation. Off WordPress, you integrate against the API instead of installing a plugin.

When you need Akismet

Use Akismet if your site accepts comments or form submissions. Spam can slow your site down, bloat its database, and publish links that send visitors to scams or malware. If comments are disabled and you run no forms, you can skip it: spammers have nothing to fill in.

The main failure mode is the false positive, where a legitimate comment lands in the spam queue. It’s rare, but check the queue periodically and mark real comments as not spam. Those corrections feed back into Akismet’s filtering.

Akismet and visitor privacy

Every comment or form submission Akismet checks is processed on Automattic’s servers, so commenter data leaves your site. Akismet’s privacy policy says it collects only the personal data needed to filter spam, doesn’t sell it, and automatically deletes most spam-related data after between 2 weeks and 90 days. You should still disclose the processing: mention Akismet in your site’s privacy policy, and turn on the optional notice the plugin can display under your comment forms, which links to Akismet’s privacy documentation. That disclosure matters if your visitors are covered by GDPR, the EU’s privacy regulation.

What Akismet costs

Every Akismet plan gets the same filtering. Plans differ by usage and license, not features: paid tiers add commercial use, more monthly spam checks, more sites, and a higher support tier. A spam check (also called an API call) is counted each time Akismet inspects a comment or form submission. As of August 2026, the lineup looks like this:

• Personal: name your price (pay what you can) for personal, non-commercial sites and blogs
• Pro: for professional and commercial sites, starting at 500 spam checks per month on 1 site, with email support
• Business: for large networks and multisite installations, with unlimited sites, 5,000 monthly spam checks, and priority email support
• Enterprise: custom plans for large organizations, with unlimited sites, a custom spam-check allowance, and dedicated support

Prices change, so check Akismet’s pricing page for current rates.

How to set up Akismet

Setup takes 3 steps:

1. Activate the plugin from your WordPress dashboard. If it isn’t there, install it free from the WordPress.org plugin directory.
2. Get an API key from akismet.com. Signing in requires a WordPress.com account, free to create if you don’t have one, and that account is also where you recover the key if you lose it. Keys are free for personal blogs; businesses and commercial sites need a paid subscription.
3. Paste the key into the plugin’s settings. Akismet starts checking new comments and form submissions right away.

From then on, caught spam collects in the spam section of your Comments admin screen, where you can review it or restore anything flagged by mistake. For a step-by-step walkthrough, read our guide, Akismet: How To Stop WordPress Comment Spam.