How to list your Discord bot in 2026: App Directory, Top.gg and Discordfinder compared

If you are working out how to list your Discord bot, there are three places worth your time in 2026: Discord's own App Directory, Top.gg, and Discordfinder. Each checks different things. Discord wants a verified app with a support server, a privacy policy and terms; Top.gg wants a public, online bot that passes a volunteer review and then competes on votes; Discordfinder wants a public bot it can ping, and shows 30-day uptime instead of a vote count. Get the prerequisites right once and all three submissions fit in an afternoon.

Prerequisites every directory expects

A public app, and a verified one before 100 servers

The application object has a bot_public flag: "When false, only the app owner can add the app to guilds". Every directory needs it on. Top.gg warns that "if it is not public, you'll need to make it public on the Discord Developer portal and then wait approximately 30 minutes to try to do this step again."

Verification is Discord's growth gate: "Verification is required for your app to scale past 100 servers." The checklist lives in the Developer Portal under the App Verification tab, and the step people underestimate is that "the owner of the development team which owns the app will need to verify their identity through Stripe". Verification is also the entry ticket for the App Directory, but neither Top.gg nor Discordfinder requires it.

Privileged intents, under rules that changed in 2026

In May 2026 Discord moved the review threshold for Guild Members, Presence and Message Content from server count to user count: "If your app has fewer than 10,000 users, you can continue accessing Privileged Intents by toggling them on in the Developer Portal. Once your app reaches 10,000 users, you'll need to apply for Privileged Intent access." You get 90 days from the notification, apps "must now reapply annually for continued access", and "App Verification and Privileged Intent review are now separate." Apps also keep joining servers while the review runs, which was not true under the old 100-server rule.

Slash commands rather than a prefix

Without the Message Content intent, apps "will receive empty values in fields that contain user-inputted content with a few exceptions" (messages that mention the app, DMs, the app's own messages). Discord's advice is direct: "apps that previously relied on prefix commands to read message content can now use application commands instead, removing the need for the Message Content intent entirely."

Top.gg still asks for a prefix at submission. "If your bot responds to slash commands, you can put '/' or 'slash commands' in this submission box", and "Putting a prefix that does not correctly match your bot when a Bot Reviewer attempts to test it will result in your bot being declined."

Privacy policy and terms URLs

The App Directory requires both. The privacy policy "should clearly and accurately describe to users of your app the user data you collect and how you use and share such data with us and third parties", and the terms are "an agreement between you and users governing the use of your app." Add the URLs in the Developer Portal; the application object stores them as privacy_policy_url and terms_of_service_url.

An install link with least privilege

Discord's install_params carry the "Permissions to request for the bot role". Compute that number from what your commands actually do. Top.gg's guidelines are explicit: "Commands must only require permissions that the command being run needs" and "Bots cannot require the administrator permission for it to work". If you leave the Top.gg invite field empty, it generates "a default link with permissions set to 0 (or none) and grants both the bot and application.commands scopes", so your bot has to cope with being invited with no extra permissions, which is exactly how Top.gg's test server invites it.

A support server that will not expire

The App Directory makes the support server a required field and "Your support server must be designated as a community server". Top.gg's advice for the support URL is to "Make sure the invite has infinite uses so that it doesn't expire". Use a permanent invite (see how to make a permanent Discord invite link). Approvals and declines do not arrive there, though: "You will be emailed if your project is approved or declined", and Top.gg pings you in its own Discord server if you have joined it.

Discord's App Directory

Only verified apps see the relevant settings: "If your app is verified, you will see a new section in the Developer Portal called “Discovery” (If your app is not yet verified, you will not see this tab.)"

