How to make a paid Discord server

Short answer: if you live in the United States and Discord is the only place members get their perks, use Discord's own subscriptions. If you live elsewhere, or you sell other things too, use a payment tool that gives members a role after they pay. If you expect only a handful of members, give roles by hand while you test the idea.

Pick one of three ways to charge for Discord access

Discord's own subscriptions

Discord runs the checkout and hands out the role for you, so it is the least work if you can use it. Discord's help pages set conditions on the owner and the server. The owner must be at least 18, have a verified email and phone number and two-factor authentication, be based in the United States, and give Stripe a US bank account and ID to get paid. The server must have Community turned on, require multi-factor authentication for moderators, and not be mainly about adult content.

Discord keeps a 10% platform fee, and a 6% payment processing fee comes off purchases made on desktop or in a browser (the Apple and Google app stores charge more). Its terms set a first payout minimum of $100 and $25 after that, paid within 45 days after each month ends. Discord can change any of this, so read its Monetization Policy and Monetization Terms before you set prices.

A payment tool that gives roles

Members pay on a page outside Discord, link their Discord account, and an app gives them a role. Patreon works this way: its help center says the bot removes a tier role when a member deletes their pledge or a payment is declined. Loresta's Discord connection follows the same idea. You choose a role for each offer, supporters prove their receipt and link Discord themselves, and a refund or dispute updates their role. The Loresta Discord guide has the setup steps.

This fits best when Discord is one perk among several, or when Discord's own subscriptions are not open to you. Whichever tool you pick, ask four questions. Which countries can get paid? What does it charge? How fast do roles change? What does it do after a refund?

Roles by hand

You send a payment link, wait for the money, and give the role yourself. It costs nothing extra and shows whether people will pay before you build anything. It fails quietly, because nothing tells you when someone cancels or gets a refund. Keep a simple list with each person's name, their role and the date their paid time ends, and check it on the same day every week. As a rule of thumb, move to a tool once you edit roles by hand more than a couple of times a week.

Plan what is free and what is paid

Sell what members get, not the server. People pay for something specific: early access, a place to ask you questions, a private voice hangout, a vote on what you make next, or a finished archive. "Join my Discord" is not an offer. If you are still deciding whether a recurring offer fits your supporters, read membership versus one-time support first.

Keep one welcome area free: the rules, announcements and a room where people can talk. It is where newcomers decide whether to trust you. Put everything paid behind a role, and use one role for each thing you sell, so monthly members and one-time buyers do not get the same rooms by accident.

Before anyone pays, your offer page should say four things in plain words:

• Which rooms they get, and when access starts.
• How to cancel, and that the role leaves when the paid time ends.
• What happens if a payment fails or is refunded.
• Where to ask for help with a payment, outside public channels.

Use the same plain terms as your refund and cancellation policy, so the page and the server tell the same story.

Set up roles so they lock the door

A role only means something if the rooms behind it are really private. Do these six things in this order.

1. 01

   Make the paid rooms private first

   Create the paid channels in their own category. Turn off View Channel for the everyone role and turn it on for the paid role. Set this on the category so rooms you add later follow it.

2. 02

   Create one role per thing you sell

   Give each role only what it needs: seeing and talking in its rooms. Do not give paid roles moderator powers.

3. 03

   Put the app's role above the roles it gives

   Discord only lets a role change roles below it, and apps follow the same rule. If the app's role sits under the paid role, it cannot hand it out. Patreon's help and Loresta's guide both tell you to check this.

4. 04

   Look at the server as each role sees it

   In Server Settings, open Roles and use View Server As Role. It shows which rooms a role can see. Only the owner and people with the Administrator permission can use it.

5. 05

   Keep the keys with very few people

   A moderator who can manage roles can give paid roles away for free. Limit that permission to you and one or two people you trust, and ask everyone who can change roles to use two-factor authentication.

6. 06

   Write the sharing and removal rules

   Say in your rules room that paid content stays in the server, and what happens to a member who is removed for breaking the rules. Decide before launch whether they get a refund, and say so.

Decide what happens when someone stops paying

The most common failure is simple: a person stops paying and keeps the role. Decide the rule for each moment below before you launch, and put it on your offer page.

Tools differ on these moments, so check yours. Patreon's bot removes the role when a payment is declined. Discord's own subscriptions end the perks when the paid period ends, according to Discord's help page on cancelling. With roles by hand, nothing happens until you act.

Removing a role does not remove the person from the server. Patreon's help center says its bot leaves former members in the server, so you decide whether to remove them. Anything in a free room stays visible to them.

Test it as a new member before you launch

Use a second Discord account made for the test, and do this before you tell anyone. It takes about ten minutes once the setup exists.

• Join with the test account and confirm it sees only the free area.
• Pay the way a real member would. Use the tool's test mode if it has one, or pay the smallest real price and refund it yourself.
• Link the Discord account and confirm the role arrives. Note how long it took.
• Open every paid room and every free room. Confirm the right rooms appear and nothing else.
• Check the everyone role once more with View Server As Role.
• Cancel or refund, and confirm the role leaves when your rule says it should.
• Leave and rejoin the server, and confirm the role comes back only if it should.
• Ask for help the way a member would, and confirm the message reaches you.

If the role does not arrive

These are the usual causes, in the order to check them:

• The app's role sits below the paid role. Move it above.
• The app is missing the Manage Roles permission.
• The member linked a different Discord account from the one that joined the server.
• The payment is still pending, or it was declined.
• The tool updates roles on a schedule instead of at once. Patreon's help center says syncing is not instant.

Mistakes that cost creators money

• Selling a place instead of a benefit. Members leave after a month if nothing new happens. If you are unsure what you can deliver every month, start with how often to post for a membership.
• Letting a moderator give out paid roles. Keep the Manage Roles permission with you and one or two people you trust.
• Handling payment problems in public. Refund requests and receipts belong in a private message or support link. Never ask anyone for a card number or a password.
• Promising your time without limits. Say when you will be in the server and how fast you reply, so "access to me" does not become a second job.
• Skipping the test. A paid room that everyone can see, or a role that never goes away, costs far less to find before launch than after.

Run the same checks on the whole offer, not only the Discord part, with how to test a creator membership before launch.