If you’re here, you know what Discord is and don’t want our life story. You’re looking for how to add bots to Discord servers successfully.
Transform your server of choice with bots that let you offer the perfect environment for your friends and servermates. We’ll cover how to find bots, popular options, and how to add them via desktop and mobile devices.
This Article Covers
- What Are Discord Bots?
- How To Add Bots
- How to Configure Bots
- Resources and Popular Discord Bots
- FAQs
- Conclusion
What Are Discord Bots?
Long story short, discord bots are AI-enabled tools that make running a Discord server easier. They can take over manual welcoming tasks, add a fun musical spin to your channels, ban people who violate the rules and more.
They tap into Discord’s public API to do everything from sending messages to modifying chatter roles. They can even add fun minigames to your server to boost activity and entertain your community.
How To Add Bots
While the procedure may initially seem complicated, the Discord UI is extremely intuitive. We’ll take you through a step-by-step process of how to add bots to Discord on desktop and mobile devices.
Managing Permissions
Before you start inviting bots to your server, you’ll need Manage Server or admin capabilities enabled. If you just created a new server, this should be on by default, but in case it isn’t, here’s how to turn on these settings.
Step 1: Hop into your Discord app and choose the server you wish to modify in the left-hand panel. Click the arrow to open the drop-down menu.
Open your server and hit the drop-down.
Step 2: Click Server Settings to open up your server’s options.
Choose Server Settings.
Step 3: Choose roles and click Default Permissions in the main window.
Choose Roles, then Default Permissions.
Step 4: Scroll down to just after the Manage Webhooks setting to find Manage Server. Enable this, save your settings and finish up.
Choose Roles, then Default Permissions.
Desktop
Now, let’s get into physically adding your bots.
Step 1: Go to the official website of the bot you want to add to your Discord server. For this tutorial, we’re going to use ProBot. The website layout may differ depending on your bot choice.
Step 2: Click Add to Discord or Invite Now, depending on the bot you’re adding.
Invite the bot to your Discord server.
Step 3: A pop-up window will open, asking you to log in to your Discord account and allow the bot access.
Log in to your Discord account.
Step 4: Once you log in, you’ll see a window asking for permission to access your account. Locate the Add to Server drop-down menu and click on it.
The bot will ask for permission to access your Discord account.
This action will open a list of Discord servers where you can add a bot. Select your server and press Continue.
Select your server from the drop-down menu.
Step 5: Review permissions that the bot requests on your server. Select and deselect based on your needs. Click on Authorize when you’re ready.
Review the requested permissions and authorize access.
iOS and Android
This process is extremely simple. Follow the next few steps to add bots via mobile devices.
Step 1: Choose a bot. We’re going with mee6 from Top.gg. Look out for the red Invite button. Click it, then log into your Discord account.
Choose a bot and click Invite. Log into Discord.
Step 2: After logging in, select your server from the drop-down menu and click Continue.
Choose the server you want to add the bot to.
Step 3: Scroll down through all the permissions the bot requires and look for the Authorize button. Click it.
Scroll down and click Authorize.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully added a bot to your Discord server. While the hard part is over, we aren’t finished. What good is adding a bot to your server if you don’t know how to use it?
How To Configure Bots
Now that you have the bot sitting ready on your server, let’s get to work. It’s time to visit the bot’s official website again. After logging in, the home page should link to the Commands and Dashboard sections.
Go to the Discord bot’s home page.
The Commands section includes a list of prompts you can type into your server channels to perform various tasks.
Use specific command prompts to perform specific tasks.
For example, you can type in #roles or #server in any text channel and prompt ProBot to provide information about your server and the distribution of roles.
Use these command prompts to access server stats.
The Dashboard section is your key to the kingdom. It’ll give you an overview of your server and direct access to server and module settings.
The dashboard provides access to real-time insights and server moderation tools.
You can add and remove permissions, change colors, give reaction roles, add welcome messages and keep tweaking till you feel comfortable. Check up regularly on your server metrics, and don’t forget to log out when you’re done.
Removing a Bot
When your bots have outlived their usefulness, or you just don’t want them around anymore, you can follow these steps to remove them.
Step 1: Navigate to the server with the bot you want to remove and right-click them. They should be on the right side of the app.
Navigate to the server and right-click the bot.
Step 2: Navigate to the bottom of the drop-down and click Kick Bot.
Choose the Kick option.
These steps are more or less the same on mobile devices.
Resources and Popular Discord Bots
Now that you know how to add and remove bots, you’ll need to find a place to grab some. The most popular spot to browse and download Discord bots is the unofficial list at Top.gg.
Here are a few more high-quality options:
The Most Popular Discord Bots
Bots come in all shapes and sizes. We broke up a few of our favorites into two categories: server support and entertainment.
Popular Moderation and Server Support Bots
MEE6
MEE6 is one of the most popular moderation bots around. It has all the usual moderation tricks — welcome messages, anti-spam, kicking and banning, reaction roles, and more.
