Lwakit Carbon Footprint Tracker

They are estimates, not precise measurements. Lwakit Carbon Footprint Tracker uses the published Sustainable Web Design Model methodology (energy per gigabyte transferred × a grid carbon-intensity assumption you can edit) combined with real, server-measured page weight from your own site's traffic. Actual emissions vary by visitor device, network path, and local energy mix, and no software can measure true end-to-end emissions without instrumenting every device and network hop involved. Treat the numbers as a consistent, comparable trend indicator rather than an audited absolute figure.

Lwakit Carbon Footprint Tracker only measures pages that are already being rendered — it buffers the page output to count its size and reads file sizes already known to WordPress (enqueued scripts/styles, referenced local images), it does not add new database tables to every query, fetch additional remote resources, or block/modify your page output. Metrics are written once per page load using a single upsert query. Your own visits as a logged-in administrator are skipped automatically so testing doesn't add overhead or skew your stats. The one exception is the optional, off-by-default Green Grid Caching feature — see the next question.

By default, none. Green-hosting detection works fully offline against a static list of known providers bundled with the plugin. The only outbound network request Lwakit Carbon Footprint Tracker can make is an optional, opt-in check against the Green Web Foundation's public API, which is off by default — see "External services" below for exactly what that sends.

No. Lwakit Carbon Footprint Tracker aggregates page weight, view counts, and database query counts per page per day. It does not store IP addresses, cookies, or any other visitor-identifying information.

Not in the free version. Image conversion and script blocking remain out of scope for this version.

Yes — both are included free. PDF reports: go to Lwakit CFT → Reports to download or email a branded carbon-footprint audit, after customizing your logo/company name/accent color on Settings → PDF Reports. The report is generated locally (no external service involved) and, if emailed, is sent only through your own site's mail configuration — never through Lwakit's or any third party's servers. Green Grid Caching (Settings → Green Grid Caching, off by default): when enabled, the site shifts to an aggressive page cache during detected peak carbon-intensity hours on your regional grid. This is the one place this plugin does change front-end behavior, and only while this optional feature is turned on. It only ever serves cached pages to visitors with no logged-in, comment-author, or cart/session cookie present — never to a logged-in user, and never a search result, feed, 404, or password-protected page. Two trade-offs worth knowing: while a page is served from cache during a peak window, WordPress does not run for that request, so that view is not added to your traffic/CO2e metrics (an expected consequence of genuinely skipping backend work, not a bug); and if another plugin personalizes anonymous page output using its own cookie or session mechanism that this plugin doesn't recognize (membership/paywall plugins, quiz progress, A/B testing, etc.), that personalization is not automatically detected — test carefully before relying on this feature alongside such a plugin. The feature automatically stays off entirely if another caching plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache) is already active.