What is Discord Nitro? Why use Discord Nitro, and is it Worth Paying for?
Written by: Hrishikesh Pardeshi, Founder at Flexiple, buildd & Remote Tools.
Last updated: Sep 03, 2024
Gaming with Discord can be fun, but with Discord Nitro, you get a heightened experience. The Discord Nitro service gives you access to HD video streaming, custom video backgrounds, animated avatars, premium activities, and a nitro badge next to your name. In short, it supercharges your in-app experience and makes your profile stand out.
If you’re asking: What is Discord Nitro, or is it worth the buy? Stay tuned, as this article will give a rundown of the Nitro perks and subscription packages and a tutorial on how to purchase Nitro plans.
TLDR
The following steps will guide you to make your Discord Nitro subscription.
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Open your Discord application on your device.
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Go to the server setting at the bottom of your screen.
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Scroll to the billing section on the sidebar and select Nitro.
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Select a billing package and click subscribe.
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Enter your payment details and complete the process by clicking Purchase.
Table of Contents
- What is Discord Nitro?
- Why Use Discord Nitro?
- Discord Nitro vs Nitro Basic: What’s the Difference?
- How Much Does Discord Nitro Cost?
- How to Sign Up to Discord Nitro
- Is Discord Nitro worth it?
What is Discord Nitro?
When Jason Citron created Discord in 2015, he aimed to create a free and effective communication platform for online gamers worldwide. Thanks to its robust features, which provided users with a simple interface and the ability to cater to the gaming community, the platform experienced much success within and outside gaming communities.
In 2017, the popular gaming chat service introduced Discord Nitro, a premium subscription service that gives users access to extended features. As a Discord Nitro subscriber, you can join up to 200 servers, stream 4K videos at 60 frames per second, access premium games on the Discord Activity shelf, share larger files, and get discounts on any server boosts you run on the platform.
Simply put, Discord Nitro is a subscription service that supercharges your in-app experience by providing access to premium features.
Why Use Discord Nitro?
The Discord premium subscription service provides several awesome perks highlighted below:
Increased Upload Limit.
Discord’s paid services allow you to upload larger files to your Discord servers. With the Discord Nitro Basic, the limit shifts to 50 MB from the 5 MB file size, allowing you to upload files up to 500MB in size, which is helpful for sharing larger files such as audio files and high-resolution images. This can be helpful if you need to share high-quality photos or videos with others.
Better Video Quality
With Discord paid plans, you can upload and share HD video with your communities. The platform also provides features, like hardware acceleration, which helps to split the system performance with the device’s graphics cards, CPU, and GPU, thus increasing the performance with higher-quality images.
More Custom Images and Stickers
Custom stickers bring more fun to the conversations. With Discord paid plans, you can create, save, and use custom images and stickers to spice up your conversations.
Multiple Discord Server Boosts
Discord boosts are paid services that give you and your server members extra features and functionalities as you communicate within the server. This extra access, which lasts for a month, may include perks like custom emoji, better video streaming, and audio quality. Subscribing to the Discord premium plan will give two server boosts monthly and a 30% discount on additional boosts.
Unique Profile Enhancements
Another perk of being a Discord Nitro user is the ability to use a custom Discord tag, unique emoji, and animated avatars on your profile. In addition, you can enjoy the pride that comes with getting the Nitro badge on your profile banner and a custom discord number tag.
The list above highlighted several features and perks that Discord Nitro provides. However, how much of these perks you can enjoy depends on the Nitro package you subscribe to. You can opt for either the Discord Nitro Basic or the Discord Nitro package.
Discord Nitro vs Nitro Basic: What’s the Difference?
Discord offers two different kinds of paid memberships, Discord Nitro and Discord Nitro Basic. Both memberships offer access to some additional features not open to non-nitro users, but there are a few key differences between the two.
Nitro Basic
Nitro Basic is the newest addition to the Discord Nitro membership packages. Introduced on October 20, 2022, the plan replaced the Discord Nitro Classic package, bringing the features like YouTube integration and access to some Discord Activity games.
Nitro Basic is the smallest of the two subscription plans available on Discord. Subscribing to this premium subscription tier allows access to some extra features like the Nitro badge, custom video backgrounds, animated emojis, 300 Nitro stickers, and up to 50 MB file sharing limit.