1. Open Discovery → Discovery Settings and fill the required fields: Support Server and Application Description. Optional but worth doing: a media carousel ("You can add up to 5 assets total", YouTube is the only supported video host), up to 5 external links, and supported languages.
2. Complete the required fields elsewhere: at least one tag under General Information ("You can add up to 5, but you need at least 1 tag"), an Install URL from the OAuth2 URL generator, and the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service URLs.
3. Check Discovery → Discovery Status. The Enable Discovery button "will not be clickable until all requirements are met."
4. Preview the page at discord.com/application-directory/YOUR_APPLICATION_ID; before launch, "The only Discord user who can see your preview page is you", or anyone on the app's team.
5. Click Enable Discovery. "Once you enable Discovery, it may take up to 24 hours for your app to appear in the App Directory and App Launcher."

Meeting the checklist is not a guarantee. Discord's own FAQ answers "No": you must keep complying with the Developer Terms, Developer Policy and Content Requirements Policy, and Discord reserves "the right to remove apps from the App Directory at any time". Apps opting in "should be appropriate for audiences of all ages 13+."

Top.gg

Submission is at top.gg/bot/new. You paste the Application ID, the form pulls the bot's name and avatar, and then you fill in:

• A short description "under 140 characters", which Top.gg says "contributes heavily to it showing up in search results".
• A long description in Markdown or HTML: commands, how to get started, a roadmap.
• The prefix (see above), up to 12 categories and up to 12 languages.
• The invite URL, the support server URL, and a note for the reviewer (test accounts, premium keys).
• The box that reads "I understand that my bot needs to be online to pass review."

Then you wait. "This process typically takes around a week or more, but could vary based off of queue size." The queue is chronological and the review has three steps: reviewers read the page, test the bot in Top.gg's Verification Center, and approve or decline. The test server invites bots "with the permissions' flag set to 0" and grants a fixed set through @everyone, so anything beyond that must be requested per command. Bots "Must have a clear and obvious point of entry (e.g. a working help command)".

Declines are not fatal, but repeats are: under the "three-strikes rule", a fourth decline for the same reason gets you banned from submitting.

Once approved, ranking runs on votes. A user can vote for a project on a 12-hour cycle, and the front page surfaces Top Voted and Trending New lists. You "may reward users for voting for your bot", may vote-lock a minority of commands ("We encourage up to 3-5 votelocked commands"), and must not "punish users who have not voted".

No fee appears anywhere in the submission flow or the guidelines. Top.gg's paid layer sits beside the free listing: Auctions, where "Every week, you can use auctions to bid on promoted slots across Top.gg" with CPM bidding and ads that go live the following Tuesday for one week (that is the #Promoted label), and Top.gg Plus, a user-side subscription that includes one Auto Vote, with further Auto Votes at €0.99 per month each.

Discordfinder

Listing is free and no votes are required. Go to /add-bot, sign in with Discord, and submit your public application. Once the bot is in the monitoring server it is pinged every 5 minutes, and the listing shows 30-day uptime, so the signal a server owner sees is whether your bot stays online, not how many voters you nudged.

Third-party bots that were imported into the directory are marked "listed, not monitored", with no uptime or server-count claims, until the bot is seen in the monitoring server. Premium is optional at $39 per month per listing and buys a highlight colour, top-of-category placement and smart placement on the home page. For a side-by-side with Top.gg, see /alternatives/top-gg and Top.gg alternatives for servers and bots.

The three directories compared

Order of operations

1. Make the app public, publish the privacy policy and terms pages, build a least-privilege install link, and set up a Community support server with a permanent invite.
2. Submit to Discordfinder and Top.gg the same day. Top.gg's queue takes a week or more; Discordfinder pings start as soon as the bot is in the monitoring server.
3. Keep the bot online while it grows. Directory traffic gets you towards 100 servers; verify the app when the checklist is green.
4. Once verified, fill Discovery Settings, check the preview URL, and enable Discovery.
5. If you use privileged intents, watch for the 10,000-user notification, apply within the 90 days, and put the annual reapplication in your calendar.

Try it: Submit your bot at /add-bot and the uptime record begins building while the other reviews run.