Discord Image Sizes: Avatar, Banner, Emoji & Icon
Correct Discord sizes for profile pictures, banners, server icons, emojis and stickers, plus file size limits and how to avoid blurry uploads.
By Ahsan Khowaja · · 8 min read
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Discord's help center gives these key sizes: a server banner should be at least 960 × 540 pixels in a 16:9 ratio, a profile banner under 10 MB with a minimum of 680 × 240 pixels, a custom sticker exactly 320 × 320 pixels and under 512 KB, and a custom emoji under 256 KB. Discord does not publish exact pixel sizes for avatars, server icons or emoji, so for those, upload a sharp square image and use the crop tool. The table below lists every figure we could confirm, with links to Discord's own pages.
Size table
| Image | Size and ratio | File limits | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server banner | At least 960 × 540 px, 16:9 (1920 × 1080 also works) | Not stated | Servers at Boost Level 2 (animated at Level 3) |
| Server invite background | 1920 × 1080 px | JPG or PNG | Servers at Boost Level 1 |
| Profile banner | Minimum 680 × 240 px (per-server profile page recommends at least 600 × 240) | PNG, JPG or animated GIF under 10 MB | Nitro members |
| Profile picture (avatar) | Not stated; square works best | PNG or GIF (animated needs Nitro); per-server avatars up to 8 MB | Everyone |
| Server icon | Not stated; square works best | Not stated | Everyone (animated at Boost Level 1) |
| Custom emoji | Not stated | Under 256 KB; JPEG, PNG, GIF or WEBP | Any server: 50 static slots, more with boosts |
| Custom sticker | Exactly 320 × 320 px | Under 512 KB; PNG, or APNG for animated | Any server: 5 slots, more with boosts |
Sources: Discord's articles on server banners, server invite backgrounds, custom profiles, per-server profiles, custom emojis, stickers and the Server Boosting FAQ.
Where a cell says "not stated", Discord's help center does not publish a number. Some websites quote exact avatar or emoji pixel sizes; we have left those out because we could not find them on Discord's own pages.
What size should a Discord profile picture be?
Discord does not publish a pixel size for profile pictures. Avatars can be PNG or GIF, only Nitro subscribers can use animated GIFs, and per-server avatars can be up to 8 MB. We suggest a square image a few hundred pixels wide or more, with faces kept away from the corners because avatars are shown in a circle. Discord's Custom Profiles article says avatars can be PNG or GIF, and that only Nitro subscribers can use animated GIFs. It does not give a pixel size. The Per-Server Profiles article (a Nitro feature that lets you use a different avatar in each server) lists a maximum of 8 MB for server avatars.
To change your avatar on desktop:
- Click the cogwheel at the bottom left to open User Settings.
- Open the Profiles tab.
- Click Change Avatar (or click your current avatar) and choose an image.
- Adjust the crop, then click Apply and Save Changes.
On mobile, tap your avatar in the bottom-right corner, then Edit Profile.
Practical tips (our advice, not Discord's numbers):
- Start from a square image so the crop does not cut off anything important.
- Avatars are shown in a circle. Keep faces and logos away from the corners.
- Use a source image a few hundred pixels wide or more, so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens.
What size is a Discord banner?
A Discord server banner should be at least 960 × 540 pixels in a 16:9 ratio (a 1920 × 1080 image is resized automatically) and needs Boost Level 2. A profile banner, for Nitro members only, must be PNG, JPG or animated GIF under 10 MB, with a minimum size of 680 × 240 pixels.
Profile banner
Profile banners appear at the top of your profile card. According to Discord's Custom Profiles article:
- Only Nitro members can upload an image or animated GIF as a profile banner.
- Banners must be PNG, JPG or animated GIF under 10 MB.
- The minimum size is 680 × 240 pixels.
Discord's per-server profiles page gives a slightly different figure, a "recommended minimum size" of 600 × 240. Both describe a wide image of roughly 5:2 proportions. If you design at 680 × 240 or larger at that ratio, you satisfy both.
After you upload, Discord offers a crop step. Tap Apply to use your crop, or Skip to accept the default crop.
