Discord Markdown: Format Messages Like a Pro (2025 Guide)

Discord supports Markdown — but a slightly different flavor than GitHub or Notion. If you've ever typed *bold* and watched it render as italic, you know the pain.

This guide is the complete reference: every Markdown feature Discord supports, the quirks that trip up new users, and the tricks power users (community moderators, bot devs, gamers) use every day.

What Markdown looks like in Discord

When you type Markdown in the Discord chat box and press Enter, Discord formats your message using a CommonMark-like flavor with a few additions and a few omissions.

The five most-used:

You type	Result
**bold**	bold
*italic*	italic
__underline__	underline (Discord-specific!)
~~strikethrough~~	strike
`code`	code

That table covers ~90% of everyday Discord formatting. The rest is in the details below.

Bold, italic, and underline

The basics:

**bold text**
*italic text* or _italic text_
__underline text__
***bold italic***
__**bold underline**__

Two things that surprise new users:

1. Underline uses double underscores. In most Markdown flavors, __text__ is bold. Discord uses it for underline.
2. Italic uses single asterisks or single underscores. Both work. Pick one and stick with it.

You can mix freely:

This is ***bold italic***, this is __**bold underline**__,
and this is ***__bold italic underline__***.

Strikethrough

~~This is crossed out.~~

Same syntax as GFM. Useful for marking things as done or for jokes.

Inline code and code blocks

Inline code uses single backticks:

Run the `/help` command for a list.

Multi-line code blocks use three backticks:

```
const greeting = "Hello, Discord!";
console.log(greeting);
```

Discord supports syntax highlighting if you specify a language:

```js
const greeting = "Hello, Discord!";
```

Languages Discord highlights well: js, ts, py, bash, json, yaml, html, css, sql, cpp, rs, go, java, md, diff. The list is shorter than GitHub's — when in doubt, use plain triple backticks.

Headers (H1, H2, H3)

Discord added header support in 2023:

# Big header
## Medium header
### Small header

A few rules:

• Only three header levels (#, ##, ###).
• The space after the # is required.
• Headers don't work inside DMs in some older clients — use server channels.

In long posts (server rules, announcements), headers make the content dramatically easier to skim.

Quotes

A single > at the start of a line is a quote block:

> This is a quoted line.

Three > quotes everything that follows:

>>> This and everything after
is part of the quote.

Discord's >>> is unusual — most Markdown flavors don't have it. Use it for replies or for callouts.

Lists

Bulleted lists:

- Item one
- Item two
  - Sub-item
- Item three

Numbered lists:

1. First
2. Second
3. Third

Discord doesn't auto-renumber. If you write 1. 1. 1., that's what you'll see.

Spoilers

A Discord exclusive: hide content behind a spoiler tag:

||spoiler text||

The text appears blacked out until clicked. Use for plot twists, surprise reveals, or rate-limited info.

You can spoil entire blocks, mixed with formatting:

||This is **bold** and _italic_ inside a spoiler||

Click-to-reveal works on every Discord client.

Mentions

Not strictly Markdown, but worth covering:

Type	Syntax
User	@username or <@USERID>
Channel	#channel-name or <#CHANNELID>
Role	@role-name or <@&ROLEID>
Everyone	@everyone
Here	@here
Slash command	</command:ID>

Discord clients auto-suggest most of these as you type @ or #. The bracketed forms are useful for bots and webhooks that don't have access to the auto-suggestion.

Custom emoji and reactions

Standard emoji shortcodes work:

:thumbsup: :rocket: :heart:

Server-specific custom emoji use the same syntax — Discord replaces them automatically. Animated emoji (Nitro feature) work the same way.

To mention a custom emoji without the image (in a code block, for example), wrap it in inline code:

`:thumbsup:` becomes :thumbsup:

Time and date stamps

Discord has a special syntax for timestamps that respects each viewer's timezone:

<t:1700000000>            // November 14, 2023 10:13 PM
<t:1700000000:R>          // 2 years ago
<t:1700000000:F>          // Tuesday, November 14, 2023 10:13 PM

The number is a Unix timestamp (seconds since 1970). Suffixes:

• No suffix or :f → short date and time
• :F → full date and time
• :d, :D → short or long date
• :t, :T → short or long time
• :R → relative (e.g. "in 3 hours")

This is a lifesaver for international communities — everyone sees the time in their own timezone.

Links

Auto-linking works for raw URLs:

Check out https://trymarkdownviewer.com for details.

Discord generates an embed preview automatically for most URLs. To suppress the preview, wrap the URL in angle brackets:

Check out <https://trymarkdownviewer.com> for details.

The link is still clickable but no embed appears below.

You can also use the standard Markdown link syntax — but only in embeds and webhooks, not in regular chat messages. In normal chat, [text](url) shows as literal text. This is one of Discord's biggest Markdown quirks.

