Discord Embeds Explained: Parts, Limits and Colors

From the top: an author line with a small name and icon, the title, which can link to a URL, and the description. Below those sit up to 25 fields, each a name and a value; fields marked inline sit side by side, up to three to a row on desktop. A small thumbnail sits in the top right corner, a large image runs across the bottom, and a footer with its own icon and an optional timestamp closes it off.

The Discord Embed Builder lays every part out with a live preview and gives you the JSON.

A title or author name takes up to 256 characters, a description 4,096, a field name 256 and a field value 1,024, and the footer 2,048. On top of that, all of those across every embed in a message must add up to 6,000 characters or fewer, and one message carries at most 10 embeds.

Break any one of these and Discord refuses the whole message with a 400 error, not just the embed. If two embeds in a message share the same URL, Discord shows only the first.

The colored bar comes from color, which is an integer, not a hex string. Convert the hex value to decimal: Discord’s blurple, #5865F2, is 5793266. Leave it out and Discord draws its default border. The Discord Color Picker gives you both forms.

Descriptions and field values take the same markdown as a message, including masked links and <t:…> timestamps; keep titles and field names to plain text. A mention inside an embed shows as a mention but never pings anyone, so put it in the message text when you need the notification.

An embed can also carry its own timestamp, an ISO 8601 date such as 2026-10-07T15:00:00Z. Discord shows it beside the footer in each reader’s local time, which suits “posted at” and “last updated” lines.