How To Require a Minimum Comment Length in WordPress

Are you looking for a way to require a minimum comment length in WordPress? This snippet will display this error message if the snippet is less than 20 characters long: “All comments must be at least 20 characters long.”

Instructions:

All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

add_filter( 'preprocess_comment', 'minimal_comment_length' );

function minimal_comment_length( $commentdata ) {
     $minimalCommentLength = 20;

     if ( strlen( trim( $commentdata['comment_content'] ) ) < $minimalCommentLength ){
       wp_die( 'All comments must be at least ' . $minimalCommentLength . ' characters long.' );
     }

     return $commentdata;
}

This snippet was created by Paul.

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly copy / paste code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.

If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: WPForms vs. Gravity Forms – Best Form Plugin Showdown.