Custom Discord Server Background: How to Add a Server Banner

Discord has long allowed users to personalize their servers with custom visuals and branding, but adding a server-level banner is the platform's native way of allowing for custom background visuals at the server level. The addition of this feature was rolled out in July 2021.

However, access to the server banner feature depends on meeting a hard eligibility requirement. Specifically, you must boost your server to Boost Level 2 to unlock the ability to add a server banner, otherwise the banner upload option will not be available.

Unfortunately, there are problems associated with the official documentation that explains how to add a Discord server banner; it appears to be about three years out of date. Instead, follow these steps based on what’s displayed today on Discord’s server settings UI.

What Is a Discord Server Banner?

A Discord server banner provides an additional opportunity for members to brand and personalize their servers, similar to how the server icon (which can also be uploaded via Discord) serves as the server’s visual identifier. While the server icon is small and sits above the server name, the server banner can appear much larger, covering most of the server selection screen or even the chat window depending on which application you’re using (the desktop client vs. mobile).

You can see what it looks like below.

How to Add a Discord Server Banner

Adding a server banner requires that you’ve boosted your server to Boost Level 2. If you haven’t, then you won’t be able to add one.

Here’s what the current server settings UI looks like. You’ll want to click on the “Server Settings” link within the main Discord client (not from the right-hand sidebar, since that’s where you’ll find all of the channels). Once you do, select the “Advanced” tab near the bottom of the left-hand panel.

You should see the “Banner” section. Here, click on “Upload” and browse for the image you’d like to use as your server banner. When prompted, select “Use as banner” to confirm. Your new server banner should now be live.

Note that the “Banner” section is hidden by default, and may only be accessible when your server has been boosted to Boost Level 2.

It’s unclear if the server banner will work correctly with a “boosted server,” as opposed to a normal server, but it appears to function just fine.

The reliability problem here isn’t necessarily whether the feature works or not — it’s whether or not we can actually tell people how to get started with a Discord server banner.