Make Money on Discord: 15 Ways to Monetize a Discord Server

Discord is one of the most well-known apps, with 500+ million users and millions of active servers. What originally started as a place for gamers to chat has quickly become THE place for building communities and a great way to monetize an existing audience.

But how can you make money on Discord? Do you need to have thousands of members on your server, or can you make do with a small, dedicated audience?

In this article, we’ll explore how you can earn money from your Discord server and some of the main Discord policies you’ll need to know. For now, let’s go over the basics.

Jump ahead to:

What is Discord?
Is it Possible to Make Money on Discord?
15 Ways to Make Money on Discord
Discord Policies You Should Know
How Does Discord Make Its Money?
Make Money on Discord with Whop!

What is Discord?

Discord is a cross-platform chat app that was launched in 2015. In the next few years, Discord added screen sharing and video chatting features, becoming a more organized solution for online communication.

For many, Discord was just an alternative to Skype and Teamspeak, primarily targeted towards gamers. Now, even though gamers are still a big part of the platform, Discord has communities about all kinds of topics, similar to Reddit.

With Discord becoming such a big name online, it’s normal for everyone to want to build and monetize a community. But is that possible?

Is it Possible to Make Money on Discord?

While it’s not easy, making money on Discord is possible. Building and monetizing a Discord community can be very lucrative, and tons of server owners earn thousands every month from their Discord servers.

For example, SecuredPicks, one of the most well-known sports pick Discords on Whop, sells access to the server and makes a profit from it. In return, members will get access to daily picks for different sports.

Another example is Musa Mustafa’s server, Media Metas. Musa offers access to his insights on social media growth and a community of like-minded folks for a monthly or one-time fee.

Yet selling access to your Discord server isn’t the only way you can make money through the platform. Let’s take a look at all the other methods you can utilize to turn your server into a potential money-making machine!

15 Ways to Make Money on Discord

Making money on Discord basically comes down to one thing: you need to offer premium insights, expert knowledge, or perks to your members.

There are a couple more ways to monetize your server, as we’ll see below, but offering great value is the way to make your server an extra active or passive income stream! Let's take a look at how you can monetize Discord:

1. Make a Paid Discord Server

Placing specific channels or the entire community behind a paywall is the best way to monetize your Discord server. Discord is a great foundation for your community, but you'll need the help of apps like Whop to manage and monetize it.

Whop isn't your simple, run-off-the-mill management software - it's so much more. Need a platform to manage your payments? Whop Payments is your go-to solution, as it only takes a few clicks to get verified and start receiving payments. And we only take a 3% fee. Want to manage your server but feel like Discord isn't intuitive enough? Your dashboard on Whop will allow you to get heaps of data from every member, such as the other Discord servers they've joined on Whop and how much they've spent in total.

You'll also be able to create and share promos, receive reviews from your members, and get access to our next-level customer support for you and your members.

That's not all, folks. We don't just want you to manage your server but also help you grow. You can apply to get your server on the Whop Marketplace and, subsequently, in front of millions of users worldwide.

Your whop is so much more than that, though. If you've ever felt like creating a course, a forum, or a giveaway for your members, you can do that within a few clicks, all on one, single hub. When you sell access to a paid Discord server with Whop, you're opening yourself up to a world of monetization opportunities.

If you're hyped up and ready to get your server and your bank account to the next level, join us today and create your whop within minutes.

Get your Discord server on Whop Today!

For those of you who are still with us, let's check out all the steps you'll have to take from the very beginning:

Create a Server

First, you’ll need to create a Discord server. If you’re reading this, you’ll most likely have an active one with plenty of members, but for transparency's sake, let’s suppose that you don’t.

You’ll have to create a Discord account, open up the app on your Desktop or mobile device, and click on the green “+” icon on the left. Then, select “Create My Own”, name your server, and you’re set. You can also check out the screenshot below, which details each step.

Right after this, you can create all the types of channels you like, whether chat, voice, or announcement. At this point, you should also consider making some roles, as detailed in our Discord roles guide.

Create a whop

Once you set up the server and roles, it’s time to set up your whop and add the Discord app to your hub. Through this hub, you’ll also be able to create checkout links to receive tips from your community, but we’ll go over that later on.

