Using Custom Emojis in Discord Bio Without Nitro
Can You Use Custom Emojis in Your Discord Bio Without Nitro?
Short answer: no. Putting custom (server) emojis in your Discord profile bio without Nitro used to work through a copy-and-paste workaround, but Discord has since patched it.
What Used to Work
Previously, non-Nitro users could grab the raw emoji code (something like<:myemoji:1234567890>) from a chat message, paste it into the About Me field of their profile, and have it render as the custom emoji. It was a popular workaround for people who didn't want to pay for Nitro.
Why It No Longer Works
- Discord now strips or escapes custom emoji codes in profile bios for accounts without an active Nitro subscription.
- Even if the code saves, it will display as plain text (e.g.
<:myemoji:1234567890>) instead of the actual emoji. - This applies to both static and animated custom emojis from any server you're a member of.
What You Can Still Do Without Nitro
- Standard Unicode emojis (😀, 🎉, 🔥, etc.) still work in your bio — paste them in directly from your keyboard's emoji picker.
- Custom emojis in messages still work inside the server that hosts them, even without Nitro.
- If you want custom emojis in your profile bio, status, or across all servers, you'll need Discord Nitro (or Nitro Basic, which also unlocks custom emoji usage).
See also: Using Custom Emojis in Discord Profile Bio for the full Nitro-supported workflow.