How to Add Roles in Discord, Rename Them, and Assign Members

To add roles in Discord, you need to own the server or have permission to manage roles. On desktop or the web app, open the server menu, choose Server Settings, open Roles, and select Create Role. From there, you can name the role, choose its appearance, set permissions, place it in the role hierarchy, and assign it to members.

Discord's current role system is more flexible than older versions of the app, so it is worth setting up roles carefully instead of giving broad permissions to individual members. Discord's official Roles and Permissions guide also recommends using the hierarchy to keep server management organized and secure.

How to make a new role in Discord

1. Open Discord on desktop or in a browser and select the server you manage.
2. Select the server name in the upper-left corner, then choose Server Settings.

3. Choose Roles. Select Create Role to add a new role above the default @everyone role.

4. On the Display tab, enter a useful role name such as Moderator, Event Staff, or Member. You can also choose a role color. The color shown for a member normally comes from their highest-positioned colored role.

5. Open the Permissions tab and enable only the abilities the role actually needs. Be especially careful with Administrator, because Discord states that it grants all permissions and bypasses channel restrictions.
6. Select Save Changes after editing the role.

How to change a Discord role name

You do not need to make a replacement role just to rename one. Go to Server Settings > Roles, select the role, open its Display settings, change the Role Name, and save the change. Members keep the role and its permissions; only its configured name changes.

Move a role up or down in the hierarchy

Role order matters for moderation. In Server Settings > Roles, drag roles into the order you want, with more trusted management roles higher in the list. Discord says a member can only affect members whose highest role is below their own, and a user with Manage Roles can only create or modify roles below their highest role.

How to assign a role to a member

On desktop/browser, Discord provides a Members page for role management. For non-Community servers, open Server Settings > Members. Community servers can also expose Members near the top of the channel list. Find the member, use the control in the Roles column, and check the role you want to add. Discord documents this workflow in its Members Page guide.

You can also assign a role from a member's profile when Discord shows the role control there. The role's server-wide permissions apply as soon as the assignment is made.

How to remove a role from a member

Removing a role does not delete the role from the server. Open the member-management view, open that member's role list, and uncheck the role you want to remove. If the member has other roles, permissions supplied by those roles can still remain active.

How to delete a Discord role

To remove a role completely, return to Server Settings > Roles, select the role you are allowed to manage, open its role actions menu, and choose Delete Role. Confirm the deletion if Discord asks. Deleting a role removes that role from members, so check its permissions and membership first.

How multiple Discord roles and permissions work

The old idea that a member simply gets the permissions of their single highest role is not accurate. At the server level, Discord calculates a member's permissions by combining the allowed permissions from @everyone and all roles assigned to that member. Channel-specific overrides are then applied on top of those server permissions according to Discord's permission hierarchy.

Role position still matters for administration: it determines which members and roles someone can manage, and it influences which role color is displayed. For a detailed breakdown of server and channel overrides, see Discord's permission hierarchy documentation.

If you cannot create, edit, or assign a role

• Check your permissions: you need server ownership, Administrator, or the appropriate Manage Roles access.
• Check role order: you cannot manage a role at or above your own highest role.
• Check the permission you are granting: Discord limits role managers to permissions they themselves possess.
• Check channel overrides: a server role can be allowed globally while a category or channel has a different effective permission setup. Discord's permissions setup guide explains the server, category, and channel layers.

For most servers, the safest setup is to keep @everyone relatively limited, create a small number of clearly named roles, and grant moderation permissions only where they are actually needed.