Discord Message Formatter
Discord uses its own markdown flavor: bold, italics, code blocks, spoilers, and underlines. Draft announcements, rules, and dev updates with the right syntax.
Preview long messages before you post to your server or DMs.
Features for Discord
- Syntax Highlighting: Draft ```js code blocks ``` with language updates.
- Special Styles: Support for ||spoilers||, ~~strikethrough~~, and > quotes.
- Underline: Use __underline__ which is unique to Discord.
How to use Markdown for Discord
- Write: Draft your announcement.
- Style: Apply Discord-specific formatting tags.
- Send: Copy and paste into your channel.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I add color to text?
- Discord doesn't natively support colored text, but you can use code block syntax (like ```diff or ```yaml) to fake it.
- What is the char limit?
- 2,000 characters for free users, 4,000 for Nitro.
Discord text formatting reference
This page is a Discord text formatting generator with a live preview: you write markdown in the editor, see it rendered the way Discord renders it, and copy the result into your server. The reference below covers every style Discord supports, so you can fix a broken format without leaving the editor.
Bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough
**bold**renders as bold.*italics*or_italics_renders as italics.__underline__renders as underline — double underscores are underline on Discord, not bold like most markdown.~~strikethrough~~renders asstrikethrough.- Stack them by nesting:
**_bold italics_**,__*underlined italics*__, or__**~~all three~~**__.
Headers, subtext, and lists
# Heading,## Subheading,### Small heading— the#must start the line and needs a space after it.-# subtextrenders the line in small, gray type — Discord's caption style for footnotes and asides.- itemor* itemstarts a bulleted list;1. itemstarts a numbered one. Indent two spaces to nest a level.
Quotes, spoilers, and links
> textmakes a single-line block quote;>>> textquotes everything after it in the message.||spoiler||hides text behind a blackout bar until clicked.[link text](https://example.com)makes a masked link in messages and embeds.
Code blocks and syntax highlighting
- `
- Triple backticks open a multi-line code block; put a language tag such as ```js on the opening line for syntax highlighting.
- Tag a block ```ansi to use ANSI color codes — the only way to get real colored text on Discord.
Colored text is the one style you cannot type by hand: an ```ansi block needs invisible ESC control characters around each color code. The free Discord colored text generator at /discord/colored-text builds the finished block for you — pick your colors, copy, paste.
Preview Discord formatting before you send
Discord has no draft preview: the moment you press Enter, your whole server sees the result, stray asterisks included. A Discord markdown preview catches that before it happens. The editor on this page shows the rendered message as you type — bold, underline, spoilers, code blocks, and headers appear exactly as Discord displays them, with a live counter against the 2,000-character limit (4,000 with Nitro).
What Discord will not format
Tables, footnotes, task-list checkboxes, and inline images are not part of Discord's markdown and render as literal characters. Colored text works only through ANSI code blocks, not markdown. And mobile clients render some styles inconsistently — headers and ANSI colors in particular — so preview on desktop before posting anything formatting-heavy.