What is Wapuu?
Wapuu is the open-source mascot of the WordPress project — a small, friendly character who’s become a beloved face of the global WordPress community.
If you’ve landed on Wapuu Studio and wondered “what is this little creature?”, you’re in the right place.
A mascot born in the WordPress community
Wapuu’s story began in 2009 at the WordCamp Tokyo after-party, when Matt Mullenweg asked Japanese contributors how to spread WordPress in Japan. One suggestion — inspired by Mozilla’s Firefox mascot, Foxkeh — was to create a friendly character of their own.
Illustrator Kazuko Kaneuchi took on the job and, remarkably, designed Wapuu as a free gift to the WordPress community. She submitted her first drafts on May 12, 2010, and the character was officially unveiled at WordCamp Fukuoka on February 19, 2011. The name “Wapuu” was confirmed a few months later, on August 12, 2011, after a community vote.
Kazuko gave a talk at WordCamp Asia 2026 about the origins of Wapuu.
An open-source mascot
Wapuu is released under the GPLv2 or later — the same licence as WordPress itself. That single decision is what makes Wapuu special. Anyone in the WordPress community is free to redraw, recolour, and remix it.
Because of that, Wapuu has become something rare among software mascots: not a fixed corporate logo, but a character the whole community gets to reimagine. Local WordPress groups around the world have created their own — surfer Wapuus, samurai Wapuus, pizza Wapuus, country-flag Wapuus, and a different official Wapuu for almost every WordCamp.
Why Wapuu Studio?
Wapuu Studio is a playful experiment that carries that remix tradition online. Describe a Wapuu in a sentence — a Wapuu astronaut, a Wapuu chef, a Wapuu who really loves cats — and we’ll generate one for you with AI, in the same friendly spirit as the original.
Keep your Wapuu as a private draft, publish it to the community gallery, share it, or even turn it into stickers. Every Wapuu you generate is yours.
What can a Wapuu be?
Anything. A few ideas to get you started:
- A Wapuu doing your favourite hobby
- A Wapuu in a costume, uniform, or outfit you love
- A Wapuu representing your city, country, or local WordPress meetup
- A Wapuu version of your pet
- A Wapuu celebrating a birthday, holiday, or milestone
If you’re not sure where to start, just type whatever comes to mind on the homepage — half the fun is seeing what the AI does with it.
Credits and further reading
- Original Wapuu design: Kazuko Kaneuchi, gifted to the WordPress community and released under GPLv2 or later.
- History of Wapuu: wapu.us/wapuu-history-origin — a community-maintained record of how Wapuu came to be.
- Wapuu Studio is an Automattic exploration — built with WordPress Studio and powered by AI under Automattic’s AI guidelines.
Ready to make your own? Head to the generator and create a Wapuu in a few seconds.
Wapuu Studio 