How to Join a Discord Server Even if the Invite Link is Expired

👤 Adamya Neupane 🕒 01 May 2023 📁 TECH

During the pandemic, the communication app Discord took over very quickly. This app was primarily geared towards gamers and people wanting a space to talk to friends. However, as people shifted to working from home and studying online, it became very popular. With the rise in co-working servers, people started using the platform more and more. Let’s take a look at some Discord statistics that can paint an appropriate picture of how popular Discord actually is.

Discord Statistics

Discord was launched in May 2015. It took some time for the app to gain the notoriety that it has today. The stats for Discord’s usage at the time of launch are not that clear. This is because they are not available to the general public. However, the company started sharing its usage statistics in 2017. These figures would go on to reveal how big and powerful Discord’s platform really was.

Here are some that we know. In the year 2017, discord reported having 10 million active monthly users. This is a lot of people but it’s nothing compared to the heights the company has seen as of late. In the year 2018, discord reported having 45 million active users. In 2019, it reported 56 million. And, in the year 2020, discord reported a staggering 100 million active users. This record would be smashed next year when Discord would report 140 million active monthly users.

And if you’re interested in how the growth curve looks, I went the length of making it for you.

Discord Servers

Discord is not the classic chatting software. It is made up of a bunch of groups called servers. These servers can have a lot of members. To give an example of how big a server can be, Midjourney Bot’s official server which was created in 2020 has 11.5 million users as of writing this article. Meanwhile, Open AI, the company that founded chatgpt has a server with 2.9 million users. There are multiple ways to join a server. Here, I have listed and explained some of them.

1. Invitation link

This is the most common way to join a Discord server. Using an invitation link which is a unique URL that allows you to join a specific server. You can receive an invitation link from anyone on the server. To join a server using an invitation link, simply click on the link and follow the prompts. If you don’t have a Discord account already, make sure to make an account. Unless permanent, these links have an expiration date. If you have an expired link, you’ll see something like this.

2. Server Discovery

Discord has a server discovery feature that can get us information about a server. This can be found in the app itself and is quite reliable when looking for public servers. We’ll discuss this feature further down in the blog so be sure to read till there.

3. Direct invite

You can also be directly invited to a Discord server by someone who is already a member. They can send you a direct invite to the server through the Discord app, which you can then accept or decline. Please note that these invites can also have an expiration date. If expired, you’ll see something like this with the link

4. Join code

Some servers may use a join code instead of an invitation link. In this case, you can enter the code in the "Join a Server" box in the Discord app or website to join the server.

View the Discord server's offline users

5. Partnered servers

Discord has a program for partnered servers, which are servers that have been officially recognized and promoted by Discord. Some partnered servers may be listed on the Discord website or app, and you can join them by clicking on the "Join Server" button.

In Discord, an expired link is an invite link that has reached its expiration date. When a link expires, it is no longer usable to connect to a server. Actually, this expired link is created by the administrator of the server, they have set it if the link has too many requests, the link may have been revoked by the administrator.

What can I do if I have an expired link?

If you have a server link that has expired, you won’t be able to join the server. It’s a loss for you as well as the server. You don’t get to join the server and the server misses out on a new member. An expired link doesn’t give you access to the server at all. However, if you still want to get into the server, you can try the following.

Try refreshing the page or clearing the browser cache.
Use the latest version of Discord.
Contact People on the Server
If you happen to know someone on the server, you can try asking for a new link. If you happen to know the server owner, you can do the same. This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to join a server.
Use the public invite page: One option to consider is utilizing the server's public invite page, which typically includes a list of all expired links. By accessing this page, you may be able to find a working link to connect to the server.
If the server belongs to a larger community, it may be worth reaching out to that community to obtain a new link. \
If there is any member in the server you can try joining the server through a friend who is already a member.They may invite you directly even if the link is expired.
Disboard
Disboard is a site that tracks many discord servers. It is used by server owners to promote their servers. In the meantime, it is also used by users to look for the servers they like. The link above lands you on the search option of the server directly. It doesn’t have all the servers present in Discord. But, if the admin has added it, the server is most certainly there.
Googling
Googling is underrated in this case. If the server you’re looking for is a Public Server, you’ll find it on Google. Google indexes multiple websites and forums to find data. If it finds the server you’re looking for, you will be able to join easily. But the information that is provided to you might not always be very reliable. So, it is better to take a look at the next option which is the “Discover Server” option.
Server Discovery
As we talked about before, Discord has a server discovery feature that allows you to search for servers based on keywords and tags. To use this feature, click on the "Discover" button in the left-hand menu of the Discord app or website. Finally, use the search bar to find the servers that you are looking for.

These are some of the ways that you can join a server if you have a link that has expired. There are other ways like asking for a direct invite but those have already been discussed in the above part of the blog. I hope that you have found some value in this article. If you found it to be helpful, consider buying me a coffee through the link below. Glad to have been of any help.