What’s the difference between get_site_option and get_blog_option?

I’m trying to understand the difference between get_site_option() and get_blog_option().

Are blog and site two different things? Apologies if this question seems basic, but when referring to a WordPress website, I’ve always used both terms very loosely (to mean the same thing). I’m now wondering if there is a difference?

get_option() returns an option for the current blog.

In single site installation, the current blog is the only blog. So get get_option() returns the option for it.

get_site_option() is used to retrieve an option network-wide. It means that you can get the same option from any site of the network.

When this function is used in single installation, it normally returns the same thing of get_option(). The value may change because get_site_option() trigger filter hooks that are not triggered by get_option().

Note that once the $wpdb->options table is blog-specific, network-wide options are stored in the $wpdb->sitemeta table, that is specific of multisite installations.

get_blog_option() is the only among the three functions that doesn’t receive the option name as 1st argument, but its 1st argument is $blog_id.

In fact, it is used in multisite installations to retrieve an option from a specific blog whose the id is known.

What this function does is:

switch_to_blog( $blog_id );
$value = get_option( $option, $default );
restore_current_blog();

return $value;

If $blog_id is the same of current blog id, WordPress just skips the switch_to_blog part and just calls get_option().

This function is defined in the file wp-includes/ms-blogs.php that is loaded only for multisite installation, so get_blog_option() is not defined in single site installations.