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How to bold text on Discord (and every other format)

Discord formats text with Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~, __underline__, and more. Markdown works in all messages and channels but not in usernames or display names — for those, use Unicode bold characters instead.

BoldlyType Editorial·Sep 21, 2026·3 min

Discord formats text with Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~, __underline__, and more. Markdown works in all messages and channels but not in usernames or display names — for those, use Unicode bold characters instead.

Key takeaways

  • Bold on Discord is typed as **text** with two asterisks on each side — no settings to change, no Nitro required.
  • Italic uses *text* (asterisk) or _text_ (underscore); bold italic combines them as ***text***.
  • Strikethrough, spoiler tags, headers, masked links, and code blocks are all part of Discord's built-in Markdown support.
  • Markdown formatting works in every message context — server channels, DMs, threads, forums — but does not render in usernames, display names, or custom status messages.
  • For bold text in a username or bio where Markdown is stripped, use Unicode bold characters from a generator and paste them in directly.
How to bold text on Discord (and every other format)
On this page

How-to guide

To make text bold on Discord, wrap it in two asterisks on each side: **your text**. Send the message and Discord renders it bold automatically — no settings to change, no Nitro required. The same Markdown syntax works in server channels, DMs, threads, and forums, on desktop and mobile.

The full Discord formatting syntax

Discord uses a subset of Markdown for all text formatting. You type the characters, send the message, and the app renders the result.

StyleSyntaxExample input
Bold**text****meeting notes**
Italic*text* or _text_*emphasis*
Bold italic***text******very important***
Underline__text____section title__
Strikethrough~~text~~~~old price~~
Spoiler||text||||plot twist||
Inline code`text``variable_name`
Block quote> text> cited text
Header 1# text (space required)# Announcement
Header 2## text## Details
Header 3### text### Notes
Subtext-# text-# Posted by…
Masked link[label](url)[Label](url)

You can stack most styles. __***text***__ produces underlined bold italic.

How to type each format on desktop

On the desktop app and the browser version, you can either type the Markdown manually or use keyboard shortcuts:

  • Bold — Ctrl + B (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + B (Mac)
  • Italic — Ctrl + I / Cmd + I
  • Underline — Ctrl + U / Cmd + U

If you want to preview output before you send, the Discord text formatter at BoldlyType shows a live render as you type.

Formatting on Discord mobile

Markdown formatting works on the Discord mobile app for both Android and iOS. When you select text in the message box, a formatting bar appears above the keyboard. One mobile-specific limitation: syntax highlighting in code blocks does not render on mobile.

Code blocks and syntax highlighting

For inline code, use a single backtick on each side: `npm install`

For a multi-line code block, use three backticks. To enable syntax highlighting, add the language name after the opening backticks: ```python. Discord supports Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C++, Go, Rust, Bash, JSON, YAML, and around twenty other languages.

Block quotes and headers

Block quotes pull text into a quoted style. A single > at the start quotes that line. >>> quotes everything that follows.

Headers use the # symbol at the very start of a line, followed by a space. The space is required — #text does not render as a header.

Masked links let you display custom link text instead of a bare URL: [Read the guide](/blog/where-bold-text-works). For a comparison of link formatting across platforms, see where bold text works across 25 platforms.

Where formatting works and where it doesn't

Discord Markdown renders in server text channels, DMs, group DMs, threads, and forum channel posts. It does not render in display names, usernames, custom status messages, channel names, or server names.

If you want bold-looking text in your Discord username, you need Unicode styled characters. Type a username into the bold text generator to get Unicode-bold letters you can paste into the display name field.

Markdown vs Unicode bold

Markdown bold (**text**) — only works in messages. The app renders bold and hides the asterisks.

Unicode bold (𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱) — uses actual Unicode characters from the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block. These paste into usernames, bios, status messages, and channel topics. The downside: screen readers may read each character as its Unicode name.

For messages, use Markdown bold. For anything outside a message (username, server nickname, bio), use Unicode bold from a generator like the bold text generator.

How to escape Markdown

Prefix each special character with a backslash to prevent formatting: \*\*this will not be bold\*\*. You can also wrap text in an inline code span.

Limitations and edge cases

  • _text_ italics can behave unpredictably mid-word. Use asterisks for italic.
  • #text (no space) does not render as a header. You need # text.
  • Bots build embeds using Discord's API, not Markdown typed into chat.
  • Discord does not render Markdown tables in chat messages — use a code block for tabular data.

The Discord text formatter gives you a live preview of every format covered here.

Ready to put this into practice?

Open a formatter

Sources

Spotted an error? Email hello@boldlytype.com — we update guides quarterly and welcome corrections.

