Discord Partner Program ended: what Verified, Discoverable and Community mean in 2026

The Discord Partner Program is closed. Discord stopped taking applications in October 2023, its support centre now lists the Partner badge as "no longer obtainable", and the old partners page redirects to a badge FAQ. If you are still working towards "getting partnered", stop. What remains in 2026 are three server statuses with very different bars: Community (any server), Discoverable (1,000 members and up) and Verified (games on Steam only). This post lays out what each one requires, what it gets you, and what a small or mid-size server should do instead.

What happened to the Partner Program

Discord's own description of the scheme was that it "is designed to reward quality, engaged servers with recognition and extra tools to help them invest in their community". Accepted servers got a vanity URL, an invite splash, 384 kbps voice, an animated icon, a server banner, a Partner badge on both the server and the owner, and free Nitro for the owner (Partnered vs Verified Servers).

On 4 October 2023 the news account Discord Previews relayed the notice sent to partners: "Discord is no longer accepting new servers into the Discord Partner Program. Existing Discord Partners will keep their perks, but the program as is will cease to exist." (Discord Previews on X). We found no Discord blog post about the decision; the closure is documented in the support centre instead.

Three things confirm the status today:

• The Partnered vs Verified article opens with: "Both the Partner and Verified Server programs are paused. We are not accepting applications for either program."
• Profile Badges 101 describes the badge in the past tense, "the Partner Program distinguished the best servers out there", and states "This badge is no longer obtainable" (Profile Badges 101).
• discord.com/partners returns a 301 redirect to that same badges article (checked 21 September 2026).

Existing partners kept their perks, and the Partnership Code of Conduct still applies to them. If reported content is not actioned "within 48 hours" Discord may remove partnership status, and "If you delete or transfer ownership for any reason without communication to Discord, your partnership, and all Discord perks will be revoked." Partnered servers therefore still exist, they shrink in number as owners move on, and nobody can join their ranks.

Verified servers in 2026: games only

Verification survived, but narrowed. Discord's FAQ says the Verified Server Program "lets official game servers get recognized on Discord" and "It is not available for other types of communities such as companies, movies, music artists, or general interest servers." It adds: "Previously the Verified Server Program included large companies, films, and musicians. That broader program has been discontinued." (Verified Server Program FAQ)

The old application route closed before the Partner Program did. The moderation guidelines page still carries the line "As of July 14, 2023, we have paused Verified Server Applications at this time" (Verified Server Moderation Guidelines).

The replacement is a self-serve flow called game claiming, announced on 12 March 2026 (Discord blog). To qualify you need:

1. A playable game on Steam. Discord says "At launch, we're currently only supporting PC games listed on Steam that are playable in either Early Access or Full Release." Coming Soon pages, demos and playtests do not count.
2. Your Discord invite on the Steam listing: "Your Steam store page must have a publicly visible Discord invite link" (Claim Your Game docs).
3. A Team in the Discord Developer Portal with an Application for the game, and the server owner added to that Team, because the owner receives the verification code by email.

The steps: open the application in the Developer Portal, go to Games → Game Identity → Claim Game, search for your title, then append the proof parameter the portal gives you to the invite on Steam (discord.gg/yourcode?proof=YOURPROOF). Discord "emails a verification code to the server owner, you submit your claim, and our team reviews it." On approval the server gets "a green verified badge on its server profile, marking it as the verified community for your game on Discord."

If you are not shipping a game on Steam, there is no path to a Verified badge in 2026. Creators, brands, esports organisations and music artists verified before July 2023 keep the badge; nobody new gets it.

Community servers: the baseline anyone can switch on

Community is not a badge scheme with an application. It is a settings toggle, and it is the prerequisite for Discovery. Requirements from Enabling Your Community Server:

• Verification level: members "must have a verified email on their Discord account before sending messages or DMing anyone in the server".
• Explicit media filter set to "Scan media content from all members".
• "There must be a clearly posted server rules channel for members."
• A Community Updates channel "where Discord will send announcements and updates relevant to Community Server admins and moderators".
• Compliance with the Community Guidelines.

