Discord server rules template: five copy-paste rule sets for 2026

A good discord server rules template is short enough to fit in Discord's Rules Screening box, written in plain language, and specific to what your server actually does. Below are five copy-paste rule sets (friend group, gaming and LFG, art with commissions, study, and large community), the three rules almost every server forgets, and exactly where the rules should live in Discord's 2026 settings so people see them before they can type.

What Discord already forbids, so you do not have to

Discord's Community Guidelines (last updated 29 August 2025) apply in every server whether you repeat them or not. They already ban harassment, threats, sharing personal information without consent, hate speech, violent extremism, sexual content involving anyone under 18, sharing sexual content of adults without their consent, glorifying self-harm, gore posted to shock, spam, self-bots, scams, misinformation and intellectual property violations.

Restating all of that badly is the most common mistake in rules channels. "No NSFW" is not Discord's actual line; the Guidelines say sexually explicit content may not be made available to anyone under 18, and Discord's Community requirements say any channel containing explicit content must carry the age-restricted label. Write one rule that points to the Guidelines, then spend the rest on things Discord does not decide for you: tone, topics, self-promotion, alts and appeals.

Discord's own documentation is plain about the split: outside the Community Guidelines you set the rules, but enforcement "will be the responsibility of your moderators, and not Discord staff". Every rule you write needs to be one your team can act on.

Where the rules should live in 2026

Discord now gives you three built-in places for rules. Use all three; they do different jobs.

Rules Screening requires Community to be enabled. Discord's FAQ notes that manually verifying a member from Server Settings → Members bypasses the screening, and that adding the step "can sometimes lead to a drop off in joiners". That drop-off costs less than members who never saw the rules, and the Members page now shows whether each person agreed to them.

Two mistakes to avoid. Do not put rules inside Onboarding customisation questions; Discord's own examples article says so directly, because members are asked to accept rules separately. And if you still gate the server with a bot role, re-enable permissions on @everyone when you switch to Rules Screening, otherwise pending members are blocked twice and confused once.

If you plan to list the server in a directory, a visible, current rules channel is on every pre-listing checklist, including ours.

Five copy-paste rule sets

Each set fits under the 16-rule cap with room for your own additions.

1. Small friend group (up to about 50 people)

1. Be decent. Banter is fine, cruelty is not, and the person on the receiving end decides which one it was.
2. What is said here stays here. No screenshots of private channels outside the server.
3. Ask before adding someone. New invites go through the owner.
4. Spoilers stay behind spoiler tags for a week after release.
5. No politics or religion in general chat. Take it to DMs if you both want it.
6. If someone asks you to stop, stop. That is the whole rule.

2. Gaming and LFG server

1. Follow Discord's Community Guidelines. They apply here even though we did not write them out.
2. No cheats, exploits, account selling or paid boosting, in chat or in DMs to members.
3. LFG posts go in the LFG channels only, one post per session, no reposting within the hour.
4. Rage is fine, targeting is not. Do not name and shame players from lost games.
5. Voice channels: push-to-talk or a working noise gate. Repeated hot-mic gets you moved, then muted.
6. No slurs, including "as a joke", including in usernames and nicknames. AutoMod blocks the obvious ones; humans handle the rest.
7. English in public channels so moderators can moderate. Other languages are welcome in the language channels.
8. Advertising your own server, stream or clan is only allowed in the promo channel, and only after 30 days of membership.

3. Art and creative server with commissions

1. Post your own work or credit the artist. Uncredited reposts are removed without warning.
2. AI-generated images go in the AI channel only and must be labelled as such.
3. Commission deals are between you and the client. Moderators do not arbitrate payments, but scammers are banned and reported.
4. Commission advertising is allowed in the commissions channel once a week. Nowhere else, and never by DM to members who did not ask.
5. Critique only where it is invited. Use the critique channel or reply to a request; unsolicited critique elsewhere is off-topic.
6. Mark suggestive work with a spoiler tag; anything explicit belongs in the age-restricted channel and nowhere else.
7. No tracing or "reference" that is actually a copy. If in doubt, ask a mod before posting.
8. Be kind to beginners. Everyone here posted a bad drawing once.

