So Discord isn’t functioning right and you thinking opening up the ports will work. Maybe you’re trying to get Discord to work at work where many ports are blocked. Maybe you’re just having some fun and trying to learn some new technical knowledge.
Either way, we do know exactly which ports Discord uses for voice and text chat, so let’s take a look at them.
What Port Does Discord Use?
Discord uses port 443 TCP for text chat and a random port between 50,000 and 65,535 UDP for voice chat. This means you’ll need to open port 443 for text chat and all ports between 50,000 and 65,535 if you want Discord to work properly with voice and text chat.
If you notice a lot of lag when you use Discord, you may need to port forward. There are a few things you’ll need before you can actually port forward:
- Which ports you need to open (443 TCP & 50,000 – 65,535 UDP in this case)
- Your computer’s IP address
- Your router IP address (to login to your router and modify open ports)
Discord has confirmed on Twitter that text chat uses 443 TCP for text and 50,000 – 65,535 UDP for voice. If these ports do not work for you, consider contacting Discord support.
Should You Port Forward For Discord?
You shouldn’t need to port forward for Discord to work. For most people, Discord will work fine as is. However, if you experience lag or problems connecting, you may need to open ports for Discord to work. Discord needs ports 443 TCP and 50,000 – 65,535 UDP open in order for text and voice to work.
Most of the time you will not need to manually port forward for Discord to work, and if your Discord isn’t working it is likely another issue. There are some edge cases, though, where port forwarding will be necessary.
If you have a very strict network (i.e. a work or school network), you may need to ask a system administrator to open up ports for Discord to work. You will need to tell them that Discord uses port 443 TCP and 50,000 – 65,535 UDP in order to work.
Another reason you may need to port forward for Discord to work is if you use Discord on a non-conventional device. For example, if you’re using the browser on your Xbox or console, instead of a downloaded Discord app.
If you need to open a port in Discord you’ll need your router’s ip address, the device’s ip address, and the ports I mentioned above (443 TCP and 50,000 – 65,535 UDP). Your router will likely have a port forwarding section, and you can Google how to open ports on your specific router.
How To Open A Port In Discord?
Here is how to open ports for discord on PC:
- Open up Command Prompt, type “ipconfig” and press enter
- Copy the number to the right of “Default Gateway”
- Enter that number in a browser to login to your router (default username and password are usually “admin” and “password” but can be found on your router)
- Find the port forwarding section of your router (May require Googling)
- Open Port 443 TCP and Port range 50,000 – 65,535 UDP
The exact steps for opening ports will depend entirely on your router. Unfortunately, many routers use different methods for opening ports / port forwarding. Sometimes it can be pretty complicated to find and open ports, but it’s almost always possible.
The good news is that sometimes it’s very easy. For example, my router actually has an app that I can download. I can do pretty much everything from changing my Wi-fi password to port forwarding directly from the app.
The first place to start is to find your router’s IP address (using ipconfig and default gateway), log in (default username and password is usually directly on your router), and poke around to see if you can find anything about opening ports.
If not, do a quick Google search for “How to open ports on X”, where X is your router’s name of course.
Can Port Forwarding On Discord Reduce Ping?
Forwarding ports will probably not reduce your ping on Discord because if your ports are not already open, Discord will not work at all. Discord voice chat does use a random range of ports from 50,000 – 65,535 UDP, so if all of these ports are open, Discord voice chat will work much better.
Discord needs open ports to work, but if Discord is already working, it’s very unlikely that port forwarding will make much of a difference. Discord’s text chat uses port 443 TCP, so you will need this port open for Discord’s text chat to work.
For Discord’s Voice chat you will need to open every single UDP port between 50,000 and 65,535. If these are not open, you may experience poor latency but most likely your voice chat just will not work.
The reason you need an entire range for Voice chat in Discord is because Discord works by randomly choosing one of these ports when you connect to voice chat. If Discord tried connecting to voice chat and the port it chose was closed, then you just wouldn’t be able to connect.
If Discord chooses a port, and then randomly chose a different port mid call for some reason, then yes, port forwarding may reduce ping and prevent issues that appear to be lag (even if they’re truly something else).
Do Discord Bots Need Port Forwarding?
Discord bots do not require any port forwarding. You do not need to port forward to use Discord bots that other people made, and you do not need to port forward to create your own Discord bot. Discord bots simply send requests to Discord’s API. They are not servers and do not need to receive requests.
The only time a program needs port forwarding is if it requires other people to send things to you personally.
For example, if you host a website from your computer, anytime someone visits your site, they will need to send your server (aka the port) a request saying “show me the website”.
This means you will need the port open so that your computer can receive those requests. Discord, however, is not hosted on your computer and you don’t receive these requests personally.
Instead, everything you send and receive on Discord goes through a middle man (Discord’s server). Discord Bots work pretty much like users do.