Frequently asked questions

Latest questions readers ask us about this topic.

how to do bold letters on discord

Wrap your text in two asterisks on each side: **your text**. Type it into the message box and send — Discord renders it bold automatically. On desktop you can also select text and press Ctrl+B (Windows) or Cmd+B (Mac). There is no setting to enable; it works by default in all channels, DMs, and threads.

how to italic chat in discord

Use a single asterisk or underscore on each side of your text: *like this* or _like this_. On desktop, Ctrl+I (or Cmd+I on Mac) applies italic to selected text. Both styles produce the same result. For bold italic together, use three asterisks on each side: ***text***.

how to do strikethrough on discord

Wrap your text in double tildes on each side: ~~your text~~. Discord renders it with a horizontal line through the middle. There is no keyboard shortcut for strikethrough — you need to type the tildes manually, unlike bold (Ctrl+B) or italic (Ctrl+I). Strikethrough works in every message context: server channels, DMs, group DMs, and threads. It works on desktop and on the Discord mobile app for Android and iOS.

does discord markdown work on mobile

Yes. All Discord Markdown formatting — bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, spoilers, code blocks, headers, and more — works on the Discord mobile app for Android and iOS. Select text in the message box to see a formatting toolbar above the keyboard. The one exception is syntax highlighting in code blocks, which only renders on desktop.

why doesn't bold work in my discord username

Discord Markdown does not render in usernames, display names, custom status messages, or channel names. The asterisks appear as literal characters. To get bold-looking text in a username, use Unicode bold characters — they look bold in every context because they are different characters, not a Markdown style. A bold text generator can convert normal letters to Unicode bold that you paste straight into the name field.

how to make a spoiler on discord

Wrap the text in double vertical bars: ||your spoiler text||. The message appears as a grey bar that recipients have to click to reveal. Spoiler tags work in channels, DMs, and threads. You can also spoiler an image by marking it as a spoiler before upload via the attachment menu.

Related questions

The sub-questions readers ask next — answered, with where to go.

LinkedIn's post box — used for feed posts, comments, your headline and your About section — is plain text with no formatting toolbar and no markdown, so there's no bold button. The workaround the whole creator economy uses is Unicode bold: type your line, convert it to bold Unicode characters (𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱) in a generator, then paste it back and the emphasis sticks, because the style is baked into the characters themselves. Bold only the hook — the part that shows before the “…see more” cut-off — to earn the click, and keep the rest plain so the post stays skimmable. Two caveats matter: Unicode text isn't read by LinkedIn's search and is announced poorly by screen readers, so never bold the keywords, names or hashtags you want found or read aloud. For true rich text (headings, lists), use LinkedIn's separate 'Write article' editor instead.

Format a LinkedIn post

Instagram's native composer collapses the line breaks you type, which is why captions paste in as one dense block — it's worst when you post from the web or through some schedulers. The reliable fix is to compose the caption with the spacing you want and paste it back with the breaks preserved, rather than relying on invisible-character hacks (blank Unicode characters can break Instagram's search and are read poorly by screen readers). Write the caption with your intended breaks, generate the spaced version, and paste it into the caption field. Put your strongest hook on line one, since that's the part that shows before the 'more' cut-off in the feed. Keep paragraphs short — two or three lines — so the caption stays skimmable on a phone, where almost everyone reads it.

Open the line-break tool

Yes — WhatsApp is the exception among messaging and social apps because it has its own built-in markup that it renders for everyone. Wrap text in *asterisks* for bold, _underscores_ for italic, ~tildes~ for strikethrough, and triple backticks for monospace; the symbols disappear and the styling shows. So you usually don't need Unicode characters on WhatsApp at all. Reach for a Unicode formatter only when you want a style WhatsApp's markdown doesn't cover — small caps or script for a Status, say — or when you're writing one message to post across several apps that don't share WhatsApp's syntax (Instagram, X and Threads strip these symbols and show them literally). For everyday bold and italic inside WhatsApp itself, the native markup is the better and more accessible choice.

Format for WhatsApp

Because that editor is plain text and strips anything it doesn't parse. Markdown (*bold*), HTML tags and rich-text styling only render where the platform explicitly supports them — paste them into Instagram, X/Twitter or a LinkedIn post and you see the raw asterisks, or nothing at all, because those boxes have no formatting engine. Unicode styling works differently: the bold or italic look is baked into each character (a Unicode bold 'A' is its own code point), so it survives any plain-text field and travels with a copy-paste. That's the whole reason Unicode 'fancy text' formatters exist. The trade-off is accessibility — because they aren't ordinary letters, screen readers can mis-read them and in-app search may not match them — so use Unicode for short emphasis, not for body copy or anything that must be searchable.

Generate paste-proof styles

Related in this series

See all in How-to format

Explore the topic cluster

More tools and guides across this topic cluster.

FormatterLinkedIn Text FormatterBold and italic for a plain-text editor.FormatterInstagram Text FormatterStyle captions, bios and comments.GuideHow to Format Text on LinkedInBold and italic in a plain-text editor, step by step.GuideMarkdown on WhatsApp, Discord & SlackWhich apps take native markdown vs need Unicode.FormatterWhatsApp Text FormatterBold, italic and strikethrough that stick.FormatterDiscord Text FormatterMarkdown plus Unicode for servers and DMs.

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