Discord Colored Text Generator (ANSI Code Blocks)

ANSI escape codes are what terminals and consoles use to color text: an invisible ESC character, a bracket, some numbers and the letter m. Discord's desktop client applies those codes inside a code block whose language tag is ansi. Everything outside that block is ordinary text.

Each color change is a prefix in the form ESC[format;colorm. The community guide writes the ESC character as \u001b, which is how you type it in a bot's source code. In the message box it has to be the real, invisible character. That is the whole reason a generator exists: the tool above inserts the actual ESC character when you copy, while the six letters “\u001b” typed by hand do nothing.

A prefix stays in effect until the next one. To stop coloring, send ESC[0m, the reset code, before the plain text.

Using the tool takes four steps. Type each differently colored part of your message into its own box, pick a text color and, if you like, a background, then tick Bold or Underline. Add another part for the next color change. Press the “Copy colored message” button and paste the result into Discord as it is, without retyping any of it; the clipboard holds the full block, fences and invisible characters included.

If you write a bot instead, you don't need the tool. Most programming languages turn the six characters \u001b inside a normal string into the real escape character, which is why the community guide shows the codes that way. Send the string inside a ```ansi block exactly as you would any other code block.

These are the codes the community guide lists and the tool above builds. The names are the guide's own; it gives names, not exact shades, so the swatches in the tool's preview are an approximation of the desktop client rather than a measured palette. Exact shades also move: rebane2001's generator changelog records that Discord changed the color palette it uses for ANSI in August 2026, and that the shade you see depends on the Discord theme, Light, Ash, Dark or Onyx. Check the result in the theme most of your members use.

Text colors run from 30 to 37 and backgrounds from 40 to 47, in the same order: the last digit picks the color family. The guide's main list calls 30 Gray, while its showcase file labels the same code Black, so expect a dark grey either way.

Pick text and background from different families. Because the last digit selects the same color family for both, a pair like 31 on 41 asks for red on red, and 37 on 47 for white on white. Dark text on a dark background has the same problem in a quieter way. The safest readable pairs are a light text color with no background at all, which leaves Discord's own code-block background behind it.

You don't need a separate prefix for each property. Separate the numbers with semicolons inside one prefix: ESC[1;40;32m gives bold green text on a black background, and ESC[1;40;4;32m adds an underline. The guide says that when you use separate prefixes instead, the order matters: background first, then the text color.

The guide also describes a newer RGB form, ESC[38;2;red;green;bluem, for any color, such as 38;2;124;134;255 for an indigo. rebane2001's changelog goes further: it reports that in October 2026 Discord significantly increased the number of ANSI codes it supports, and on 2026-10-07 that generator added custom colors, italic, strikethrough and various effects. Like the rest, this is community-documented, not announced by Discord. Our tool covers the classic set: eight text colors (30–37), eight backgrounds (40–47), bold (1) and underline (4), the codes documented longest, and its swatches are an approximate preview. For custom colors, use a tool that builds the RGB form and test the message on your own client first.

Keep each colored part short. A message is still limited to 2,000 characters (4,000 with Nitro), and every prefix uses several of them.

The last two lines above show typical uses: a bold, underlined yellow headline, and a status line where each word gets its own color and a reset after it. Resetting after every colored part is a good habit, because it keeps a later edit from accidentally coloring text you meant to leave plain.

The biggest limit is mobile. The community guide states that ANSI is supported on desktop clients and not on mobile. Discord's own feedback forum carries a user post titled “ANSI formatting is unreadable on mobile”. That is a community report, not a statement from Discord, and we have not tested phones ourselves, but the guide and the report point the same way.

The guide's wording is specific to desktop clients and does not say anything about the browser version of Discord. Treat the browser the same way as a phone until you have checked it on your own account: send a short test message to yourself or a private channel and look at it on each device your members use.

In practice, assume a share of your server reads on a phone. If they see a code block full of plain text, or text that is hard to read, the color has cost you clarity. That is acceptable for a joke or a decorative banner, and a poor trade for rules, event times or anything else members need.

Color also carries meaning badly for people who can't see it. W3C's accessibility guidance asks that information not depend on visual presentation alone. If red means “important”, say so in words as well, or use markdown bold and a # header, which every Discord client shows.

Most Discord colored text failures come from the copy step or from where the message is being read. Work down this list in order.

If none of these fix it, copy the tool's default example without changing anything and send it to yourself. If that also arrives plain, the client you are reading on does not apply ansi colors, and no change to the message will help.

Often the goal behind color is “make this stand out”. Discord has documented ways to do that which work on every client. A # header makes a line large; **bold** and __underline__ add weight; -# subtext pushes a credit into small grey text; > quotes set a passage apart.

If you want a different look rather than emphasis, Unicode letter styles change the characters themselves and show on phones too, as long as the device has a font for them: 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝘀, 𝓼𝓬𝓻𝓲𝓹𝓽 and 𝕺𝖑𝖉 𝕰𝖓𝖌𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖍 were all drawn completely by macOS 26.5.1 and Android system fonts in our measurement. They come with their own trade-off for screen readers, explained on the Discord fonts page.

Roles are the other place color belongs. A role's color shows on members' names in the server, and Discord's Display Name Styles FAQ notes that in servers the role color is what appears, so color-coding people is better done there than in messages.

A workable compromise for a welcome or rules post: put the essential text in markdown, readable everywhere, and add one short ansi banner above it as decoration. Desktop readers get the color, phone readers lose nothing that matters, and nobody has to squint at a colored paragraph to find the rules.