For now, make sure to add the Discord app from the store, and get ready to connect your server with Whop!

Add Whop Bot to Your Server

As soon as you click on Connect Discord, you’ll receive a pop-up asking you to add the Whop Bot on your server, similar to the screenshot below.

That’s basically all you need to set up your Discord server and connect it with Whop. Now, since this will be a paid server, you must have… well, a way to get paid. That’s where Stripe comes to help!

Connect Stripe to Get Paid

At Whop, we use Whop Payments, with the help of Stripe, to allow you to get paid. The process is extremely simple and only takes a few minutes.

All you'll have to do is navigate to your Payouts tab on your dashboard, and click on "Set up Whop Payments". You'll then need to select the country your bank account is in and verify your account through Stripe. That's it!

With that, you should now have a fully-fledged paid Discord server. But that’s not the only way you can make money on Discord. Keep reading for 14 more ways to make money with Discord.

2. Sell Digital Products or Services

Selling digital products and services is one of the ultimate ways to make money online, period. The issue is that you’ll need a platform to sell these products, and Discord is a good option. This Discord monetization idea differs from creating a paid community, as with this example, you have a free server yet sell paid goods within your server.

You might want to sell boosting services for different video games, artwork and NFTs, mentorships, and all kinds of stuff. You’ll just need to find a trustworthy way to get paid.

Discord itself offers a payment option within the platform, which works well, albeit not too intuitive. That said, if you’re serious about selling your digital products through Discord, you need a payment method with some intuitive insights.

That’s where the Whop Checkout link comes in. You’ll have to create your whop and navigate to the Dashboard. Once you’ve set up Whop Payments, simply click on “Links”, create your unique link for the product or service you want to sell, and you’re set.

All you have to do is send it to your server members, and they can pay you through Whop! And you’ll get all the insights you need directly on your Whop Dashboard.

3. Sell Physical Products

Now, if you’re not a big fan of selling digital products or you have experience with dropshipping and reselling, you can try out physical product sales with the help of Discord. One key difference with their digital counterparts is that physical products can’t be directly sold through the platform.

Instead, you’ll need to create an account on a marketplace or an online store to sell products and use Discord as an organic marketing platform. As for what products you can offer, that’s totally up to you! There are several high-demand products, like reusable bottles or CBD products, from which you could profit.

4. Get Sponsored

Let’s say that you don’t really want to go down the online selling road, and you want to keep your server free for all members without pushing products. Are there any ways you can still make some money from your Discord followers without having them spend a dime? Well, getting sponsored is certainly one way to do that!

In such cases, think of your server as a social media profile. Big influencers get sponsored all the time to create a post about a product or a service. Every other YouTube video is “sponsored by” some brand. The same can be true for your Discord server.

And, the great thing about sponsorships is that you usually get a fixed payment rather than a commission-based one, so your members will not have to pay anything.

To get a sponsorship, you’ll first have to build a pretty big server. You can choose something a bit more niche, but make sure that there are big brands within it that will be willing to offer one. For example, if you run a server related to Tradingview bots and signals, you can secure sponsorships from companies that sell these.

The key is to build a dedicated audience through Discord and then get yourself out there!

5. Start Accepting Donations

More often than not, loyal members of your Discord server will want to support you financially, especially if you provide lots of free knowledge and/or entertainment. This can be true for both paid and free servers. For example, if someone sells sports picks, and one of the members hits big on a couple of slips, they might want to give a small percentage back to you in gratitude.

But, refocusing on free servers, you have to consider how you can start accepting donations. We could go on and on about all the different platforms that offer this, like Buy Me a Coffee and even Discord itself, but the best way to accept donations is with the Whop Checkout link.

We’ve already covered it above, so without going into too much detail, it’s the easiest and most efficient way to get small payments, minus the high fees most platforms have.

6. Use Tipping Bots

Tipping bots are hands-down the most fun way to get donations through Discord. Plus, they usually have very competitive fees compared to third-party platforms, and the majority of these bots are used to send tips in the form of crypto, so the total fees are overall very low.

