Note: Server monetization tools are currently only available for US-based servers. To stay in the loop on international expansion, click here to join the waitlist.
Server Monetization is a way for servers to earn money on Discord. Read on to learn what you need to know as a server admin. If you’re not a server admin but have questions related to Server Subscriptions or Server Products (currently in beta), you can visit this help page for more information.
What this article covers:
- Introduction to monetizing your server
- Server Subscriptions
- Server Subscriptions Free Trials
- Premium Emoji for Server Subscriptions
- Server Products
- Other Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction to monetizing your server
How can I monetize my server?
Servers can earn money on Discord by offering Server Subscriptions (a tiered monthly subscription that provides access to exclusive content) and Server Products (currently in beta testing and available to a select group of servers).
Who is eligible to monetize their servers?
1. You must be a server owner
2. Your account must meet the requirements below. Please note that we look at a number of safety and security signals for each account. This is not an exhaustive list, but examples that we offer for transparency and ease of understanding.
- You must be 18 years or older.
- Your account must be in good standing. Good standing includes but is not limited to:
- You are not actively violating any of Discord’s Terms or Guidelines.
- Your account has not received a safety violation in the past 30 days
- Your account has not been flagged for suspicious activity usually reserved for safety, abuse, and fraud cases.
- No outstanding dues or unpaid charges owed to Discord
- You must have your email verified.
- You must have Two-Factor Authentication enabled. Please note, you cannot remove 2FA when you have published server subscription tiers in your servers.
Please read the Monetization Terms for more details on the specific eligibility requirements.
What types of content am I NOT allowed to monetize on Discord?
Please closely review the full list of prohibited content in our Server Monetization Policy. This list includes:
- Intellectual property
- Sexually explicit content
- Online dating
- Political activity
- Charity
- Marketing and advertising third parties
- And more here
How do I get started?
If you’re a server owner, you must accept the Monetization Terms by heading to Server Settings > Enable Monetization. If you’re not a server owner, please speak with the server owner about taking the steps above.
How do payments work?
How much money will I earn?
Discord has a 90 / 10 split. This means you will receive 90% of the money that you earn from each monthly subscription and/or one-time purchase you sell, and Discord will keep 10%. Keep in mind, there are various fees that will impact your final payment amount.
When will I get paid?
Once you accept our Monetization Terms, your server will be reviewed at the end of each month to determine if you’re eligible to receive a payout. To receive your first payout, your server must have earned at least $100 and meet our Monetization Terms and Server Monetization Policy. If your server has earned less than $100 on its first monthly review date, it will be reviewed again at the end of the next month—and we’ll continue this process until you’ve earned $100.
Once you’ve earned your first payout, you’ll need to earn $25 to be eligible for subsequent payouts.
For example:
- If you start monetizing your server on January 1 and earn $100 by January 30, your server would be reviewed on January 31, and you’d most likely receive your $100 payout in February. If you went on to earn at least $25 by February 28, you’d most likely receive that payout in March.
- If you start monetizing your server on January 15 but don’t earn $100 until February 5, your server would be reviewed on February 28, and you’d most likely receive your $100 payout (plus any additional earnings from February) in March.
How will I receive payments?
To be eligible to receive payouts, you’ll need to create an account with a third-party payout provider made available to you on Discord.
Once you’ve accepted our Monetization Terms, you’ll be prompted to create an account, and you won’t be eligible to receive a payout until our provider has provisioned your account.
Note: Please see our Monetization Terms for more information on payout eligibility, timelines, and process.
SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS
WHAT ARE SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS?
Server Subscriptions give you the ability to create subscription tiers for paying members, offering them premium experiences with unlockable servers and channels.
If you’re not a server admin but have questions related to your subscription to a server, you can visit this help page for more information.
HOW DO I CREATE SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS?
1. Once the server owner has enabled monetization, navigate to the Server Subscriptions tab in your Server Settings.
2. Under Basic Info, select whether you want to make some channels exclusive (our most popular, flexible option) or make your entire server exclusive, which means that every user will need to pay to access it.
3. Under Tiers, choose to create between 1-3 paid tiers. Need help deciding? Click here to review your options and decide what’s best for you.
4. Under Emoji, you can upload Premium Emoji if it’s a perk you’d like to offer your subscribers. This is completely optional—click here to learn more about this option.
HOW DO I DISABLE SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS?
In order to fully remove Server Subscriptions from your server, the following must be true:
- You do not have any active subscribers. If you have active subscribers you’ll need to wait until all active subscriptions are fulfilled and run out.
- All existing tiers are deleted. Delete all draft and/or archived tiers as well!