No one personally connects to the bot, so it doesn’t require port forwarding. Discord bots, instead, connect to Discord’s API, asks for information, does its calculations to generate a response, then tells Discord’s API what it wants to send (whatever it just generated).
There’s a lot of technical mumbojumbo, but the best way to see how Discord bots work is to create one yourself.
There are many resources that will help you do so, and they are a lot easier to make than they sound. Learning about APIs and how the web works in general will also help you understand why you do not need to port forward for Discord bots to work.
What Is Discord’s IP Address?
Discord’s IP address is not public and therefore there is no way to know what it is. It’s likely that Discord uses multiple IP addresses, which may even change occasionally so there’s no reliable way to find out what its IP address is at any given moment. Most websites claiming to know are wrong.
I tried very hard to find Discord’s IP address from a trusted or official source but could not find it anywhere.
Most sites that I did find listed something like “162.159.XXX.XXX”, but nothing was consistent. Microsoft Teams, for example, has a public listing of its IP addresses, but I couldn’t find anything like this for Discord.
Even the holy bastion of Reddit produced no results, which makes me think that Discord, for whatever reason, has chosen not to release which IP addresses it uses. This is pretty unfortunate for many people, especially more techy and experimental people, and hopefully they release these IPs eventually.
Does Discord Use UDP?
Discord does use UDP for voice chat. Discord requires that UDP Ports 50,000 – 65,535 are opened in order for voice chat to work. Discord also uses TCP Port 443 for text chat to work. So, Discord uses both UDP and TCP for its connections and will require open ports of both protocols.
Discord has confirmed on its official Twitter page that it uses UDP and TCP ports. Discord claimed that ports 50,000 – 65,535 UDP are used for voice chat while port 443 TCP is used for text chat.
Discord users have tested and confirmed this themselves, and it’s not likely that these ports will change anytime soon.
Unfortunately, we do not know Discord’s official IP address. At least, they have not listed it anywhere online. This is unfortunate, but at least we know for sure which ports and which protocols Discord uses to connect to voice and text chat.
Does Discord Block VPNs?
Discord does not block all VPNs, but not all VPNs will work on Discord. Discord bans the IP addresses of users that partake in illegal activity or activity against Discord’s terms of service. If someone uses a VPN and gets the IP address banned, it will be banned for all users of that VPN service.
You’re allowed to use VPNs for Discord, but some of them won’t work, especially the free ones. This is because people use VPNs to do bad things on Discord.
Things like spam servers, harass users, and worse. When a user is caught doing things like this, their IP address will be banned. If they’re using a VPN, that VPN address will be banned instead.
If you use a VPN and happen to get an address that has already been banned by Discord, you will not be able to connect. This won’t affect your account, you’ll just have to use a different IP address, which shouldn’t be much of an issue depending on your VPN service.
Is Discord P2P?
Discord does not p2p (peer to peer) at all. No Discord services are peer to peer. Video chat, voice chat, text chat, etc. all go through Discord’s server before being sent to the other user. Discord has confirmed this themselves via Twitter. There’s no way to perform a p2p call via Discord.
Discord is not p2p (peer to peer). This has its pros and cons, but is mostly a good thing because it means your IP address is safe and secure. Discord probably opted not to use p2p because the nature of the app means that many users will be connecting to servers and calls full of people that they do not know.
This means they probably don’t want these people knowing their IP address (or any other personal information).
Discord confirmed on Twitter that none of its services use peer to peer connections. Not video calls, not texts, not voice calls, and not file sharing.
Everything you send on Discord goes through their server first before being sent to the other user(s). Granted, everything you send is also encrypted, so no one can intercept your messages either.
Why Is Port 443 Secure?
Port 443 is the port used for secured HTTP traffic (HTTPS). HTTP is used by pretty much every single modern web app. HTTPS just means the app is using an encrypted, secure version via port 443. You can see whether a site is using port 443 by looking for the little lock icon next to the left of the url.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that anytime you copy a full website URL, it either starts with “http” or “https”. If it starts with “https” then the website is using port 443.
Port 443 encrypts the communication between the website and your computer using some kind of SSL certificate, so the information you send is well guarded.
Websites that begin with “http” instead of “https” do not use an SSL certificate and operate out of port 80 instead of 443. You can also check the URL in your browser. If there’s a small, grey padlock, then the website is on port 443, if not then it is on port 80 and not secured.
Apps that use the web may also use port 443. For example, Discord uses port 443 for text chat, which means all texts and information from users are encrypted before being sent.
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Eric streams 3 days a week on Twitch and uploads weekly to Youtube under the moniker, StreamersPlaybook. He loves gaming, PCs, and anything else related to tech. He’s the founder of the website StreamersPlaybook and loves helping people answer their streaming, gaming, and PC questions.
