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Gateway intents allow you to control which events your bot receives from Discord. They help reduce bandwidth and processing requirements by only subscribing to the events you actually need.

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What are Intents?

Intents are a system introduced by Discord to give developers control over which events their bot receives. Each intent corresponds to a set of WebSocket events. The Intents class in Pycord (located at discord/flags.py:591) provides a bitfield-based system for managing these subscriptions.

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Creating Intents

The easiest way to get started is with default intents, which enable most common events except privileged ones:
import discord

intents = discord.Intents.default()
bot = discord.Bot(intents=intents)
Default intents exclude:
  • presences (privileged)
  • members (privileged)
  • message_content (privileged)

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Common Intents

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Guild Intents

intents.guilds = True
Enables guild-related events:
  • on_guild_join
  • on_guild_remove
  • on_guild_channel_update
  • on_guild_channel_create
  • on_guild_channel_delete
The guilds intent is highly recommended for most bots as it provides core functionality.

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Message Intents

intents.guild_messages = True  # For server messages
intents.dm_messages = True      # For direct messages
intents.messages = True         # Shortcut for both
Enables message events:
  • on_message
  • on_message_edit
  • on_message_delete
  • on_reaction_add / on_reaction_remove

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Member Intents (Privileged)

intents.members = True
Enables member-related events:
  • on_member_join
  • on_member_remove
  • on_member_update
  • Access to Guild.members list
This is a privileged intent requiring approval in the Discord Developer Portal for bots in 100+ servers.

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Privileged Intents

Three intents require special approval from Discord:
Required for:
  • Member join/leave events
  • Member update events
  • Full member cache
  • Guild.members access
Enable in Developer Portal:
  1. Go to your application’s Bot page
  2. Scroll to “Privileged Gateway Intents”
  3. Enable “Server Members Intent”
intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.members = True
Required for:
  • on_presence_update events
  • Member.activities access
  • Member.status access
Enable in Developer Portal:
  1. Go to your application’s Bot page
  2. Enable “Presence Intent”
intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.presences = True
Required for:
  • Reading message content in guilds
  • Message.content access
  • Message.embeds, Message.attachments, Message.components access
Enable in Developer Portal:
  1. Go to your application’s Bot page
  2. Enable “Message Content Intent”
intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.message_content = True
Without this intent, message content fields will be empty for messages not mentioning your bot, not sent by your bot, or not in DMs.

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Intent Events Reference

Here’s a comprehensive mapping of intents to their corresponding events:
IntentEvents Enabled
guildsGuild join/remove, channel updates, role updates
membersMember join/remove/update, user updates
moderationAudit log, bans/unbans
emojis_and_stickersEmoji and sticker updates
integrationsIntegration create/update/delete
webhooksWebhook updates
invitesInvite create/delete
voice_statesVoice state updates (required for voice)
presencesPresence/status updates
guild_messagesGuild message events
dm_messagesDM message events
guild_reactionsGuild reaction events
dm_reactionsDM reaction events
guild_typingGuild typing indicators
dm_typingDM typing indicators
message_contentAccess to message content in guilds
scheduled_eventsScheduled event CRUD operations
auto_moderation_configurationAutoMod rule changes
auto_moderation_executionAutoMod action executions
guild_pollsPoll vote events in guilds
dm_pollsPoll vote events in DMs

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Complete Example

Here’s a complete bot setup with properly configured intents: 
import discord
from discord.ext import commands

# Configure intents for a bot that needs messages and member data
intents = discord.Intents.default()
intents.members = True        # Privileged - enable in Dev Portal
intents.message_content = True  # Privileged - enable in Dev Portal

bot = commands.Bot(
    command_prefix="!",
    intents=intents
)

@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print(f"Logged in as {bot.user}")
    print(f"Guilds intent: {bot.intents.guilds}")
    print(f"Members intent: {bot.intents.members}")
    print(f"Message content intent: {bot.intents.message_content}")

@bot.event
async def on_member_join(member):
    # This requires the members intent
    print(f"{member.name} joined {member.guild.name}")

@bot.event
async def on_message(message):
    # Reading message.content requires message_content intent
    if message.author.bot:
        return
    
    print(f"Message from {message.author}: {message.content}")
    await bot.process_commands(message)

bot.run("TOKEN")

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Checking Current Intents

You can check which intents are enabled on your client: 
@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    # Access the intents property
    print(f"Current intents value: {bot.intents.value}")
    
    # Check individual intents
    if bot.intents.members:
        print("Members intent is enabled")
    
    if bot.intents.message_content:
        print("Message content intent is enabled")
    
    # Iterate through all intents
    for intent_name, enabled in bot.intents:
        print(f"{intent_name}: {enabled}")

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Common Errors

Error: discord.errors.PrivilegedIntentsRequiredCause: Your bot is trying to use a privileged intent that hasn’t been enabled in the Developer Portal.Solution:
  1. Visit the Discord Developer Portal
  2. Select your application
  3. Go to the “Bot” section
  4. Enable the required privileged intent(s)
  5. If your bot is in 100+ servers, you may need to verify your bot first
Problem: Events like on_member_join aren’t firingCause: The required intent isn’t enabledSolution: Check which intent is required for your event and enable it:
# For member events
intents.members = True

# For message content
intents.message_content = True

# For presence updates
intents.presences = True

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Best Practices

  1. Enable only what you need - Unnecessary intents waste bandwidth and resources
  2. Use Intents.default() as a starting point - It enables common functionality
  3. Document privileged intent usage - Help users understand why they’re needed
  4. Test without privileged intents - Design features that don’t require them when possible
  5. Handle missing data gracefully - Not all data is available without certain intents

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