- You do not have a pending payout. If you’re waiting for a payout from Discord, you will need to wait until the payout clears in the next payout cycle before Server Subscriptions can be fully removed from your server—we want to make sure you get paid!
Once you confirm the above statements are true, you can follow the below steps to fully remove Server Subscriptions from your server:
1. Right-click on your server and select Server Subscriptions from the menu
2. Head to the Payment section where you’ll see a Disable Server Subscriptions button in red.
3. Next, for added security, you will be prompted to provide your 2FA code.
4. Once 2FA is verified, your screen will refresh to Start Earning, indicating that Server Subscriptions are no longer active on that server.
HOW CAN A SUBSCRIBER REQUEST A REFUND OF A SERVER SUBSCRIPTION?
If a subscriber would like a refund on a Server Subscription purchase, they can review our refund policy for details and contact our team at the following link: dis.gd/billing.
Make sure they select Billing in the first dropdown menu and Server Subscription from the Type of Billing Issue dropdown menu to navigate to the refund request form.
SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS FREE TRIALS
Free Trials allow you to give access to Server Subscription membership benefits for free during the trial window. This lets your community get a sense of the experience so they can decide if they’d like to continue subscribing!
HOW DO I ENABLE FREE TRIALS?
Free Trials are enabled on a tier-by-tier basis, so to enable them for an existing tier you must “edit'' the tier and enable the “Free Trials for this tier” toggle. This will only enable free trials for the tier you are editing.
Remember that you are responsible for ensuring your offering and any promotions are promoted in compliance with applicable laws, including applicable advertising laws.
HOW DO I SET THE DURATION OF THE FREE TRIAL?
By default, Free Trials are set to (1) week, but you may also set the duration for (1) day.
CAN I GIFT A FREE MONTH OF MY SERVER SUBSCRIPTION TO SOMEONE?
This is not possible with Free Trials, but you can manually give one or more people access to the channels associated with a Server Subscription tier through Channel Settings.
Remember that you need to manually remove channel access from them if you change your mind.
CAN I LIMIT THE QUANTITY OF FREE TRIALS?
Yes! You can limit the number of Free Trials each tier has available at a given time from 10, 25, 50, 100, or unlimited (default). Once the number of Free Trials has been reached, there will no longer be any Free Trials available.
ONCE THE FREE TRIAL IS OVER, WILL THEY BE IMMEDIATELY CHARGED?
Yes. They can cancel before a Trial ends. At the end of a Trial, if they have not canceled, they will begin paying for recurring monthly subscriptions, charged to their default payment method on file. They must enter a payment method to start a Free Trial if they do not have a payment on file with Discord. They can cancel paid subscriptions at any point to stop auto-renewals the following month.
PREMIUM EMOJI FOR SERVER SUBSCRIPTIONS
What are Premium Emoji?
Adding exclusive Emoji is a great way to add value to your Server Subscription tiers. You can add up to 25 additional custom emoji that only your Server Subscribers can use.
Note: Animated emoji can be used by all Server Subscribers even without Nitro. However, only Server Subscribers with Nitro can use premium emoji outside of the subscribed server.
To get started you can access the Premium Emoji tab in the Server Subscriptions settings.
SERVER PRODUCTS
NOTE: Server Products are currently in Beta testing and only available to a select group of servers. Click here to join the waitlist.
What are Server Products?
Server Products are digital products that are sold as one-time purchases. These products are customizable and managed within your Server Shop. We don't offer support for physical good fulfillment.
- Downloadables are digital files that you create and upload to Discord in any of these supported file types: .png, .mov, .pdf, .jpeg, and .gif. We’re not able to support: .zip and .rar. You can upload up to 10 files per product totaling a maximum of 500MB.
You will be able to sell ebooks, guides, digital art, and so much more—just be sure to follow the rules around the types of content you’re not allowed to monetize here. - Premium Roles are roles with special permissions that you can sell to provide exclusive access to a channel or other Discord perk without requiring a monthly subscription. For example, if you wanted to sell tickets to a streaming event, you could create a Premium Role that provides one-time access to a Stage Channel on the day of your event.
Who can create Server Products?
Only the server owner can enable monetization, but any member with an admin role can create and manage Server Products.
How do I create a Server Product?
1. Once a server owner has enabled monetization, anyone with an admin role can navigate to the Server Products tab within Server Settings and select Create New Product.
2. Then, you will be able to fill out the details and price for your product, select whether you want to include a Role and/or a Downloadable, and upload your Downloadable (if applicable).
3. After you have finished, press Publish to upload it to your list of server products as a
Downloadable or Premium Role.
4. Then, navigate to the desired product and select Publish once more. Once you hit Publish, Server Shop will appear at the top of your channel list and be visible to your members. Pressing Server Shop will allow your server members to view the Downloadable or Premium Role and make a one-time purchase.