From your members’ perspective, it’s a fun, gamified way to give some small donations for all the hard work you’re putting into the server.

The way these bots work is simple. Once you’ve added it to your server, any member simply types !tip @username X currency, with X currency being an amount of any crypto coin supported by the bot.

How to Use Discord Bots

7. Manage or Moderate a Server

Now, if you’ve not run a server before or want to learn how challenging managing a big Discord server can be, you can offer server moderation services. Specifically, we suggest reaching out to servers with plenty of members that revolve around your passion or a niche you have a good grasp of.

That’s because you’ll be actively moderating and/or managing these servers for a certain fee every month. This can, of course, be difficult, and it’s not a fancy way to make money off of Discord. But you can use all the practical knowledge you’ll gain while working on these servers to create your own afterward.

That being said, selling your services to server owners is going to be as challenging, if not more, as managing the servers. The competition is fierce, with many offering such services for free.

So, you’ll need to stand out by offering tailored services for a specific niche. Don’t sell your gig as general server management; rather, sell your moderation services for trading servers, reselling Discords, and so on.

8. Offer Paid Consultation Services

Of course, if you don’t have any specific products you’d like to sell and you want to keep your server free for everyone, you can offer some paid consultant services. In such cases, you can provide your community with free advice on whatever you specialize in while you set up 1-on-1s with folks at a premium.

The great thing about Discord is that you can have private channels where you can “pull” people and chat with them 1-on-1. You can have this be simple text chats or go as far as hopping on video calls.

Think of it this way: Instead of selling access to the entire server, you’re simply adding a “VIP table” for consulting sessions. And you can do it all on Discord without the need to hop on a Zoom call, or any of its alternatives.

9. Become an Affiliate

Up until late 2023, you could become a Discord affiliate through its Partner Program, which we’ll cover more in-depth below. However, since then, the Partner Program is no longer accepting applications. That shouldn’t stop you from making money from affiliates, though!

One of the oldest ways of monetizing your following is becoming an affiliate for brands related to your niche. The same goes for Discord, and it’s pretty similar to getting sponsored on the platform. The main difference is that to make money through affiliates, members will have to make purchases using your affiliate code or link.

With that, let’s check out some of the most common affiliate marketing options.

Game Keys and Peripherals

Gaming YouTubers, gaming Discord server owners, and Twitch streamers are usually affiliated with websites selling game keys or in-game items. Game key resellers aren’t the most ethical in terms of how they obtain said keys, so while it is an option, it’s not the most optimal one.

That being said, you can become affiliated with big names in the peripherals space, like Logitech or Razer, and earn a small commission when your members use your code.

VPNs

At one point, every other ad on social media was for a VPN. These still remain pretty high when it comes to affiliate marketing. Most tech-savvy folks use VPNs daily, so you can get affiliated with one of the big names in the industry, like Surfshark or NordVPN.

Web Hosting

Just like VPNs, web hosting providers are pretty generous with their commissions. So, if you’re selling WordPress plugins through your Discord server, having an affiliation with such a platform and giving your members a discount will be a win for both sides.

Similarly to what we mentioned right above, you can get affiliated with all kinds of brands and platforms that offer products related to your niche.

For example, if you’re offering dropshipping advice, becoming a Shopify affiliate is a given. Or, if you’re selling sports picks, partnering with some of the best sports betting apps is a no-brainer.

10. Sell Fitness Programs

If you have a fitness-based community on Discord, what better way to monetize than by creating fitness programs? These can be personalized for a select few VIP members on your server, or you can create more general ones for your entire following.

Of course, these will have to be in tune with your community. For example, if you preach bodyweight workouts, don’t go out creating programs that need gym equipment to be completed.

You could also create fitness videos, which you can upload directly on Whop, similar to the COREntine+ Whop! Or, you can upload all your fitness plans on your whop to make sure that they don’t get leaked, as we’ve taken several anti-leak measures for just that. Then, all you’ll need to do is share these with your Discord community and have them sign up for your Whop.

Your Discord server is essentially a marketing channel on easy mode, considering all the members you have on there. In a similar fashion, let’s take a look at some other ways where you can use our Whop Apps to create paid content and Discord to market.

