How to add a bot to Discord to help you run and organize your server (2024)

• You can add a bot to Discord to have it automatically welcome new users, moderate content, and more.
• Discord bots are friendly AI that help manage or enhance your server.
• Discord bots are pre-made and free to download — no tech wizardry required.

Bots on Discord, the group messaging platform, are helpful artificial intelligence that can perform several useful tasks on your server automatically.

That includes welcoming any new members, banning troublemakers, and moderating the discussion. Some bots even add music or games to your server.

Don't worry, you don't have to be a coding genius to add an automaton to your server. You just download pre-made bots and customize what they do and say.

We'll cover how to download and use the popular MEE6 bot as a welcoming bot, a moderating bot, and a bot that alerts your server when you're streaming on Twitch.

How to add a bot to Discord

You can add a number of popular, premade bots to your server. One of the most popular is MEE6.

Check permissions

You must be an administrator on a Discord server or its owner before you can add bots to it. If you are not the owner, it is probably a good idea to ask the server's owner permission before doing anything.

If you are the server owner, you can grant a role administrator rights by following the below:

1. Click on your server's name and select Server Settings.

2. Click on Roles, hover over the role that you wish to grant administrator to and click the Edit button that appears.

3.Click on the Permissions heading and scroll down to the bottom. Once you get there, turn on the toggle for Administrator.

Download a bot

1. Visit this page to download MEE6.

2. Click the button that says Add to Discord.

3. Provide your Discord login to authenticate your account. If a pop-up asks for permission to use your account, click Authorize.

4. Click Setup next to your server name.

5. Select your server in the pop-up window and click Continue.

6. Select or deselect the permissions you'll give this bot.

7. Scroll down and click Authorize. If prompted, complete the Captcha human verification.

How to set up MEE6 as a welcoming bot on Discord

Once you authorize MEE6, you are given options of what kind of bot you can create.

Set up a welcome bot

First, we'll create a bot that welcomes new members to your server.

1. Click the Welcome option.

2. Select what you want the bot to do. Your options are: Send a message when a user joins the server, Send a private message to new users, Give a role to new users and Send a message when a user leaves the server.

3. You can set what your bot says down to the text color and font, as well as which channel your bot will post in.

4. Hit Save when finished. Visit this plug-ins page again if you want to make changes.

Set up a moderating bot

Circle back to the plug-ins page on the MEE6 website to set up your moderator bot. A moderator can do things like censor language and kick bad actors off of your server.

1. Click on the Moderator icon.

2. Then click Yes in the pop-up to enable it.

3. Scroll down to "Auto-moderator" and select what rules you want your bot to enforce. Options include censoring bad words, spoilers, and excessive emojis.

4. When selecting what your bot will moderate, you can decide how the bot reprimands users. The message can be automatically deleted, the user who triggered the auto-moderation can be sent a warning message, or both.

5. Click Settings to customize the threshold for what triggers the bot. For example, the bot can spring into action once a post has been marked with a certain number of spoiler tags. You can also select channels for the bot to ignore.

6. Save any changes.

Set up a Twitch streaming alert

Discord began as a messaging platform for gamers, so streaming culture goes hand in hand with it. If you are a streamer, you can set up MEE6 to alert your server whenever you go live on the streaming site Twitch.

First, revisit the MEE6 plug-ins page again.

1. Scroll and click the Twitch icon.

2. Click Yes in the pop-up to enable it.

3. Enter the name of your Twitch channel.

4. Customize a message to your server.

5. Select a channel for the bot to post in.

6. Choose whether or not you want to receive a Discord notification when someone follows the Twitch channel.

7. Click Save. Now, when you go live on Twitch, everyone on your server will be notified.

Popular Discord bots

There are multiple Discord bots out there and you can even make your own if you know some programming. Here are a few reputable bots:

• Hydrabot is a music playing bot (MEE6 also has music bot functionality).
• Translator provides real-time translation of text chat messages.
• Captcha bot provides a human verification prior to letting others view your full server. This can be helpful in cutting down spam and keeping your users safe.
• Epic RPG is a bot that adds an entire role-playing game to Discord.

How to remove a bot from Discord

If you are an administrator – or even just have a higher level role than the bot – you can remove Discord bots from a server by right clicking the bot's name and kicking them.