You can set up streaming and social media alerts, user leveling, and custom commands. Besides being a best-in-class moderation bot, MEE6 provides a lot of utility and entertainment for your channel, making it an incredibly worthwhile addition.
Dyno Bot
This fully customizable Discord moderation bot prides itself on an accessible and user-friendly web dashboard.
Its most important features include:
- All-in-One Dashboard: Tweak and tune settings as needed from a single location to hone your server environment.
- Moderation Tools: Create moderation logs, auto-moderate channels, time out and ban problem chatters, and more.
- Auto-Roles: Let users join role-filtered chatrooms and voice channels automatically.
- Custom Commands: Set up your customized server commands for almost anything.
Helper.gg
Leaning toward the professional side of things, it’s used in over 8.3 million servers worldwide and turns your server into an efficient customer service portal.
It includes a web panel to simplify ticket management and user permissions. You can attach tags and labels to active tickets and relocate them to the proper channels. After resolving issues, close the ticket and reassign staff responsibilities. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Who said Discord is just for gamers?
YAGPDV (Yet Another General Purpose Discord Bot)
This moderation and server support bot also comes with a handful of entertainment-based tools. Bring in fast-loading feeds from Reddit and YouTube, quickly create roles, create custom commands, moderate channels, and more.
Did we mention it includes up to 250 cat facts you can pull from randomly?
Popular Entertainment and Engagement Bots
Now that you’ve taken care of your moderation, server status and roles, let’s look at some entertainment-based bots to spice up your server.
Rhythm
No list of Discord bots is ever complete without Rhythm. However, starting Sept. 15, 2021, Rhythm ended its service owing to a legal notice by YouTube.
It was the most popular Discord bot — used on over 20 million servers worldwide. Employed primarily as a music bot, Rhythm gave full control over playlists with prompts for volume, playback, audio effects and autoplay. Additionally, you could set up DJ roles with playback permissions.
Rhythm is returning in 2023, according to the developer’s website.
Dank Memer
Dank Memer is an absolute staple for casual Discord servers. Create and share memes or endorse a faux meme currency. Invest in fresh and contextual memes to make your channel more welcoming and your conversations more fun.
It also functions as a minigame where users can earn more meme currency by gambling or stealing from others.
Poketwo
For those of us with a Pokemon-catching itch we just have to scratch; Poketwo is your Discord bot companion.
Introduce randomly spawning Pokemon into your server that users can catch, trade and collect. It’s open source and lets your friends battle their rosters in 3v3 duels straight out of the full game.
IdleRPG
For those of us without the time to pour into massive RPGs, this bot lets you level up characters, collect upgrades and hang out with friends — all with a handy idle-based interface. No need for a massive time commitment here, just a fun way to quite literally idle the hours away.
FAQs
I can’t find my Discord server in the drop-down menu. What’s wrong?
If you’re trying to add a Discord bot to a server you haven’t created, make sure your role has Manage Server turned on. You can do this in a few simple steps.
Step 1: Open Discord and visit the channel where you want to add a bot.
Step 2: Click on the drop-down menu at the top left corner of your screen.
Visit your server on the Discord app.
Step 3: Click on Server Settings.
Access your server’s settings.
Step 4: Click on Roles and select your corresponding role.
Go to the Roles sub-section.
Step 5: Scroll down and turn on Manage Server.
Turn on Manage Server permission for your role.
Step 6: Click on Save Changes and exit.
Save all changes before exiting.
Now, you should be able to find your Discord server listed in the Add to Discord or Invite Now drop-down menu.
If you can’t find the Server Settings button listed in the dropdown, contact server admins and request them to add Manage Server Permissions and/or Administrator Access for your role.
Is adding bots to Discord servers free?
Unless you’re paying for a premium bot or services that cost money, adding bots to your server is free.
Are Discord bots safe?
Most Discord bots are safe, but it’s always worth researching the developer and visiting their website (if they have one).
The good news is most are open source, so the inner workings of the bot are on display for all to see.
Can I add bots to any Discord server?
You can only add bots to a server with the Manage Server permission turned on for your role.
Why does my Discord bot appear offline?
Visit your Discord bot’s dashboard on the source website. Check if you’ve given all the necessary permissions required for the bot to function. If you followed all the steps listed above and granted all the required permissions, the bot might be having server-related downtime.
Under such circumstances, we recommend visiting the bot’s subreddit or Discord community for more information.
Conclusion
We hope we were able to help you figure out how to add bots to Discord. It’s only tricky the first time around. Once you get started, there are essentially two steps:
- Choose bot
- Add bot
Don’t be afraid to try out different options. Mix and match until you find the perfect balance, and if you find a bot you like, don’t forget to support its creators.
Did we miss anything? What bots have you used or are considering adding to Discord? Let us know in the comments below.
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