Creative Freedom in Customizing Discord Profiles Meets High Costs: A User’s Perspective

Key Takeaways

• You can customize your Discord profile with an avatar, banner, animated effects, and more.
• Some profile customizations like banners and animated avatars are only available with Discord Nitro.
• Profile decorations in the Discord shop are expensive and potentially not worth the cost.

To stand out from the crowd on Discord, you can customize your profile to apply colors, images, and animated effects—but using all these features comes with a price. Let’s explore how it works and whether it’s worth it.

How to Customize Your Discord Profile

If you want to customize your Discord profile, there are plenty of options available. At the most basic, you can upload an avatar to represent yourself and fill out a short bio to fill with personal information. Fancier options include setting an image as your profile banner, adding decoration around your avatar, and layering an animated effect across your whole profile.

To theme your Discord profile on desktop, click your profile picture in the bottom-left and then click the pencil icon (“Edit Profile”). On mobile, swipe right to open the server browser, tap “You” from the bottom menu, then tap “Edit Profile”.

When you edit your profile on mobile, you might see a warning that you don’t have “the ability to acquire new profile effects”. If this happens, switch to desktop for the full experience.

I think it’s great that Discord offers so much personalization , especially on the profile. It’s a nice way to express yourself, and I like checking out other people’s profiles to see what they look like.

Some of these customizations, like the banner image or using an animated GIF as your avatar, are only available if you pay for Discord Nitro . Others, like the avatar decoration, have a small selection available to Nitro users, but have plenty available that anyone can purchase in the in-app shop.

The Discord Shop Is Overpriced

The shop is where the problem with profile decorations comes in. Discord sells lots of avatar decorations and profile effects based on charming themes like anime, pirates, and cyberpunk.

These start at a minimum of $5.99, going up to an eye-watering $12.99 for something from the SpongeBob SquarePants range. If you’re a Discord Nitro member, you get a measly few dollars discount.

These purchases are one-time and permanent, meaning you can use them forever even if they’re seasonal and removed from the shop. But despite that, the pricing seems extortionate, especially if you’re someone who likes to redesign their profile often.

It also seems cheeky that Nitro members don’t get more items for free, or at least a deeper discount in the shop, especially since Nitro costs a not-insignificant $9.99/month (for the tier that includes custom profiles).

Is the Cost of Discord’s Cosmetics a Problem?

Paying for profile cosmetics isn’t anything new. Steam sells similar goodies, payable in points which are mostly earned by buying games. This is more tolerable because Steam is primarily a game storefront, so you get points through natural use of the platform. You can also buy in local currency from others on the community marketplace.

Steam has many other avenues of revenue, so the comparison to Discord isn’t equal. But when Discord already sells a monthly membership, and then sets the price of extra items so high, it makes it feel like a cash grab as opposed to a fun feature.

All that said, the cosmetics are entirely optional—the core Discord experience isn’t impacted. Discord itself is free to use, so you can happily chat to your friends without this bothering you, and if enough people are willing to buy these items to keep it that way, that’s great.

I’ll keep using Discord for all its awesome features, like being able to watch movies with friends . However, as much as I’d like to deck out my profile, I can’t justify the cost.

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