If you've used Discord, then you definitely know about Discord Nitro. It's a subscription with two tiers, with Nitro Basic costing $3 a month and full Nitro costing $10 a month. For a yearly subscription of both, that's $30 a year and $100 a year respectively. While the cheaper one is easier to justify, I would argue that Discord Nitro is a waste of money for pretty much everyone, and I say that as someone who coughs up the $100 a year for my own personal usage.

I could live without Nitro's extra features

It doesn't really add much of value

The bottom line when it comes to Discord is that Nitro simply doesn't add much more than what you already get out of the box. You get custom emojis anywhere you want, you get animated profiles and banners, and you get higher-quality streams. There are a ton of other features too like the ability to join an additional 100 servers, upload larger files, and send longer messages.

With that said, how many of those, if you pay for Nitro, could you live without? While I would argue something like a Netflix subscription is still not an essential service in someone's life, it is a meaningful monthly payment that allows the purchaser to enjoy something they wouldn't have already. With Nitro, though, it has additional features on top of a service that someone already has access to. Plus, you can still use custom emojis from individual servers for free, so if you use very few servers, you won't even notice the difference when you have Nitro.

Arguably, Discord Nitro functions better as a way to say that you're supporting Discord, rather than getting anything useful. It's undoubtedly fun, and that's why I pay for it, but if I needed to save money I think that my Nitro subscription would be one of the first subscriptions on the chopping block. Keep in mind that Discord doesn't really have ads, though that has been changing recently with the company's "quests" and partnerships with other gaming companies.

Discord Nitro is a waste of money, but that's not always a problem

Arguably, so are a ton of life's pleasures

There are a lot of things that are arguably a waste of money, but that doesn't mean we can't derive enjoyment from them. I pay for Nitro, and I have fun with it, but I'd never tell people they should get a Nitro subscription except in very specific circumstances. We also don't need to get takeaways or buy $5 coffees from Starbucks, but we do because we enjoy them. Not everything needs to be a sound financial decision, and everyone deserves to get themselves something nice sometimes, as a treat.

As a result, I pay for Discord Nitro. It's a pretty big price to pay up front for a yearly subscription, but I use Discord a lot, and I have fun with it. I like being able to play soundboard noises in any server and to send silly animated emojis to all my servers, and I actually have joined more than 100 servers. Yeah, I would live just fine without Nitro, but I can afford it and I enjoy it.

As a result, if you're questioning whether to pick up Nitro, it's not whether the features are worth it as such, but whether you can afford it. If you think you'll have fun with it and can enjoy the features, then absolutely, go for it. If you're wondering whether it's a financially sound decision though, the answer is always no.