WordPress Current Year Shortcode for Copyright Footers

A WordPress current year shortcode saves you from editing the copyright line every January. Put [current_year] in the footer once and it always shows the right year.

The snippet

<?php
add_shortcode( 'current_year', 'dpc_current_year_shortcode' );

/**
 * [current_year] prints the current year.
 * [current_year from="2019"] prints a range such as "2019–2026".
 */
function dpc_current_year_shortcode( $atts ) {
	$atts = shortcode_atts( array( 'from' => '' ), $atts, 'current_year' );
	$year = (int) wp_date( 'Y' );
	$from = absint( $atts['from'] );

	if ( $from > 0 && $from < $year ) {
		return esc_html( $from . '–' . $year );
	}

	return esc_html( (string) $year );
}

Add it with Scripts Organizer

Scripts Organizer ships this snippet in its One-Click Import library. To add it by hand:

In wp-admin go to Scripts Organizer → Code Blocks → Add New and give the block a title.
Script location: PHP.
Trigger location: Everywhere. The shortcode then exists on every request that may render it, including block editor previews that go through the REST API.
Action hook: leave it empty. The code only registers filters and actions, so it can run while plugins load.
Paste the snippet into the PHP editor, enable the block and publish it.

The same code also works unchanged in a small plugin or an mu-plugin file in wp-content/mu-plugins/.

How it works

add_shortcode() registers [current_year]. The callback returns the string; a shortcode must never echo, or the year shows up above the content instead of in place.
wp_date( 'Y' ) uses the timezone from Settings → General. WordPress sets PHP’s default timezone to UTC, so the older date( 'Y' ) ignores your site timezone and can switch the year hours early or late on New Year’s Eve.
shortcode_atts() fills in missing attributes, and absint() turns from into a positive integer, so from="abc" is ignored instead of printed.
If from is the current year or later, only the current year prints, so you never see “2026–2026”.
esc_html() escapes the output before it reaches the page.

Use it

In a block theme, open the footer template part in the Site Editor, add a Shortcode block and type © [current_year from="2019"] Your Company. In a classic theme, a Shortcode block in a footer widget area works the same way.

Customise it

For a different format, change 'Y' to another PHP date format character, for example 'y' for a two-digit year.

Gotchas

Full-page caching serves stored HTML. The year changes when the cache is rebuilt; if you cache pages for weeks, clear the cache on 1 January.
The tag current_year has no prefix, because sites already use it in their footers. If another plugin registers the same shortcode, the one added last wins; rename the tag in add_shortcode() if the output looks different from what you expect.
Shortcodes are not processed in the site title, menu labels or post titles unless the theme runs do_shortcode() there.
For another small shortcode in the same style, see Post reading time shortcode.

In the Scripts Organizer library Import it with one click from Scripts Organizer.