---
tags:
  - nginx
  - wordpress
  - ubuntu
  - caching
  - performance
title: Configuring Nginx Caching for WordPress (Browser & FastCGI)
---

# Configuring Nginx Caching for WordPress

To satisfy the **"Serve static assets with an efficient cache policy"** warning in PageSpeed Insights and achieve sub-100ms Time to First Byte (TTFB), you need to configure Nginx to handle caching at the server level.

This guide covers two types of caching:
1.  **Browser Caching:** Tells the user's browser to save images/CSS locally so they don't re-download them on repeat visits.
2.  **FastCGI Caching:** Tells the server to save the generated HTML of your WordPress pages so PHP doesn't have to run on every visit.

## 1. Browser Caching (The "Static Assets" Fix)

This section specifically fixes the "efficient cache policy" warning. We need to set `Expires` headers and `Cache-Control` directives for static files.

Open your Nginx configuration file (usually in `/etc/nginx/sites-available/your-site`):

```nginx
server {
    # ... existing config ...

    # Cache Images, Fonts, and Media for 1 Year
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|webp|avif|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|eot|ico|mp4)$ {
        expires 365d;
        access_log off;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }

    # Cache CSS & JS for 1 Month
    location ~* \.(css|js)$ {
        expires 30d;
        access_log off;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }
}
```

## 2. FastCGI Caching (Server-Side)

This is the secret weapon for WordPress performance on Ubuntu. Instead of using a heavy PHP plugin, we use Nginx's native engine to serve static HTML.

### Step A: Define the Cache Path
Open `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` (the main config) and add this inside the `http { ... }` block:

```nginx
fastcgi_cache_path /var/run/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=WORDPRESS:100m inactive=60m;
fastcgi_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
```

### Step B: Configure the Site
Back in your site config (`/etc/nginx/sites-available/your-site`), add the logic to skip caching for logged-in users.

```nginx
# Logic to skip cache for logged-in users, POST requests, or query strings
set $skip_cache 0;
if ($request_method = POST) { set $skip_cache 1; }
if ($query_string != "") { set $skip_cache 1; }
if ($request_uri ~* "/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|wp-.*.php|/feed/|index.php") { set $skip_cache 1; }
if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author|wordpress_[a-f0-9]+|wp-postpass|wordpress_no_cache|wordpress_logged_in") { set $skip_cache 1; }

location ~ \.php$ {
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock; # Check your specific PHP version

    fastcgi_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
    fastcgi_no_cache $skip_cache;

    fastcgi_cache WORDPRESS;
    fastcgi_cache_valid 200 60m;
    add_header X-FastCGI-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
}
```

## Related Guides
*   [[Ubuntu-WordPress-Setup|Installing WordPress on Ubuntu]]
*   [[wordpress-image-optimization|Mastering Image Optimization]]