11. Start a Podcast

Podcasts are a big deal in almost every business. They’re essentially the rawest, most authentic piece of media out there, allowing you to really express your personality. In our case, that will help you make your server stand out and earn you some money. But how do you start a podcast and monetize it?

Well, it’s very easy to do it on Whop. You simply jump onto your hub, upload your podcasts, place them behind a paywall, and market them to your Discord community. Of course, you can always keep your podcasts free and use your Whop for Q&As or gathering suggestions from your viewers.

And, once again, your Discord server will be the bread and butter of your outreach. Simply share your Whop link with your community and, boom! You’ve got some recurring revenue through your podcast.

12. Create Exclusive Content

You might not like being in front of a camera, but have a knack for writing content. One thing you could do is create exclusive content around your server niche. This could be guides, newsletters, or any other content that fits your brand and server.

As we mentioned above, you can upload all your content on your Whop, so you won’t have to worry about creating a website, finding the best hosting, and so on. Then, share your Whop link with your Discord community so that they can find and pay for your exclusive content. Oh, and did we mention that you won’t have to pay a penny for all this besides the 3% cut we take? You don't pay any membership fees to create on Whop.

13. Create a Course

Courses are one of the best moneymakers, period. It’s one of the few ways that you can utilize or your knowledge and expertise on one topic and make tons of money off of it - just check out these course statistics to see just how lucrative courses can be. So, if you have an active Discord community, you can present them with a killer course that you’ll create on your own whop.

Yes, we even have an app for you to make courses! All you really have to do is upload your video course chapter by chapter or lesson by lesson, and you’re set. You can even have your users complete each lesson in order.

If you’re unsure about what course to create, remember that you have a community of folks who have plenty of questions that need to be answered. Find the whys, hows, whats, and create the solution! Once your course is up and running on your whop, hop on your Discord server and share it with all the members.

14. Sell Downloadable Files

Selling digital files, like ebooks and templates, can be easily done with the help of Discord and Whop. Downloadable files are some of the best digital products people sell, so it’s safe to say that they’re still a great way to monetize your audience.

Uploading your downloadable files on Whop is extremely easy. As with all the other methods, you simply add the Files app to your hub and upload your files there. Then, make sure to restrict access to non-paid members and share your link with your Discord community.

You will, of course, need to create something unique. If you run a productivity server, you could consider selling Notion templates. Or, if you have a gaming community, you might consider selling some fan fic.

15. Sell Software

Even though they’re pretty similar to digital files, software needs to be mentioned separately. Just like templates, software is there to help your members automate or have a better experience within your niche. For instance, if your server is all about WordPress, you can create some WP plugins, sell them through Whop, and make a lot of money from your server.

Once again, uploading and selling your software on your whop takes mere minutes. Choose the respective app (Software), link out to the software you’ve created, and sell it to your Discord community.

The only thing is that you’ll need to have a good knowledge of programming to profit from selling software. But that’s obviously going to be the case if you’re running a server that revolves around coding, programming, web dev, etc.

Discord Policies You Should Know

We’ve already hinted at some of Discord's many policies. But it’s better to go in-depth about a few of these so that you can have an idea of whether you’ll be able to monetize your server from the get-go.

Discord Partner Program

Let’s start by talking about Discord’s Partner Program. At its core, the Partner Program allowed you to personalize your server and create a more tight-knit community based on exclusivity. We wanted to mention this, as the Program is not accepting new applications.

Thus, to get money from your server, Whop is your best solution. And we don't just say that to boast. Thousands of server owners trust us and have generated hundreds of millions in revenue by selling access to their Discords through Whop!

With Whop, you won’t need to migrate to a different platform, as it directly integrates with Discord and acts as your digital “base of operations”. Through Whop, you can better manage your members and your payments, essentially allowing you to earn some income from your server.

That being said, you’ll need to follow some policies to keep your server afloat - these policies are outlined below.

Platform Manipulation

Discord has been pretty strict about what’s considered platform manipulation. For one, you must avoid any actions considered “spam” or platform abuse. For example, you shouldn’t employ bot accounts to send large amounts of comments or perform batch actions that disrupt the way the platform works.