Path: Server Settings → Enable Community → Get Started, then Finish Setup. What you get: announcement channels that other servers can follow, Community Onboarding, Server Insights once the server has "more than 500 members" (Server Insights FAQ), and invite links that "never expire" (Clarifying Server Types). One caveat from the same article: "Becoming a Community Server does not mean that anyone can find or join your server."

Discoverable servers: the 1,000-member gate

Server Discovery is the in-app directory behind the Discover (compass) icon. The Enabling Server Discovery article lists six requirements:

1. "Enabling safety requirements for a safe environment."
2. "Server must have at least 1,000 members to qualify."
3. "Servers need to be at least 8 weeks old to be in Discovery."
4. "Servers must meet certain activity requirements to be in Discovery."
5. A server name, description and channel names that look clean.
6. "Enable the 2FA Requirement For Moderation Setting".

Anyone with Manage Server or Administrator can turn it on once Community is enabled: Server Settings → Discovery → Set Up Discovery. Discord does not publish the activity thresholds; the Discovery tab in your settings shows each check as passed or failed.

Once listed, the Discovery Guidelines apply: content "appropriate for audiences of all ages 13+", a name and description "free of profanity", no "servers dedicated to use of regulated goods, such as alcohol", and "Have a moderator team." Break them and Discord "may remove an affiliated server or account from one or more means of discovery".

One detail matters more than the rest for anyone chasing this badge. In the Discover tab, "Servers are sorted into relevant categories and order of popularity based on the server's member count" (Discover Tab). A 1,200-member server that qualifies today sits below hundreds of larger ones in its category. Discovery is a badge and a listing, not a growth engine, which is the argument we made in Server Discovery vs directories and in our comparison page.

Partner vs Verified vs Discoverable vs Community

If a server holds more than one status, the badges collapse: "Servers that are Partnered and Verified will receive the “Verified” badge, and the tooltip will denote both statuses" (Clarifying Server Types).

What a small or mid-size server should do instead

Every Partner perk except the badge and the free Nitro is now for sale through Server Boosts (Server Boosting FAQ):

• Level 1 (2 Boosts): "Custom Server Invite Background" and "Animated Server Icon".
• Level 2 (7 Boosts): "Static Server Banner" and "Custom Role Icons".
• Level 3 (14 Boosts): "384Kbps Audio Quality", "Custom Invite Link" (the vanity discord.gg/yourname) and "Animated Server Banner".

Fourteen boosts is a real cost, but it is a fixed target under your control rather than a closed application queue. Nitro subscribers "get 2 server boosts that they can apply to any server", so a server with a few Nitro members can reach Level 1 or 2 without anyone buying boosts outright.

Beyond cosmetics, the sensible order is:

1. Enable Community today. It costs nothing, it unlocks Insights at 500 members, and it is required for Discovery later. Set Primary Language in Server Settings → Community → Overview, because both Discovery and third-party directories use it.
2. Treat 1,000 members as a milestone, not a goal. Discovery ranks by member count, so being newly eligible puts you at the back of the category. Activity is what makes people stay, and staying is what makes a member count real.
3. List where activity, not size, decides the order while you are under the threshold. Discordfinder is free: sign in with Discord, pick a server you administer, add the read-only bot, publish. There is no bump command; ranking uses messages per day, invite validity, owner activity and member reviews, and the bot counts message volume only, with the Message Content intent off.
4. Grow on your own terms. Our guide to growing a Discord server without bumping covers what still works: a permanent invite in your bio and content, one weekly event, and onboarding that routes people to a channel where someone will answer.
5. Ignore anyone selling "partnership" or "verification". Both routes are closed to general communities, so no third party can deliver either.

Try it: list your server on Discordfinder; the health score and activity ranking start working as soon as the bot sees your first messages.