The complete Discord Markdown guide

Discord Markdown is a lightweight set of text markers that turns ordinary messages into readable, structured posts. It looks similar to standard Markdown, but Discord supports its own dialect. That difference matters: some familiar syntax works exactly as expected, while tables, images, and several other Markdown features are shown as plain text. This guide and cheat sheet give you a quick reference for writing Discord messages that render correctly the first time.

To format Discord Markdown text, place markers around the words you want to change. Use **bold**for emphasis, *italic* for a slanted style, and __underline__for underlined text. Discord Markdown strikethrough uses ~~two tildes~~. You can combine compatible styles, which is useful for announcements, rules, changelogs, and community updates. Inline code uses single backticks, while three backticks create a larger code block for commands, logs, or snippets that need to preserve spacing.

A Discord Markdown link uses the format [link text](https://example.com). This creates a clickable masked link instead of displaying the full URL in your message. For a URL that should remain visible without an embed preview, place it inside angle brackets, such as<https://example.com>. Always check the destination before sharing a link, especially when a short label hides the actual address.

Discord also supports headings, quotes, nested lists, spoilers, mentions, and timestamps. Start a line with#, ##, or ### for a heading. Use > for a quote and >>> for a multi-line block quote. Wrap sensitive content in ||spoiler|| so readers can choose when to reveal it. Discord timestamps use a Unix time value and automatically display in each reader’s local timezone, making them useful for events with an international audience.

If you are wondering whether Discord uses standard Markdown, the practical answer is no: it uses a limited, Discord-specific Markdown implementation. Bold, italics, code, quotes, lists, links, and strikethrough are familiar Markdown patterns, but Discord adds features such as spoilers and underlines while leaving out tables, images, horizontal rules, and footnotes. Markdown links can be especially confusing because a link may be clickable, masked, or displayed as a rich embed depending on its syntax and the destination. Testing a draft in a preview is faster than sending repeated corrections to a busy channel. This page shows the exact marker beside a rendered example, so you can copy the syntax and adapt it to your own message.

The easiest way to use this Discord Markdown guide is to keep the syntax table nearby while composing. For a full message, open the Discord Markdown editorto type in one pane and see a Discord-style preview in the other. The editor helps you catch unsupported formatting, keeps a live character count, and lets you copy the finished message. Your draft stays in the browser, so you can prepare private messages, moderation notices, bot responses, or server documentation without sending content to a conversion service.

Remember that Discord messages have a character limit, and formatting markers count toward it. Tables and Markdown image syntax are not rendered as rich content, so use a code block for aligned plain text or share an image URL when Discord’s embed behavior is appropriate. For colored code-block text, use theDiscord ANSI color generator. For dates and times, the Discord timestamp generatorcreates the correct timestamp syntax. Together, these tools cover the most common Discord Markdown text formatting needs while this page remains a fast, searchable reference for creators, moderators, developers, and community managers.