In this article, we study the small sphere limit of the WangYau quasi-local energy defined in Wang and Yau (Phys Rev Lett 102(2):021101, 2009, Commun Math Phys 288(3):919942, 2009). Given a point <i>p</i> in a spacetime <i>N</i>, we consider a canonical family of surfaces approaching <i>p</i> along its future null cone and evaluate the limit of the WangYau quasi-local energy. The evaluation relies on solving an optimal embedding equation whose solutions represent critical points of the quasi-local energy. For a spacetime with matter fields, the scenario is similar to that of the large sphere limit found in Chen etal. (Commun Math Phys 308(3):845863, 2011). Namely, there is a natural solution which is a local minimum, and the limit of its quasi-local energy recovers the stress-energy tensor at <i>p</i>. For a vacuum spacetime, the quasi-local energy vanishes to higher order and the solution of the optimal embedding