Minecraft MOTD Generator

How to use the MOTD generator

1. Start from a template or type your own text into line 1 and line 2.
2. Add colors and styles. In Codes mode, click a color or format button to insert its & code at the cursor. In Simple mode, type plain text, select a word and click a color, Bold, Italic and so on.
3. Check the preview. The server list mockup shows both lines with the icon, player count and ping bars. Obfuscated text animates like it does in game, and a line that is too wide gets a warning.
4. Copy the output you need: the motd= line for vanilla servers, or & codes, MiniMessage or JSON for a plugin or proxy.
5. Optional: upload an image in the icon maker and download it as server-icon.png, or copy a share link to send the design to a friend.

How to set the MOTD on a Java Edition server

1. Stop the server.
2. Open server.properties in the server folder with a plain text editor.
3. Find the line that starts with motd= (the default is motd=A Minecraft Server) and replace the whole line with the one you copied.
4. Save the file and start the server. According to the Minecraft Wiki, the server must be restarted before changes to the file take effect.

A finished line looks like this:

Each part has a job. \u00A7 is an escape for the § sign that starts every color and formatting code. \n starts the second line. Other symbols, such as » or ★, are escaped the same way (» becomes \u00BB) when the § option is on, so the line is plain ASCII and survives any text editor. If a line starts with spaces, for example after centering, the generator puts a backslash in front of the first one, because the properties format drops spaces at the start of a value.

Colors, formatting and line 2

The vanilla MOTD supports the same 16 colors and 6 formatting codes as the rest of the game. Every code with its hex value is listed on our Minecraft color codes page. Three rules cover almost every problem:

• Color first, then formatting. In Java Edition a color code switches off bold, italic and the other styles, so write &6&l for bold gold, not &l&6.
• Codes carry over to line 2. The \n does not reset anything, so start the second line with its own color. The generator does this for you.
• & is for plugins. The vanilla server only reads §. Plugins that accept & codes convert them to § before the text is shown, so use the & output only where a plugin asks for it.

Line width and length

The server list shows two lines next to the icon. The space is measured in pixels, not characters: an i or l is narrow, while W or @ is wide, and bold text adds a pixel to every character. The preview adds up approximate character widths for each line and warns you when the text will not fit. Use Center both lines to pad each line with spaces so it sits in the middle of the row.

There is also a length limit to keep in mind. The Minecraft Wiki's server.properties page notes that if the MOTD is over 59 characters, the server list may report a communication error. Colorful two-line MOTDs often go past that once codes are counted, and they usually show up fine, but if players see that error, shortening the message is the first thing to try. The generator shows the full length including codes.

Hex colors and gradient MOTDs

The Minecraft Wiki describes the motd setting as supporting the legacy formatting codes, so a vanilla server cannot show hex colors in the server list. The server list message that reaches the player is a text component, though, and those can carry any #RRGGBB color. That is how plugins and proxies show gradient MOTDs: they replace the vanilla message with their own.

Open the Hex gradient panel, pick two or three colors and apply them to a selection. The gradient is written to the MiniMessage output (<color:#ff5f6d> style tags) and the JSON text component output ("color":"#ff5f6d"). Check your plugin's documentation to see which of the two it reads. The server.properties line and the & codes never contain hex: they fall back to the nearest of the 16 legacy colors, so they still look close on a vanilla server. For longer gradient text in chat, names and other places, use the RGB gradient text generator.

Server icon

The icon on the left of the server list entry comes from a file called server-icon.png in the server's working directory, which is the folder you start the server from, next to the server .jar. The server list shows it at 64 × 64 pixels, so make the image exactly that size. Without one, players see a gray placeholder.

The icon maker crops any picture to a square, or fits the whole picture with transparent edges, then resizes it to 64 × 64. Pick Pixelated for pixel art so the edges stay sharp, or Smooth for logos and photos. The preview above shows the result in place before you download it. Restart the server after adding the file.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Dedicated Server has no motd key. The closest setting is server-name in its own server.properties file (default Dedicated Server). The Minecraft Wiki describes it as the name shown on the play screen for LAN games and in the pause menu, and the default file says it can be any text without a semicolon. Bedrock also has extra material colors such as §g (Minecoin Gold), which are listed on the color codes page. This generator previews the Java server list.

Common mistakes

• Not restarting. The server reads server.properties when it starts. Stop it, save the file, then start it again.
• Wrong encoding. The file is UTF-8 since Java Edition 1.20. Older versions read it as ISO 8859-1, so a § typed straight into a UTF-8 editor shows up as §. The § escape works on all versions.
• Pressing Enter for line 2. The MOTD must stay on one line of the file. Use \n instead of a real line break.
• Formatting before color. &l&c gives plain red text, because the color code clears bold. Write &c&l.
• Using & codes in vanilla. Without a plugin, &a shows up as the literal text "&a".
• Lines that are too wide. A line that does not fit the row loses part of your message. Watch the width warning under each line.
• A wrong icon file. It must be a PNG named exactly server-icon.png, 64 × 64 pixels, in the server's main folder.

New to running a server? Our guide to making a Minecraft server covers setup, port forwarding and every important server.properties setting.