Discord Nitro — Worth Getting?
Discord is free. That’s one of the things that made it so popular. But Discord also offers a paid subscription — Nitro — that unlocks extra features. The question is whether those features are worth paying for, or whether the free version is perfectly fine for most people.
The honest answer is: it depends entirely on how you use Discord. Here’s exactly what you get and what you don’t, so you can make the call yourself.
What Discord Nitro Costs
There are two tiers:
Nitro Basic — £2.99/month. The entry-level option, introduced in 2022.
Nitro — £9.99/month or £99.99/year. The full subscription. The annual option saves you about £20 compared to paying monthly.
What Nitro Basic Gets You
Nitro Basic is the lighter option. For £2.99/month you get:
Custom emoji anywhere — on the free tier you can only use custom emoji in the server they belong to. Nitro Basic lets you use them across any server.
Animated emoji — use animated emoji in chats, not just static ones.
Larger file uploads — 50MB upload limit instead of the free tier’s 25MB.
Custom profile banner — add a banner image to your profile page.
That’s essentially it. Nitro Basic is a slim package. The custom emoji perk is the main draw — if you’re in several active servers with good emoji sets and want to use them everywhere, it’s reasonable value. If you don’t care about emoji, it’s hard to justify.
What Full Nitro Gets You
Full Nitro at £9.99/month adds considerably more on top of everything in Basic:
Two server boosts included — server boosts improve your server’s features (more on this below). Full Nitro includes two boosts per month, which you can apply to any server.
500MB file uploads — up from 25MB on free and 50MB on Basic. Useful if you share game clips and screenshots regularly.
HD video — stream and share your screen at up to 4K 60fps in video calls, rather than the free tier’s 720p 30fps cap.
Custom profile effects and avatar decorations — animated borders and effects on your profile. Cosmetic only.
Nitro badge on your profile — shows how long you’ve been a subscriber. Again, purely cosmetic.
Longer messages — up to 4,000 characters per message instead of the standard 2,000.
Custom app icons — change how the Discord icon looks on your phone or desktop from a selection of alternatives.
Early access to new features — Nitro subscribers sometimes get access to features before they roll out more broadly.
What Are Server Boosts?
Server boosts are separate from personal Nitro perks — they improve the server itself rather than your personal account. Any Discord user can buy boosts for a server they care about, but Nitro subscribers get two included each month.
Servers unlock different perks at different boost levels:
Level 1 (2 boosts) — animated server icon, custom invite background, 128kbps audio quality in voice channels.
Level 2 (7 boosts) — 256kbps audio, server banner, 50MB file uploads for all members.
Level 3 (14 boosts) — 384kbps audio, vanity URL for the server, 100MB file uploads for all members, custom role icons.
For a small private gaming server with friends, server boosts are largely irrelevant — the free tier is more than adequate. They matter more for larger community servers where audio quality and custom branding make a difference.
Is It Worth It?
It depends on what you’d actually use.
If you stream to friends regularly — the HD video upgrade alone is noticeable. 720p 30fps is fine; 1080p or 4K 60fps is considerably better, especially on a large monitor. If you screen share games, watch parties, or stream your gameplay to friends via Discord rather than Twitch, full Nitro is worth considering.
If you share a lot of files and clips — 500MB uploads versus 25MB is a significant practical difference. If you’re regularly trying to share game recordings and hitting the size limit, Nitro solves that.
If you’re in lots of active servers with custom emoji — Nitro Basic at £2.99 covers this cheaply. Full Nitro is overkill if emoji is your main reason.
If you just use Discord for voice chat with friends — the free tier does everything you need. Save your money.
The one thing worth being clear about: Nitro is a subscription for cosmetic and quality-of-life upgrades. None of it is needed to use Discord fully. The core product — voice, video, text, servers, bots — is completely free and has no meaningful limitations for most gaming groups.
How to Get Nitro Cheaper
A few ways to reduce the cost:
Annual subscription — £99.99/year versus £119.88 if paying monthly. About two months free.
Game Pass Ultimate — Microsoft has periodically included Discord Nitro as a Game Pass Ultimate perk. Worth checking your benefits if you’re a subscriber.
Gift subscriptions — Discord occasionally runs promotions where Nitro is gifted with game purchases or hardware. Epic Games has included Nitro in its free game drops before. Keep an eye out.
Student discount — Discord has offered discounts via student platforms like UNiDAYS in the past. Worth checking if you’re eligible.
New to Discord entirely? Our How to Set Up Discord for Gaming guide covers everything from creating a server to setting up voice channels and bots.