Text Formatting

These behave the same as standard Markdown. Wrap your text with the symbols below, flush against the first and last character — a space inside the markers stops it working.

**bold text**

*italic text*

***bold and italic***

~~strikethrough~~

**bold** and *italic* in the same line

Underline

Underline is Discord's own addition — standard Markdown has none. It uses double underscores, __text__, and stacks with bold and italic. This is the one place Discord disagrees with the rest of Markdown, where __text__ means bold.

__underline text__

__**underline bold**__

__*underline italic*__

__***underline bold italic***__

Headers

Discord added headers in 2023. Use #, ##, or ### at the start of a line, with a space before your text. There is no #### — three levels is the limit, and subtext goes the other direction.

# Large Header

## Medium Header

### Small Header

Subtext

Subtext is Discord-exclusive, added in 2024. Start a line with -# and a space for small, greyed text — captions, credits, disclaimers, the line under a screenshot.

Main message text
-# This is subtext below it

Lists

Bullet lists take - or *, numbered lists take 1., and two spaces before the marker nests one level. Checkbox lists are not supported — - [ ] renders the brackets literally.

- First item
- Second item
- Third item

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

- Fruits
  - Apple
  - Banana
- Vegetables
  - Carrot

Blockquotes

Start a line with > and a space to quote it. To quote everything from that point to the end of the message, use >>> once at the start. Discord does not nest quotes, which is where it parts ways with standard Markdown blockquotes.

> This is a single-line blockquote.

> Line one of the quote.
> Line two continues here.

>>> Everything after the triple
angle bracket is quoted.
Even this third line.

Code Blocks

One backtick for inline code, three for a block. Add a language name straight after the opening backticks for syntax highlighting. Code blocks also switch off every other kind of formatting inside them — which is the easiest way to show raw Markdown symbols, and the most common reason someone's bold text refuses to render.

`inline code`

```
Your multi-line code here
No language specified
```

Your multi-line code here
No language specified

```python
def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"
```

def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

```javascript
const greet = (name) => `Hello, ${name}!`;
```

const greet = (name) => `Hello, ${name}!`;

Colored Text

Discord has no color syntax for ordinary messages. What it does have is the ansi code block, which renders real ANSI escape sequences — the same ones that color a terminal. This is the current, supported method, and it is the one thing Discord's own formatting article never mentions.

The ansi code block

Open the block with ```ansi, then prefix each run of text with ESC[format;color m and end it with ESC[0m to reset.

```ansi
\u001b[1;32mBold green text\u001b[0m
\u001b[0;31mRed text\u001b[0m
\u001b[4;36mUnderlined cyan text\u001b[0m
\u001b[1;40;33mBold yellow on a dark background\u001b[0m
```

The older trick: syntax highlighting as color

Before ANSI, the way to color text was to pick a language whose highlight.js grammar happened to paint the whole line. It is cruder — one color per line, and only the colors the grammar produces — but it needs no invisible characters and it survives on mobile.

```diff
- This line appears red
+ This line appears green
```

```fix
This whole line appears yellow
```

```ini
[This text appears blue]
```

```bash
"This text appears cyan"
```

Spoiler Tags

Double pipes, ||text||, black out the text until someone clicks it. Works mid-sentence, across several lines, and on uploaded files if you tick “Mark as spoiler”. Spoilers are disabled inside code blocks.

||The butler did it!||

The answer is ||42||, of course.

||Line one spoiler
Line two spoiler||

Links and Embeds

Discord auto-links any bare URL and usually generates a preview embed underneath it. Two pieces of syntax change that: masked links hide the URL behind readable text, and angle brackets suppress the preview.

[Visit Google](https://google.com)

<https://example.com/long-article>

Timestamps

Not Markdown, but the most useful formatting Discord has: a Unix timestamp wrapped in <t:...> renders in each reader's own timezone and locale. Nobody has to do the math for “9pm my time”.

Raid starts <t:1735689600:R> — that's <t:1735689600:F>

1735689600 is seconds since the Unix epoch — 1 January 2025, 00:00 UTC. Leave the style off and Discord uses f.

Mentions and Emoji

Typing @ or # in the message box opens an autocomplete, and that is what most people use. The raw forms below matter when you are writing a bot, a webhook payload, or a message you want to build in advance. IDs come from right-clicking and choosing Copy ID, with Developer Mode enabled in Settings.

What Discord Markdown Doesn't Support

Discord implements a subset, not all of Markdown. These are the pieces people reach for and do not find — worth knowing before you spend ten minutes wondering what you typed wrong.

```
Name      Role      Level
--------  --------  -----
Ava       Healer    42
Bjorn     Tank      38
```

Name      Role      Level
--------  --------  -----
Ava       Healer    42
Bjorn     Tank      38

Escaping Characters

Put a backslash \ in front of a formatting character to send it literally. It also stops emoji shortcodes converting — typing \ before a custom emoji is the usual way to reveal its <:name:id> form.

\*\*not bold\*\*

\|\|not a spoiler\|\|

\`not code\`

\> not a quote

Common Mistakes

Almost every “why won't my formatting work” question on Discord is one of these five.

** bold text **

**bold text**

#Header without a space

# Header with a space

__this should be bold__

**this is bold**

```
**bold** inside a code block
```

**bold** outside the code block

```ansi
\u001b[1;32mGreen text\u001b[0m
```

```ansi
(ESC)[1;32mGreen text(ESC)[0m
```

Quick Reference

Every Discord formatting syntax at a glance.

Where Formatting Works

Discord only renders Markdown in message content. Plenty of fields that accept text do not format it, which is the second-most-common reason syntax comes out literal.

Frequently Asked Questions