Discord Avatar Decorations: How to Get and Keep Them

Avatar decorations are cosmetic designs that style your profile picture on Discord, and there are four ways to get them: buy them in the Shop, claim select ones with Orbs, earn them as Quest rewards, or receive them as gifts and promotional rewards. Anything you buy is yours to keep, with or without Nitro, while decorations earned from Quests normally last two months, with full Nitro extending many of them. Here is how each route works as of November 2026, how to apply a decoration on desktop and mobile, and what changes when a subscription ends.

We checked this against Discord's Help Center articles on avatar decorations, the Shop, Discord Orbs, the Nitro Quest perk, custom and per-server profiles, purchase disclosures and the refund policy, plus Discord's Halloween 2026 gifting promotion page, in November 2026.

What Decorations Are and Where They Sit

Discord describes avatar decorations as cosmetics that let you customize and style your avatar. They live in the Shop alongside three related item types: profile effects, which are animated effects that play when someone views your profile; nameplates, which change how your display name looks in DMs, group chats and member lists; and profile frames, decorative borders that wrap your whole profile card. Each type is bought and applied separately, so a decoration does not come with a matching effect unless you buy a bundle.

The Shop rotates its stock. Discord's Shop FAQ says items change periodically and may only be available for a limited time, but anything you purchase stays in your collection and can be used whenever you like. The same FAQ adds that the Shop does not use AI-generated art, with every item designed by human artists, either on Discord's team or at partners it works with.

If you have per-server profiles, you can wear a different decoration in each server, which is handy when one community leans spooky and another leans cute. Per-server profiles themselves are a Nitro feature, according to the Custom Profiles article, so without Nitro you pick one decoration for your whole account.

Every Way to Get One

There is no single source for decorations, and the route you choose decides whether the item is permanent:

• Buying in the Shop. On desktop, select the Discord icon in the upper-left corner and open the Shop tab beside the server list, or go to User Settings, then Profiles, then Change Decoration and select the Shop icon. On mobile, tap your avatar in the lower-right corner, then the Shop icon at the top. Purchases are permanent.
• Bundles. The Shop pairs two items from the same collection, such as a decoration and a profile effect, at a discount. Discord's FAQ warns that once you own either item, the bundle is marked as partially owned and you pay full price for the other one, so check for a bundle before buying a single piece.
• Orbs. Discord's virtual rewards, earned by completing Quests, buy Orbs-exclusive decorations and select popular Shop items. Items that accept Orbs show both a money price and an Orb price. Our guide to Discord Quests and Orbs covers how to earn them.
• Quest rewards. Some Quests award a decoration directly. These usually come with an expiry date, covered in the Nitro section below.
• Gifts. Friends can send you Shop items as gifts, and you can do the same for them.
• Promotions. Discord's Halloween 2026 offer ran from October 1 through November 2, 2026: gift a Nitro subscription to another user and choose one free familiar decoration, from Hex the black cat, Crowseph the black crow or Umbra the void-like fox. Gifting up to three times unlocked all three.

How to Apply a Decoration

Owning a decoration does not display it automatically. You choose it in your profile settings and save the change, and the steps differ slightly between the desktop app and the phone apps.

1. On desktop or in a browser, open User Settings with the cogwheel next to your name.
2. Select the Profiles tab, then press Change Decoration to open the selection menu.
3. Pick a decoration from your collection and select Apply.
4. Confirm with Save Changes; the decoration does not stick until you save.

On a phone, tap your avatar, choose Edit Profile, then tap Avatar Decoration to reach the Change Decoration page (tapping your avatar and choosing Change Decoration also works). Pick the design, tap Apply, then Save in the upper-right corner. Quest decorations sit in the same menu under a section called Your Decorations, and Discord lists an expiration date under any decoration that has one, which is the quickest way to check how long you have left.

To use a different decoration in one server, open the Per-server Profiles settings, pick the server in the Choose A Server box, press Change Decoration and confirm with Save Changes. Discord's Per-Server Profiles article says server-specific decorations can only be changed on the desktop or browser app for now, and that you must buy a cosmetic before you can add it to any profile.

