Discord Emoji Size 2026: 128 × 128 px

Discord emoji size and limits

The 256 KB limit, the formats and the naming rules come from Discord's custom emoji help article; the 128 × 128 size and the sticker limits from Discord's developer documentation; role icons from the role icons FAQ. All checked in October 2026.

Emoji names and slots

• Names must be at least 2 characters and can only use letters, numbers and underscores. party_cat works; party cat and party-cat don't.
• Slots: every server starts with 50 emoji slots, with a separate 50 for animated emoji. Server Boosts raise the total to 100 at level 1, 150 at level 2 and 250 at level 3.
• Who can upload: the server owner and anyone with the Create Expressions or Manage Emojis permission.
• Using them elsewhere: members can use a server's emoji inside that server. Using them in other servers needs Nitro or Nitro Basic.

Making an emoji that reads at 22 px

Discord draws emoji at about 22 px in a line of text and about 48 px when a message contains nothing but emoji. You export at 128 × 128 so they stay sharp at both sizes and on high-density screens, but you design for 22 px:

• Crop tight. The subject should fill the square; empty margins just make it smaller in chat.
• Keep the background transparent. Start from a PNG with transparency and export PNG. A JPG emoji is a square with a background, which looks like a sticker stuck on top of the chat.
• Bold shapes and thick outlines. Fine lines and small text disappear. One short word is the most that stays readable.
• Check both themes. A dark outline vanishes in dark mode and a white one in light mode; a contrasting outline or drop shadow works in both.

Emoji, stickers and role icons

They look alike but do different jobs. Emoji sit inside a line of text. Stickers are sent on their own and shown large, at 320 × 320 px; every server gets 5 sticker slots, and boosts raise that to 15, 30 and 60. Role icons are the small badges next to member names, 64 × 64 px, and need Boost level 2. All three presets are on this page; banners, avatars and server icons are on the Discord banner size page.

Animated emoji

Animated emoji are GIFs, held to the same 128 × 128 px and 256 KB. CropDen works on still images, so a GIF dropped here comes out as a single frame. Resize animated emoji in a GIF editor, and if the file is too big, cut frames and colors first; those shrink a GIF faster than lowering its size.

How to resize an image for a Discord emoji

1. Drop your image above, ideally a PNG with a transparent background, or paste it with Cmd/Ctrl+V.
2. The custom emoji preset (128 × 128) opens. Drag and zoom until the subject fills the square.
3. Choose PNG as the format to keep the transparency. The export is kept under 256 KB automatically; at 128 px a PNG is far below it anyway.
4. In Discord, open Server Settings → Emoji → Upload Emoji, pick the file and give it a name of at least 2 characters.

Why Discord won't accept your emoji

• The file is over 256 KB. Usually a full-size photo or a long GIF. Resize stills to 128 × 128 here; trim frames from GIFs.
• The name is rejected. It has spaces, hyphens or other symbols, or it's a single character.
• No free slots. The server has used all its emoji slots. Remove some or boost the server.
• The upload button is missing. You don't have the Create Expressions or Manage Emojis permission on that server.
• The format isn't supported. Discord takes JPG, PNG, GIF and WebP. Open anything else here and export PNG.

For other square images, like an avatar for another platform, use the square cropper. If a different site needs a small file, compress to 50 KB handles it. Every platform's sizes are on the social media image sizes cheat sheet.