Mai Last Active

Records each WordPress user's last-active timestamp and surfaces it as a sortable, hideable column on the Users screen.

WordPress has no built-in "last login" or "last active" record per user. Existing solutions either piggyback on WooCommerce's wc_last_active (which is "last activity," not login, and only works with WC installed) or require a heavy plugin like Admin Columns Pro. This plugin fills the gap with a single user meta key and a single column.

What it does

• On wp_login, writes the current Unix timestamp to user meta mai_last_active.
• On shutdown, while a user is logged in, writes the timestamp again — but throttled (default: at most once every 4 hours per user). This catches users who stay logged in for long stretches and keep visiting.
• Adds a sortable "Last Active" column on the Users admin screen, hideable via Screen Options.
• On activation, seeds existing users from their session_tokens meta so the column has data on day one for anyone with a live session.

What it does NOT do

• Does not fire on WP-Cron requests, WP-CLI requests, or while User Switching is active. Only real user activity counts.
• Does not lower the timestamp. Writes are monotonic — mai_last_active only ever increases.
• Does not provide a settings page, filter dropdown, or REST endpoint. The public API is two filters (see below).

Install

Via Composer

composer require bizbudding/mai-last-active

Then activate the plugin in WordPress.

Via GitHub release zip

Download the latest release from Releases, upload via Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, activate.

Filters

Example — bump the throttle to once per day:

add_filter( 'mai_last_active_throttle', static fn() => DAY_IN_SECONDS );

Example — never record activity on REST requests:

add_filter( 'mai_last_active_should_record', static function ( $should ) {
    return $should && ! ( defined( 'REST_REQUEST' ) && REST_REQUEST );
} );

WP-CLI

wp mai-last-active backfill              # seed mai_last_active from session_tokens, synchronously
wp mai-last-active backfill --dry-run    # report would-be writes without changing anything

Use when WP-Cron is disabled (DISABLE_WP_CRON) or when you want immediate completion after activation instead of waiting on the chained cron batches.

FAQ

Does this count user switching? No. When you're switched to another user via the User Switching plugin, the switched-to user's timestamp is NOT updated. Switching detection uses \user_switching::get_old_user().

Does REST traffic count as activity? Yes. REST requests reach shutdown like any other entry point, so an authenticated REST request updates the user's timestamp (subject to the throttle).

Does Application Password traffic count? Yes — same reason. If you'd rather it not, gate it with the mai_last_active_should_record filter (see the REST example above).

Multisite? User meta is global in WordPress multisite. The value reflects last activity on any site in the network, not per-site. Acceptable for most use cases; not configurable in this version.

How is this different from WooCommerce's wc_last_active? wc_last_active is set by WC core on any logged-in front-end request at daily precision (midnight UTC), and only when WC is installed. mai_last_active is set on real login events plus throttled activity, at the precision you configure, on any WordPress site.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later.