Server banner
The server banner shows at the top of the channel list. Discord's Server Banners article says to upload "an image or GIF that's at least 960x540 pixels in a 16:9 aspect ratio", and that a 1920 × 1080 image will be resized automatically.
- Static banners need the server to reach Boost Level 2.
- Animated banners need Boost Level 3.
- Set it under Server Settings > Overview, at the bottom in Server Banner Background.
Server invite background
Separate from the banner, boosted servers can also set the background shown behind their invite links. Discord's invite background guide says the image should be 1920 × 1080 in JPG or PNG, and that the perk becomes available at Boost Level 1.
What size should a Discord server icon be?
Discord's help center does not publish a required pixel size for the server icon, which appears in everyone's server list. Use a square image with a bold, simple design. The Server Boosting FAQ lists Animated Server Icon as a Level 1 perk, so a static icon is available to every server and an animated one needs two boosts.
Server icons are shown small in the server list, so:
- Use a square image.
- Keep the design bold and simple; fine text disappears at icon size.
- Leave a little margin around the edges so nothing important is clipped.
Emoji and stickers
Custom emoji
Discord's custom emoji guide sets these rules:
- Emojis must be under 256 KB.
- Supported formats are JPEG, PNG, GIF and WEBP.
- Names must be at least 2 characters long.
- Every server gets 50 static emoji slots by default, and the article says Nitro or Nitro Basic adds 50 animated slots. Server boosts add more: the Boosting FAQ lists totals of 100, 150 and 250 emoji slots at Levels 1, 2 and 3.
To add one: open Server Settings from the menu next to the server name, choose the Emoji tab, then Upload Emoji.
Emojis are displayed tiny, so a square image with a transparent background (PNG) and thick outlines reads best. If a static emoji is over 256 KB, our image compressor can reduce it to "under 200 KB" in your browser. Choose WebP output if you want to keep transparency, since JPG fills transparent areas with white.
Custom stickers
Stickers are stricter. Discord's sticker creator FAQ lists:
- Exactly 320 × 320 pixels.
- Maximum 512 KB.
- PNG for static stickers and APNG for animated ones, at up to 60 frames per second.
- Stickers render at 160 × 160 dp in desktop chat, which is why Discord recommends uploading at exactly 320 × 320.
Sticker slots depend on boost level: the Boosting FAQ says Level 1 adds 10 slots "for a total of 15" (so unboosted servers have 5), with totals of 30 and 60 at Levels 2 and 3. Upload them under Server Settings > Stickers. Discord also notes that animated APNG stickers will not render if you upload them through the chat bar instead of the Stickers upload window.
Why does my Discord banner look blurry?
A blurry Discord image usually means the source image was too small, so Discord had to enlarge it, or it was compressed hard to get under a file limit. Wrong ratios cause cropping. Start at or above Discord's recommended sizes, crop to the right ratio, reduce the pixel dimensions first, then compress gently.
Most "my banner looks blurry" problems come from one of these:
- The source image is too small. If Discord has to enlarge an image to fill the space, it goes soft. Start at or above the sizes in the table.
- The ratio is wrong. A 4:3 photo used as a 16:9 server banner gets cropped. Resize or crop it to the right ratio first.
- Heavy compression. Squeezing an image hard to get under a file limit adds blocky artifacts. Reduce the pixel dimensions first, then compress gently.
- Text too close to the edges. Avatars are shown in a circle and banners go through a crop step, so keep important text and faces in the middle.
- GIF quality. GIFs are limited to 256 colours, which can make gradients look banded. For sharing animations in chat rather than as banners, our GIF to URL tool gives you a link to paste.
Profile images are only part of the story. If you are trying to post images in channels and they fail to send, our guide to the Discord file size limit covers upload caps for free and Nitro accounts. For every other platform's sizes in one place, see our social media image size cheat sheet.
Next step
Pick the row in the table for what you are making, set your canvas to that size before you design, and keep a copy of the full-size original. If the finished file is over the limit, shrink it with the image compressor before uploading.