Discord Nitro
The Discord Nitro package builds on the Nitro Basic plan to provide a more extensive list of premium features. In short, subscribing to the Nitro package gives you access to all the same features as Discord Basic, plus several additional perks. For example, Discord Nitro subscribers have higher upload limit (500 MB) and can stream HD video at a whopping speed of 60 frames per second.
Here’s a more extensive list of premium features that comes with the Discord Nitro membership:
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Custom and animated emojis are usable on any Discord server.
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Share larger files with sizes up to 500 MB using the Discord desktop or the iOS mobile apps.
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Stream HD video with higher image rendering and audio quality.
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Two server boosts and discounts on additional purchases.
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Animated avatar and banner images alongside the special Nitro badge.
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Access to all games on the Discord Activity shelf.
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Nitro Badge
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Access to up to 200 servers
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Increased typing limit up to 4,000 character count per message.
How Much Does Discord Nitro Cost?
Joining and retaining a premium membership on the Discord platform will require a monthly subscription payment. The cost of a subscription, however, varies with the premium subscription tier.
The Discord Nitro costs $2.99 per month, while the Nitro package costs $9.99 per month. The Nitro package also comes with a yearly plan which allows you to secure your subscription upfront for a year at $99.9 per year.
How to Sign Up to Discord Nitro
The following steps will guide you to sign up for Discord Nitro:
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Log in to your Discord account from the desktop or mobile app.
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Go to Settings (the wheel button) at the bottom of the screen to access your account settings.
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Under the Billing section, select Nitro. That should open up the Nitro page showing the packages available alongside their prices and perks.
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To select a billing package, click Subscribe button beneath your desired package. If you are selecting the Nitro plan, also select between the monthly and yearly payment plans and click Select.
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Choose your preferred method of payment. The payment method available include Credit Card, Debit Card, or PayPal. For this tutorial, we will opt for the Credit card payment method.
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Fill in the card details into the appropriate fields and select Next.
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Input your postal address details in the appropriate fields and select Next.
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Review the order summary now displayed in the new window. Next, check the Terms and Conditions box and click Purchase.
How to Cancel Your Discord Nitro Subscription
Subscribing to either of the premium membership plans automatically sets up an autorenewal. So, when the subscription expires, Discord automatically deducts the payment from your preferred account and renews your membership.
However, you can cancel this subscription anytime by following the procedure highlighted below:
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Log in to your Discord account from your desktop.
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Click the User Settings (cog wheel) button at the bottom of the screen.
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Go to the Billing Settings section and click Subscription.
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Under Your Subscriptions settings, you should see a banner showing your active subscriptions. Click on Cancel.
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A new window should appear on your screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Continue.
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Select Confirm to finalize the process.
Note that canceling your subscription will return you to the free tier plan. As a free user, you will lose access to the perks available to Nitro subscribers.
How to Gift A Friend a Discord Nitro Subscription
Discord Nitro is a great way to support your favorite streamers and content creators. If you have a friend who is a big Discord user, you may want to consider gifting them a Discord Nitro subscription.
Here's how you can do it:
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Go to your Discord account from your desktop device.
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Click on User Settings > Nitro.
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From the banner at the top of the screen, click Gift Nitro.
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Select either the Discord Nitro or Discord Nitro Basic banner, depending on the plan you want to gift.
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Choose either a one-year or one-month subscription. Click Select.
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Input your payment details in the appropriate fields and select Buy Gift.
Once you've completed the process, your friend will receive an email with instructions on activating their Discord Nitro subscription.
How to Accept A Discord Nitro Gift
If you've been lucky enough to receive a Discord Nitro gift from a friend, you may wonder how to accept it. Here's a quick guide on how to do just that.
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Open your Discord app and sign in.
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Click on the gear icon in the bottom left corner of the app to open your settings.
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Click on the "Nitro" tab in the left menu.
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You should see an option to Claim your Discord Nitro gift in the Nitro tab. Click on that, and then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
That's all there is to it! Now you can enjoy all the benefits of Discord Nitro.
Is Discord Nitro Worth It?
From our earlier discussion, it is clear that Discord Nitro provides numerous benefits to gamers and Discord server owners, which are unavailable to free users. So, is Discord Nitro worth it? That depends on how you plan to use Discord. If you're looking for a way to improve your Discord experience and get access to more features, then Nitro is definitely worth considering.
Besides the satisfaction of using the premium features, heavy gamers and daily Discord users who interact with several communities may find them useful to maximize their experience on the app. If you're more interested in the basic features, you may stick with the free-tier Discord service.