4. Study and productivity server

1. Study voice channels are for studying. Cameras optional, mics muted unless the channel says otherwise.
2. No homework dumping. Ask a specific question, show what you tried, and expect hints rather than answers.
3. No essay-writing services, paid tutoring adverts or "I will do your assignment" offers, in channels or in DMs.
4. Respect quiet hours in the focus channels: no music bots, no chat pings.
5. Health talk is welcome; medical advice is not. Point people to a professional.
6. Keep timers and check-ins in the accountability channel, not general.
7. Share resources you are allowed to share. No pirated textbooks or paywalled papers.

5. Large community server (10,000+ members)

1. Follow Discord's Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. Serious violations are reported to Discord as well as banned.
2. Keep it suitable for 13+. No explicit content anywhere; suggestive content only where the channel topic allows it.
3. No unsolicited DMs to members: no promotion, no "check your DMs", no mass friend requests. Report DM spam to a moderator with a screenshot.
4. No advertising of servers, products, crypto, giveaways or services outside the partner channel. Partnerships go through the partnership form.
5. One person, one account. Evading a timeout or ban with an alt is a permanent ban for both accounts.
6. No impersonation of staff, partners or notable members, including look-alike names and avatars.
7. Follow channel topics. Read the pinned message or channel description before posting.
8. Moderator decisions stand in chat. Disagree in a ticket, not in general.
9. Do not argue enforcement on someone else's behalf. The person involved can open a ticket.
10. Appeals: open a ticket. One appeal per action, reviewed by a moderator who did not issue it, answered within seven days.

The three rules almost every server forgets

A DM and advertising policy. Discord's moderation guide separates advertising from spam: it "refers to users attempting to promote their own social media/discord servers/other content creation channels", and suggests inviting people "to talk to a moderator privately if they want to advertise something". Say where promotion is allowed, whether DM promotion is ever allowed (usually not), and what evidence you want when someone reports it. Community servers already require a verified email before a member can message or DM anyone, which removes the cheapest spam accounts. If growth is the goal, advertising a Discord server without spam covers what works instead.

Alt accounts and age. Discord's Terms require every user to be "at least 13 years old and meet the minimum age required by the laws in your country", and that floor is higher in several countries: 16 in Germany and the Netherlands, 14 in South Korea, according to Discord's own list. Your rule should say that under-age members are removed, because keeping them puts the server at risk. On alts, Discord recommends treating punishment evasion as "punishable with an instant ban, as this is the type of punishment that is most difficult to evade". Note the distinction: the Community Guidelines forbid evading Discord-level enforcement, while evading your server's bans is yours to enforce, and Discord's guide says it "is generally considered by Discord's Trust and Safety team to be harassment, and can be reported to them for further action".

How appeals work. Discord's guide is blunt: if people think a warning is unfair "they may lash out in chat", so "it is important to have a way users can easily discuss their warning with the server moderators". Write down the channel (a ticket bot such as Ticket Tool works well; see its listing), who reviews, and how long it takes. Tell members that a Discord-level action is different: those are appealed in User Settings → My Account → Standing, and only the server owner can ask Discord to review a server violation.

Writing rules your team can enforce

Keep every rule to one sentence of behaviour plus, where useful, one sentence of consequence. Discord's timeout tool offers 60 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week, so "first offence: 1-hour timeout, second: 1-day timeout, third: ban" maps to real buttons.

Let AutoMod carry the boring rules. The Commonly Flagged Words lists and a custom keyword rule catch slurs and invite links before a human sees them, and the blocked-message notice can carry a custom line of up to 150 characters, a good place to name the rule. Members with Administrator or Manage Server are always exempt from AutoMod, so your staff conduct rule still needs a human behind it.

Revisit the rules whenever you change how people join, and keep the rules channel current if the server is listed anywhere; our listing guidelines explain what gets a listing removed.

Try it: once the rules are in Rules Screening and the channel is set, browse the community servers on Discordfinder to see how established servers phrase theirs, then list your own.