What Nitro Changes for Decorations

You do not need Nitro to buy or wear Shop decorations, but full Nitro adds several perks around them:

• Member pricing. Discord's FAQ says only Nitro members get special pricing on eligible Shop purchases, and the nameplate and profile frame FAQs confirm discounts apply across the Shop.
• DISXCORE decorations. Nitro members can collect three bonus DISXCORE decorations from the Shop. They require an active Nitro subscription to use: cancel, and they stay in your collection but cannot be worn.
• Longer Quest rewards. Discord's Nitro Quest Perk article says Quest decorations are normally available for two months, while subscribers on the standard Nitro plan can keep many of them for an extended period and even restore some older ones. Nitro Basic and Nitro Classic do not qualify.
• Early access. Profile frames are currently in Nitro Early Access, meaning subscribers can shop that collection before it opens to everyone.

The Quest perk has a catch worth knowing before you subscribe for it. If Nitro lapses or you downgrade to Nitro Basic, you lose access to those extended decorations until you subscribe again, at which point eligible ones return automatically without repeating the Quest. Not every Quest decoration is eligible, and Discord marks eligible rewards during the Quest. For a full picture of what the subscription costs before you lean on these perks, see our Discord Nitro price breakdown.

Prices, Refunds and Gifting Rules

Prices vary by item and collection, and Discord's purchase disclosures say the price of each item is shown clearly before you buy. Localized pricing applies to some decoration purchases and gifts; at checkout you will see whether your local currency is offered, and otherwise the purchase defaults to US dollars. A Discord gift card balance can also be spent in the Shop.

Think before you buy, because decorations are final sales. Both the decorations FAQ and Discord's refund policy state that profile cosmetics such as avatar decorations and profile effects are not refundable, and items claimed with Orbs cannot be refunded either. If you bought through the Apple App Store on an iPhone or iPad, purchasing problems go to Apple rather than Discord.

New subscribers should also mind the order of purchases. The nameplate and profile frame FAQs say that buying one of those items within 5 days of starting or renewing Nitro makes the subscription itself ineligible for a refund. The decorations FAQ does not repeat that rule for decorations, but Discord only reviews Nitro refund requests made within 5 days of purchase anyway, so settle whether you are keeping Nitro before a big Shop haul.

Gifting has its own small rules. Select an item and press the gift icon beside the Buy Decoration button, pick a card design and add a note, then send it. Gifts you bought but never sent wait in User Settings under Gift Inventory. If two friends gift you the same unclaimed item, you claim one and the duplicates return to the senders within 48 hours, and nobody can send you an item you have already claimed.

Protecting Your Collection

A decoration collection can represent real money, so a few habits protect it:

• Secure the account itself. The Shop FAQ notes that access to purchased items may be lost if an account is suspended or deleted, and you are responsible for its security. Two-factor authentication and caution with unknown links matter more than any cosmetic; our account safety guide walks through the basics.
• Track Quest expiry dates in Change Decoration so a favorite does not quietly disappear.
• Plan around Nitro changes. Cancelling turns off DISXCORE designs and extended Quest decorations while keeping everything you bought, as our guide to cancelling Nitro explains step by step.
• Decide what your Orbs are for. Orbs-exclusive decorations can only be claimed with Orbs, so spending them on items you could also buy with money leaves fewer for the exclusives.

Decorations also pair with other profile identity features. A server's community tag beside your name is set in the same Profiles screen, and our Server Tags explainer covers how those work.

Getting Nitro for the Member Perks

Several of the decoration perks above, including member pricing, the DISXCORE designs and longer access to Quest rewards, only work with full Nitro. If you would rather start on an account that already has it, the store's Discord page lists full-access accounts that come with Nitro already active, usually for one to three months, next to aged accounts and short or OG usernames.

Nitro listings put the number of months in their titles, so you can see how long the member perks will last before you pick one.

Frequently Asked Questions