That said, the main aspect of this ruleset that we want to cover is “Inauthentic Engagement”. As Discord states, you shouldn’t “manipulate engagement metrics” through fake accounts, financial promises, or straight-up purchasing memberships.

So, if you create a server offering a product or service (e.g. sports picks), you must make it clear that there’s no profit guarantee when one joins your server. You must also be very clear that you are providing just that, a product or a service, rather than simply putting server access behind a paywall.

Community Guidelines

On a more general note, we should cover some of Discord’s community guidelines and, more specifically, Discord’s new monetization policy, which took effect in early May 2024.

In it, Discord outlines that "gambling-related discussions and advice such as 'simulated casinos and their games, gambling discussions, gambling advice, community management of gambling operations" - cannot be monetized by Discord's own monetization policy.

Keep in mind that this is only true for monetization through Discord. You can safely sell sports picks on your server as long as you're getting paid through Whop.

How Does Discord Make Its Money?

So far, we’ve covered how you can make money from Discord. But how does Discord make money from you (or, rather, your server members)? And is it only backed by its users? Let’s find out!

Funding

While Discord makes money from some of the services it offers, it’s also backed by a large number of investors and funds. From 2015 to 2023, Discord accumulated close to $1 billion in funding, which has certainly been one of its pillars on the financial side.

Since 2015, though, Discord has consistently earned a lot of revenue, mostly because of the following:

Nitro

Nitro is Discord’s “subscription plan”, which came to fruition back in late 2016, when the platform turned into a freemium model. With Nitro, server owners and members can access plenty more features, as well as personalize their accounts and servers.

There are two versions of Nitro: Nitro Basic and Nitro. The former costs $2.99/month, while the latter will set users back $9.99/month. Considering that Discord doesn’t split the profit between server owners, this is a pretty big money-maker.

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What is Discord Nitro?

Server Boosts

Server Boosts are very closely tied to Nitro and were introduced in 2019. Nitro users get two free boosts, while each individual one costs $4.99/month. Server Boosts are a way for users to show appreciation for their favorite servers. And, of course, they come with their own set of perks, all of which we’ve covered in our server boosts guide.

Server Subscriptions

A rather late addition to the platform, only being introduced in late 2022, Server Subscriptions allow owners to place additional perks, roles, and any other benefits behind a paywall.

All subscriptions are paid through Discord itself, and the platform withholds a 10% fixed fee for every sub. This 90-10 split is rather hefty for server owners, hence why many migrate to other platforms, like Telegram or third-party membership management software.

Partnerships

Similar to sponsored quests, but a bit more traditional, are Discord’s partnerships. From YouTube to Microsoft and Shopify to WordPress, Discord is actively partnering with these brands, offering its users discounts and exclusive perks and benefits.

Merch

One of Discord's lesser moneymakers is its Merchandise. This is pretty straightforward: Discord sells its own Merch and makes a quick profit off it.

Make Money on Discord with Whop!

Discord is one of the best ways for any creator, up-and-coming or established, to monetize their following. Even if you’re neither of those, you might still have a Discord server with many members that you want to monetize.

And while Discord might not offer the best way to do this on the platform itself, it's an incredible platform that, with the help of Whop, can become an even better moneymaker for you!

Whop is a social commerce platform at its core, and Discord has been with us from the start. Our Whop Bot and direct integration with the platform have been critical in accumulating thousands of active Discord communities on Whop - just check out Whop's seller stories to see how people are making money with Discord. All these have generated a big part of Whop’s over $300,000,000+ in revenue. There are plenty of reasons for that!

First, Whop only takes an industry-leading 3% cut. Besides that, our cutting-edge dashboard helps you handle the payment side of things, further promote your server, and manage your members. On top of that, there’s nothing stopping you from creating your very own Whop hub, which gives you access to dozens of apps and allows you to migrate your community to it at no extra cost.

If you’re ready to start making money on Discord with Whop’s help along the way, join us today. Create an account, connect your server, and start selling subscriptions within minutes!

Monetize Discord With Whop