Headers + spoilers + code blocks together

You can combine most of these for rich posts. A typical "announcement" pattern:

# 🎉 Patch 2.5 is live

## What's new
- Spoiler tag now works in voice channels: ||top secret||
- Slash command improvements
- New **role colors**

## Known issues
> Voice channels may occasionally desync on Firefox.
> A fix is in progress.

## Commands

```bash
/help     # show help
/report   # report a bug

This kind of structured post looks dramatically more professional than a wall of plain text.

## Escaping Markdown

To show Markdown syntax **literally**, escape with a backslash:

*not italic* *not bold*

Or wrap it in inline code:

*not italic*

This is useful when explaining Markdown to other users — meta, but common in community help channels.

## Limits and gotchas

A few things to know:

- **Message length:** 2,000 characters (4,000 with Nitro). Markdown counts toward the limit.
- **Code blocks count too.** A 1,800-character message with a fenced code block can push you over.
- **No tables.** Discord doesn't support GFM tables. If you need a table, take a screenshot or use a `code block` for monospaced alignment.
- **No images via Markdown.** Image upload is a separate UI affordance — `![](url)` doesn't work in chat.
- **No nested blockquotes.** A `>` inside another `>` is treated as part of the quoted content.

## Bot formatting (webhooks and embeds)

If you're writing a Discord bot, embeds give you **richer** formatting:

```json
{
  "embeds": [{
    "title": "Announcement",
    "description": "**Bold**, *italic*, [a link](https://example.com)",
    "color": 5814783,
    "fields": [
      { "name": "Build", "value": "`v2.5.1`", "inline": true },
      { "name": "Status", "value": "✅ green", "inline": true }
    ]
  }]
}

Inside an embed's description and value:

• Markdown links ([text](url)) do work.
• Headers (#, ##, ###) work in description since 2023.
• Mentions and timestamps work.
• Code blocks work.

The full embed reference is in the Discord developer docs.

Markdown tricks Discord power users love

A few patterns you'll see in well-run servers:

1. ASCII art borders

┌─────────────────────┐
│  Welcome to the server │
└─────────────────────┘

Wrap in a code block so the monospace font keeps it aligned.

2. Multi-line "ASCII tables"

Discord doesn't support real tables, but code-block alignment is a workable substitute:

| Build | Status | Notes        |
| ----- | ------ | ------------ |
| 2.5.1 | ✅     | stable       |
| 2.5.2 | ⚠️     | beta         |

Inside a code block this renders with consistent column widths.

3. Folded long announcements with quotes

Lead with the headline, then use > quotes for context — readers can skim the headline first:

**New: voice channel screen sharing**

> We've added full-screen sharing to voice channels.
> It's available now for all users — no Nitro required.

4. Hidden "ping list" using spoiler tags

Tag everyone who needs to see something without spamming the chat with mentions:

Update for our build squad:
|| @builder1 @builder2 @builder3 ||

Only the relevant people get notified.

Common Discord Markdown mistakes

1. Forgetting that __ is underline. In every other Markdown flavor, __text__ is bold.

2. Using [text](url) in chat. It renders as literal text. Use bare URLs in chat or use the embed for rich links.

3. Trying to embed images with Markdown syntax. Use the upload affordance instead.

4. Long code blocks pushing over the 2000-char limit. Split them, or screenshot.

5. Inconsistent escape characters. Discord ignores most escape sequences in normal chat — wrap in code for the most reliable literal display.

Try it before you post

Want to preview your Discord post before hitting send? Paste it into the Markdown editor — most Discord Markdown features render the same way. The biggest differences:

• Discord uses __ for underline (we render it as bold).
• Discord supports ||spoilers|| (we render them as plain text).
• Discord auto-resolves <t:1700000000> to a localized timestamp (we render them as text).

For everything else — bold, italic, code blocks, lists, quotes, headers — what you see in our preview is what your Discord audience sees.

Related articles

• Markdown cheat sheet — every Markdown feature on a single page
• Markdown vs HTML — when each is the right tool
• Markdown syntax guide — CommonMark and GFM, end to end

Quick reference

**bold**                          Bold
*italic* or _italic_              Italic
__underline__                     Underline (Discord-specific)
~~strikethrough~~                 Strike
`inline code`                     Inline code
``` … ```                         Code block
```lang … ```                     Code block with highlighting
> quote                           Single-line quote
>>> quote                         Multi-line quote
# H1, ## H2, ### H3               Headers
- item                            Bulleted list
1. item                           Numbered list
||spoiler||                       Spoiler
<t:UNIX>                          Timestamp
<@USERID>                         User mention
<#CHANNELID>                      Channel mention
<https://url>                     Link without embed preview

That's the full Discord Markdown toolkit. With these patterns your messages will look better than 95% of the server.