Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat platform for communities and gamers. See how Discord works, Nitro pricing tiers, key features, pros and cons.
Discord is a free voice, video, and text communication platform organized into communities called servers, each divided into channels. Launched in May 2015 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy after their game studio, Hammer & Chisel, struggled with unreliable voice-chat tools, Discord grew from a gaming-focused chat app into a general-purpose community platform used by millions of communities worldwide.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Discord has reported more than 200 million monthly active users at various points and roughly 90 million or more daily active users by late 2025, with founder Jason Citron stepping down as CEO in April 2025 in favor of gaming-industry veteran Humam Sakhnini.
Discord's core building blocks are servers made up of text channels, voice channels, threads, Stages for structured audio events, and Activities for embedded mini-games playable inside voice channels. The platform supports direct messages, group calls, screen sharing, and video calls across desktop, web, and mobile.
A large third-party bot and API ecosystem lets server owners add moderation, music, games, and automation. Premium Nitro subscriptions add animated avatars, larger file uploads, higher-quality video streaming, and Server Boosts that unlock perks for an entire community.
Discord's core chat, voice, and video features are free for everyone. Paid tiers are Nitro Basic at $2.99/month ($29.99/year) and full Nitro at $9.99/month ($99.99/year), the latter adding 4K streaming, 500MB uploads, animated avatars usable anywhere, and two free Server Boosts.
Server Boosts can also be purchased directly to upgrade a specific community's perks. Discord offers localized pricing across many countries and currencies, and annual billing saves roughly 17% versus paying monthly.
Yes. Discord's core text, voice, and video chat features are free. Paid Nitro subscriptions add extra perks like larger file uploads and animated avatars.
Discord was founded by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy and publicly released in May 2015.
Nitro is Discord's paid subscription, available as Nitro Basic ($2.99/month) or full Nitro ($9.99/month), unlocking higher upload limits, 4K streaming, animated avatars, and Server Boosts.
Server Boosts are perks contributed by community members that upgrade a server's audio quality, emoji limits, and other features; Nitro subscribers receive free boosts each month.
Discord started as a gaming chat app but is now used broadly by creators, open-source projects, study groups, and businesses, though gaming communities remain central to its user base.
Discord is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, plus a browser-based web client.