Title: How does the Cache section work, please? Last modified: January 29, 2020 --- # How does the Cache section work, please? * Resolved [mmpineda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mmpineda/) * (@mmpineda) * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/) * Hi, * I haven’t found any information about how to configure the Cache tab of the plugin, and I don’t find it intuitive to know how it works and how it can benefit or improve my GTMetrix results or my speed, after starting to use Amazon Auto Links. * I see: * Caches Sizes Products: 4.52 MB * HTTP Requests: 25.53 MB * Clear Caches Products: 50 item(s). HTTP Requests: 337 item(s). * Clear Expired Caches Products: 29 item(s). HTTP Requests: 229 item(s). * This is just to clear these caches? When should I clear them? What happens if I clear HTTP request? Does it improve my GTMetrix results? * Caching Mode… I believe I have Cron desactivated. Does it mean I should use Intense? What are the implications? * What is advisable for this? * Maximum Overall Cache Sizes * Products mb * HTTP Requests mb Leave it blank for unlimited. * Very appreciated! Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Plugin Author [miunosoft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miunosoft/) * (@miunosoft) * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/#post-12376456) * Hi, * > This is just to clear these caches? * When you press the Clear button, the checked checkbox items will be cleared. * > When should I clear them? * It’s when you think the cache sizes are too big. * > What happens if I clear HTTP request? * Caches for external HTTP requests that the plugin makes will be cleared. When the plugin output function is called and it will look for a cache first and if not found, it will perform an HTTP request to access an external server such as the PA-API server. * > Does it improve my GTMetrix results? * Do you mean some page load performance tests? If the plugin cannot find caches, then it will try to access the Amazon server to fetch data by making an HTTP request, which takes some time and slows down the page load which includes a plugin function call to render products. In other words, with caches, it will be faster and without them, will be slower. Moreover, using caches saves the API calls to prevent you from reaching the rate limit, plus other server resources such as CPU usage, network bandwidth etc. * > Caching Mode… I believe I have Cron desactivated. Does it mean I should use > Intense? What are the implications? * If you disable WordPress Cron, you want to choose Intense. Otherwise, the products will never be updated. Updating caches are done in the background. For background tasks, the WP Cron mode uses [WP Cron](https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/) and the Intense mode uses the plugin method. The Intense mode will call the renew routine in the background right away when the plugin output function is called and it finds its cache is expired. This means that a background page load is made per cache renewal event. On contrary, the WP Cron mode queues a renew task so that those queued tasks will be handled by WP Cron all at once in a single page load. So the Intense mode is more resource-intensive compared to the WP Cron mode. * > What is advisable for this? * The bottom line is you want to use the plugin caches, especially to reduce the chances to reach the PA-API rate limit. If your host limits the database size to 1GB or something, then you definitely want to set the Maximum Overall Cache Sizes to something lower than 1GB. - This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by [miunosoft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miunosoft/). Reason: typo * Thread Starter [mmpineda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mmpineda/) * (@mmpineda) * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/#post-12378456) * Hi, * Thank you very much for your fast reply. Now I understand much better this great plugin. * 🙂 * Plugin Author [miunosoft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miunosoft/) * (@miunosoft) * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/#post-12379246) * You’re welcome! Glad it helped! * Plugin Author [miunosoft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miunosoft/) * (@miunosoft) * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/#post-12381824) * [@mmpineda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mmpineda/) Would be appreciated if you could take a few minutes to [write about the plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amazon-auto-links/reviews/?filter=5). Thank you! Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘How does the Cache section work, please?’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/amazon-auto-links_eeeeee.svg) * [Auto Amazon Links - Amazon Associates Affiliate Plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/amazon-auto-links/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/amazon-auto-links/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amazon-auto-links/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amazon-auto-links/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amazon-auto-links/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amazon-auto-links/reviews/) ## Tags * [amazon](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/amazon/) * [Amazon affiliate](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/amazon-affiliate/) * [amazon associates](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/amazon-associates/) * [cache](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/cache/) * [gtmetrix](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/gtmetrix/) * [settings](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/settings/) * [speed](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/speed/) * 4 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [miunosoft](https://wordpress.org/support/users/miunosoft/) * Last activity: [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-does-the-cache-section-work-please/#post-12381824) * Status: resolved