How to Test Discord Server Sounds (Soundboard Guide)

The Soundboard has a private preview built in, which is the answer to testing a sound without blasting it into a voice channel. Here's how it and the rest of the feature work.

Updated October 2026

How do you use the Discord soundboard?

The Soundboard only works inside a voice channel or a voice call.

On a computer

Join a voice channel. In the voice controls at the bottom of the screen, click the party-popper button to open the Soundboard. Hover over a sound to see its preview and favourite controls, then click the sound to play it for the channel.

On the phone app

Join the voice channel, drag up the panel at the bottom of the call screen and choose Soundboard. Long-press a sound to add it to your favourites, which then sit at the top of the list on every device you use.

Does the Discord soundboard require Nitro?

Not for the basics. Anyone with permission can play a server's own sounds inside that server, along with Discord's default sounds, without paying for anything.

Nitro matters when sounds leave their server. Discord's guide says you need an active Nitro subscription to use Soundboard sounds across servers, and its blog describes Nitro members as able to use every sound they have access to in any server or DM call. Nitro also adds entrance sounds: one favourite sound that plays automatically when you join a voice channel, chosen per server.

So the honest answer to whether the discord soundboard requires Nitro depends on the question. To press buttons in your own server, no. To bring a sound from one server into another, yes. What Discord Nitro includes covers the rest of the subscription.

How do you add sounds to a server?

From the server settings, if you have permission to manage the server's sounds. Open Server Settings, choose Soundboard, and click Upload Sound. Discord's own guide on its blog lists the requirements: an MP3 file of up to 512 KB and about five seconds long, a name for the sound, and an emoji to go with it. You can set the sound's volume before saving.

Keep the clip tight. Five seconds is short, and a sound that starts with a second of silence feels broken when someone presses it. Trim it first, normalise the volume so it sits with the rest of the board, and then upload.

After uploading, test it the same way as any other: open the Soundboard in a voice channel and preview it with the speaker icon.

How many soundboard slots does a server get?

Every server starts with eight. Discord's Soundboard guide says servers have 8 sound slots to start with and that more unlock with the server's Server Boosting level. The exact number for each level is on Discord's boosting perks list, and since Discord changes those perks from time to time, that's the copy to check rather than a number written elsewhere.

The structural point is the one to plan around. Slots come from boosts, and boosts are paid for by individual members through their own subscriptions. If boosts lapse and the server drops a level, it loses the extra slots that level provided. What boosting a Discord server does explains how levels rise and fall, and why every perk on the list is rented.

Who can play sounds, and how do you limit it?

Permissions control it, role by role. In Server Settings, open Roles and look for Use Soundboard, which lets a role play sounds, and Use External Sounds, which lets Nitro members in that role play sounds from other servers.

You can also override those permissions per channel. Open a voice channel's settings, go to Permissions, and turn the Soundboard off for a role in that channel only. That's the usual setup for servers with a quiet study room or a stage channel, where the Soundboard is fine in general and unwelcome in one place.

Can you turn off soundboard sounds?

For yourself, yes. Open User Settings, go to Voice & Video, and find the Soundboard volume slider. Discord's blog says setting it to 0% mutes the Soundboard entirely for you, although you'll still see the emoji pop up when someone plays a sound.

That setting is personal. It doesn't stop other people hearing sounds, and it doesn't stop anyone pressing them. To stop sounds for everyone, it's the permissions route above: take Use Soundboard away from the roles that shouldn't have it, or override it in specific channels.

Does the soundboard help a server grow?

It helps a server feel alive, which is not the same thing. Inside jokes turned into sounds are part of why regulars come back to voice channels. But a Soundboard only reaches people who are already in a voice call, and nobody joins a server because of the sounds they haven't heard yet.

Growth happens before that, at the invite, where people see the server's name and member count and decide whether to join. How to grow a Discord server covers Discovery, invites and Insights. If you'd rather add to the member count directly, Discord members do that from a permanent invite link and never need your account; they don't boost the server or unlock slots. Every Discord service is on the Discord page.

Questions people ask about the Discord Soundboard