Discord member count channel: set up stats channels

A member counter at the very top of the channel list shows at a glance how big your server is. "Members: 1284" looks welcoming to new visitors, and your team can see without a single click whether the server is growing, whether lots of people joined after a stream or how many boosters are currently on board.

Technically, such a counter is simply a voice channel whose name a bot changes regularly. In this guide you'll learn what stats channels can show, which limits Discord sets on renaming and how to set them up step by step with Lizbot.

What stats channels can show

Lizbot offers six types of counters. Each counter belongs to exactly one voice channel:

A few notes on the numbers:

• All members is the number Discord itself keeps for your server. Bots are included. If you only want to show real people, use Humans only.
• Server boosts counts boosts, not boosters. Someone who boosts twice counts twice.
• Members with role works well for team size, verified members, subscriber roles or clan members. Roles managed by Discord or an integration, such as a bot's own role, can't be selected here.
• Minecraft players uses Lizbot's Minecraft server status. Besides {count} for the player count, you get {max} for the slots and {status} for online or offline.

Lizbot does not offer a counter for "currently online". The counters above are everything the module can do. If you also want to show your member count outside Discord, for example on your homepage, see Embedding your Discord server on a website. And before you clean up a count inflated by many silent accounts, read Removing inactive Discord members.

Why voice channels?

Discord always writes text channel names in lower case and replaces spaces with hyphens. "Members: 1284" would turn into something like "members-1284". Voice channels may contain capital letters, spaces, colons and emojis in their name, which is why almost every counter uses this channel type. Lizbot's dashboard also only offers voice channels to choose from.

To stop anyone from accidentally jumping into the counter channel, deny @everyone the Connect permission. Everyone should still be able to see the channel, otherwise nobody sees the number.

Discord's limits on renaming

Discord only allows a bot two renames per channel within ten minutes. A counter that changes instantly with every join is therefore not possible. If a bot tries anyway, Discord slows it down and the name gets stuck.

This is how Lizbot handles it:

• Every ten minutes Lizbot updates all counters on a server.
• When someone joins or leaves the server, Lizbot schedules an extra update after about 30 seconds. Several joins within that time are bundled together.
• There are always at least five minutes between two updates on the same server. This also applies to the Refresh now button in the dashboard.
• If the number hasn't changed, Lizbot doesn't rename the channel at all.

So expect the number to lag a few minutes behind. For a counter, that's completely normal.

Large servers with more than 5,000 members have a second limit: to count humans, bots and roles, Lizbot has to fetch the member list. On those servers this happens at most every six hours, and with more than 50,000 members Lizbot extrapolates from the first 50,000. Discord provides All members and Server boosts directly, so these two counters follow the normal rhythm of a few minutes even on large servers.

1. Create a category and voice channels

First create a category, for example "Stats". To do this, open the server menu and click Create Category. Then drag the category to the very top of the channel list.

Next, click the plus next to the category and choose Voice as the channel type. You can name it anything for now, such as "Members: ?", since Lizbot will replace the name later. Create a separate voice channel for each counter you plan.

After that, open the category settings, go to Permissions and deny @everyone the Connect permission. Channels synced with the category (the default for channels newly created inside it) inherit the restriction, so it applies to all counters at once.

Tip: some of Lizbot's server templates already create a stats category like this with "Members" and "Bots" counters and add them to the module right away.

2. Give Lizbot the permissions it needs

For Lizbot to rename a channel, it needs two permissions on that channel: View Channel and Manage Channels. The easiest way is to give the Lizbot role these two permissions as a channel overwrite on the stats category. That way Lizbot doesn't need to manage channels server-wide.

If a permission is missing, the rename fails silently. The Server check in the dashboard checks whether Lizbot has the required permissions for every counter channel and shows you any that are missing.

3. Enable the module in the dashboard

Open the dashboard, select your server and go to Modules. You'll find the Stats channels module in the Automation group. It's included in the Free plan and turned off by default.

On the module's page, turn on the Stats channels enabled switch in the General section. If your server has no voice channel at all yet, the page will tell you. In that case, do step 1 first and reload the page.

4. Add and name counters

In the Counters section, click Add counter. For each counter you set three things:

• Voice channel: the voice channel that gets renamed. Each channel can carry only one counter.
• Counts: the counter type from the table above. For Members with role you also choose the role, for Minecraft players the server.
• Name: the template for the channel name, up to 90 characters. The number will appear where {count} is.

Below each counter, a Preview shows what the name will look like. If {count} is missing, the page warns you, because then there's no number in the name. A few example templates:

• 👥 Members: {count}
• Community: {count} people
• 🚀 Boosts: {count}
• Team: {count} mods
• ⛏️ {count}/{max} players ({status}) for a Minecraft counter

The number appears in the name without a thousands separator, so "1284" rather than "1,284". If that bothers you, keep the template short so the name stays easy to read even with four-digit numbers.

You can have up to ten counters per server. Finally, save your changes.

5. Refresh straight away and check

After saving, you don't have to wait for the next run. Click Refresh now in the General section and Lizbot renames the channels right away. If you have unsaved changes, the dashboard asks you to save first. If it was refreshed only recently, you'll see when it's possible again.

Then check in Discord that the names are correct. If a channel still shows its old name, check the permissions from step 2.

Placement at the top of the channel list

A counter only works if people see it. These rules have proven themselves:

• At the very top: the stats category sits above all others, even above rules and announcements. Newcomers see the number first.
• Few counters: two to four are enough. Ten counters push the actual channels out of view.
• Visible to everyone: behind a verification step, people often see only a single channel. If the counter should be visible before verification too, give @everyone the View Channel permission on the stats category.
• No way to click in: with Connect denied, the channel looks like a sign rather than a room you're meant to enter.

Which counters for which server?

• Small community or group of friends: a single "Members" counter is enough. With small numbers a counter can even be off-putting, so consider whether you need one yet.
• Growing public server: "Humans" instead of "Members" so the number is honest, plus "Boosts" as a thank-you to boosters.
• Creator server: "Humans" plus a role counter for subscribers or supporters.
• Esports or clan: a role counter for the roster or the clan, to go with the guide Organise an esports team on Discord.
• Minecraft server: player count with {count}/{max} and status, plus a member counter. More on the Minecraft server status page: on the Free plan you watch one server, on Pro up to five and on Studio up to twenty.

Checklist

• a "Stats" category sits at the very top of the channel list
• each counter has its own voice channel
• @everyone can see the channels but not Connect
• Lizbot has View Channel and Manage Channels on the category
• the Stats channels module is enabled
• every name template contains {count}
• role counters have a role selected
• after saving, Refresh now was clicked once

Common mistakes

• Text channel created instead of voice channel: Lizbot only offers voice channels. Create the channel again as a voice channel.
• Lizbot lacks "Manage Channels": the name never changes. Grant the permission on the category.
• Number doesn't change immediately: that's Discord's limit. Wait a few minutes before looking for an error.
• A second bot renames the same channels: two bots on one channel share the limit and overwrite each other. Remove the counter from the other bot when you switch to Lizbot. The guide switching bots helps with that.
• Role deleted or not selected: a role counter without a valid role shows 0. If no role is selected, the dashboard marks the counter with "Role missing". If the role was deleted in Discord, the server check reports it.
• Channel renamed by hand: Lizbot overwrites the name on the next run. Change the name in the Name field in the dashboard instead.