How do I customize my Server Shop?
Navigate to the Server Products tab within Server Settings and select Basic Info. From here, you can add a description and cover image.
How do members purchase Server Products?
Members can click Server Shop in your channel list to purchase Server Products directly. You can also copy the product link and paste it into any text channel within your server, allowing members to purchase it through the product embed. Head’s up that the product embed will not show up if you share the product link outside of your server.
How do I delete a Server Product?
Before you delete a Downloadable or Premium Role from your Server Shop, you will need to unpublish it.
1. To remove the product, head to Server Products within your Server Settings.
2. Once in Server Products, select the vertical ellipsis within the desired product. This will trigger a menu where you can select Unpublish Product.
3. Afterwards, the product will show as In Progress and no longer be visible to members in the Server Shop.
4. Now that the product is unpublished, select the vertical ellipsis and press Delete Product. You will be asked to reconfirm once more that you would like to delete the product, and that should do it!
Once a product has been deleted, this action cannot be undone and you will not be able to recover the product.
How can a customer request a refund of a Server Product?
We are unable to provide refunds for server products, so please be sure that your product descriptions are honest and accurate to ensure that your customers are satisfied. If you’d like to learn more about our refund policy, you can do so here.
OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ROLES, PERMISSIONS, & ADMINS
Q: Is it possible to hide Server Subscription channels from regular members? For example, if I don't want premium inaccessible channels "clogging" up the overall channel list view for those who are not subscribers?
A: No, you can’t hide inaccessible channels at this time. You can order your channels so that premium channels are lower than the free channels. Another option is to create a channel and add the tier role via channel settings (can view, chat etc.), NOT via Server Subscriptions settings. This is similar to how people have hidden channels on their server today.
Q: When creating a Server Subscriptions gated channel, is there a way to give access to certain roles (like moderators + admins) that haven't paid for the premium channels?
A: Yes, you can just create a premium channel and add normal roles as you want. You can add the "admin" or “moderator” role to your premium channels through channel settings. This will allow your admin(s) and moderator(s) to access the premium channels for moderation etc, without needing to purchase a Server Subscription .
Q: We have legacy members that we want to grant access to Server Subscriptions , can I give my legacy VIPs access to premium channels via permissions, without them having to pay?
A: Yes -- you can grant access to Server Subscriptions by adding each individual user into the channels via permissions on the backend.
Q: If a Premium member leaves the server (voluntarily or kicked/banned) and then comes back, would they automatically be given their premium perks/role back?
A: If a premium member leaves for any reason (voluntarily, kicked, banned), their Server Subscription is canceled, meaning they won't auto-renew the next month. If a membership holder leaves voluntarily, and then rejoins, they will retain the membership perks and roles through the remainder of their paid month.
Q: Can admins manage the subscription tiers and see payment details, or is that only possible by the server owner?
A: Admins can change subscription tier details, but the server owner is the only person who can change and see payment information like payout account details and the payments tab.
Q: Can individuals temporarily be removed from a premium channel while still staying subscribed? (ie. disciplinary action for breaking the rules etc without performing a full kick or ban.)
A: Yes, you (or your moderators) can time people out without fully removing their subscription benefits. For instructions on time outs, see here.
You would need to give them a role with permissions that denies them the ability to chat, but this is a manual process for each channel, for a specific user, which you'd then have to manually remove later.
Mobile Support
Q: When will Server Subscriptions be supported on the Discord mobile app?
A: We are currently rolling out In-App Purchasing (IAP) for iOS mobile devices to servers with Server Subscriptions enabled.
Q: Do mobile subscriptions have the same revenue split as desktop subscriptions?
A: No. Apple takes an additional 30% of revenue from all subscriptions initiated through the Discord iOS application. Subscribers on iOS mobile devices will see a higher price on iOS checkout to account for the additional iOS fee.
More information on the fee structures is available in the Monetization Terms: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/5330075836311-Monetization-Terms
Q: When will subscriptions be purchasable on Android?
A: We’re working on it! We don’t have any timing to share at this point but we are actively working to bring Server Subscriptions to Android mobile devices.
Q: Why am I unable to see Server Products when using the mobile app?
A: Server Products is currently a limited experiment that’s only available on desktop and web within the United States. If you are still unable to see this feature while on desktop and web, please be sure to join our waitlist here.
Q: Do my server members get a grace period for Server Subscription payments?
A: Your members with a Server Subscription through the iOS App Store will have a grace period of 28 days to correct the payment issue if their auto-renewal payment fails. If the payment issue is fixed within that 28 day period, the subscription will continue. However, if a successful payment is not made within the 28 days, the subscription and features associated with it will end.