How do I add colors to my Minecraft server MOTD?

Put a formatting code in front of the text you want colored. A code is the section sign § followed by one character: §a is green, §c is red and §l is bold. In server.properties, write the section sign as \u00A7, so a green message is motd=\u00A7aHello. Pick the colors in the tool and it writes the line for you. The color codes list shows every code.

How do I make a second line in the MOTD?

Type \n where the line should break, for example motd=First line\nSecond line. That is a backslash and the letter n inside the one motd= line, not the Enter key. The tool joins your two boxes with it.

Why does my MOTD show a strange character like Â in front of each color?

The § character was saved in one text encoding and read in another. Java Edition servers try UTF-8 first when they read server.properties since version 1.20, and used ISO 8859-1 before that. Writing every section sign as \u00A7 works on any version, which is why the first output of this tool uses it.

Can I use hex colors or gradients in a server.properties MOTD?

Not on a vanilla server. The § codes give you 16 fixed colors, and the vanilla server sends the MOTD as plain text with those codes inside it. Hex colors need software that sends a full text component: Velocity reads its motd setting as MiniMessage, and on Paper a plugin such as MiniMOTD does the same job. Players need Minecraft 1.16 or newer to see the extra colors.

How long can a Minecraft MOTD be?

The Minecraft Wiki gives one number: above 59 characters, the server list may report a communication error. There is no exact count per line, because the letters in the game font have different widths and bold letters are wider. Keep each line short, then look at it in your own server list. The tool counts the characters for you.

Do I have to restart the server after changing the MOTD?

Yes. Changes to server.properties only take effect after a restart. Save the file, restart the server, then press Refresh in the Multiplayer screen. If you are setting up the rest of the file too, the server.properties generator covers the other settings.

Can I type & instead of § for the color codes?

In this tool, yes: with the option switched on, &a is read as §a. In server.properties itself the game only understands §. The & shorthand comes from plugins, which convert it in their own config files and commands.

Minecraft MOTD Generator with Colors

How to put the MOTD on your server

The MOTD (message of the day) is the text under your server's name in the Multiplayer list. On a Java Edition server it comes from the motd line in server.properties.

Open server.properties in your server folder, with your control panel's file manager or a text editor.
Find the line that starts with motd= and replace the whole line with the first output.
Save the file and restart the server. Changes to this file only take effect after a restart.
In Minecraft, open Multiplayer and press Refresh.

The server rewrites server.properties every time it starts, so the line may not look exactly like the one you pasted. For the other settings in that file there is the server.properties generator, and the server icon maker fills the square next to your message.

How the motd property handles color codes and line breaks

A formatting code is the section sign § followed by one character. The 16 color buttons above are the color codes, and the color codes list covers each one. These are the format codes:

Code	What it does
`§l`	Bold
`§o`	Italic
`§n`	Underline
`§m`	Strikethrough
`§k`	Obfuscated: the characters keep changing
`§r`	Reset: default color, all formats off

Three rules decide what goes in the file:

Write § as \u00A7. The file uses Java's properties format, where \u and four hex digits stand for one character. Since Java Edition 1.20 the server tries to read the file as UTF-8 and falls back to ISO 8859-1. Older versions used ISO 8859-1. A real § can break, depending on how your editor saved the file. The escaped form cannot, so the tool escapes § and every other non-ASCII character, such as ♥.
Write the line break as \n. One setting is one line of the file, so the Enter key does not work here.
Color first, then format. In Java Edition a color code switches off bold, italic and the other formats. §a§l gives bold green. §l§a gives plain green.

The backslash is the escape character in this format, so the tool doubles any backslash you type. It also puts a backslash in front of a leading space, because the format skips spaces right after the equals sign. Each line box starts from the default style: if line 1 ends with a color still on, the tool puts §r at the start of line 2 so nothing carries over.

Which output to copy

Output	Use it for
Line for server.properties	The `motd=` line of a Java Edition server.
Plain § form	A MOTD box in a control panel, or a plugin setting that expects § codes typed directly.
MiniMessage	Plugins and proxies that say they accept MiniMessage.
Line for velocity.toml	The `motd` setting of a Velocity proxy.

How long a MOTD line can be

The Minecraft Wiki documents one limit: if the MOTD is over 59 characters, the server list may report a communication error. The tool counts the codes and the line break toward that number and warns you past it.

There is no fixed number of characters per line. Letters in the game's font have different widths, and bold text is drawn wider, so how much fits depends on what you write. The tool flags any line with more than 45 visible characters. That is our rule of thumb, not a limit in the game, so look at long lines in your own server list.

Hex colors, gradients and MiniMessage

A vanilla server.properties MOTD cannot use hex or RGB colors. Minecraft's text components have accepted hex colors since 1.16, but the vanilla server sends the MOTD as plain text with § codes inside it, and those codes only cover the 16 colors.

To go further you need software that sends a full text component. It takes MiniMessage tags instead of § codes:

Velocity has its own motd setting in velocity.toml and accepts only MiniMessage there. As of October 2026 the default is motd = "<#09add3>A Velocity Server".
Paper servers use a plugin. MiniMOTD takes MiniMessage with RGB colors and gradients, and as of October 2026 it also runs on Velocity, Fabric, NeoForge, Sponge, and BungeeCord or Waterfall. It has a line1 and a line2 setting, so cut the tool's output at <newline>. Players on versions older than 1.16 get the colors downsampled.

In MiniMessage, <green> and <bold> replace §a and §l. A hex color is <#55ff55>, a gradient is <gradient:#55ff55:#55ffff>text</gradient> and the line break is <newline>. The tool turns your codes into the matching tags. Hex colors and gradients you add by hand.

Common mistakes

Typing &a into server.properties. The game only understands §, so the code shows up as text. This tool converts & codes for you.
Pressing Enter to start the second line. The second half becomes a separate line that the server does not read as part of the MOTD.
Skipping the restart. Restart the server, then press Refresh in the Multiplayer list.
Using this output on Bedrock Edition. The codes here follow Java Edition rules. Bedrock has no underline or strikethrough codes and keeps formats on after a color code.

If the server does not show up at all, the server status checker tells you whether it is reachable.

Sources

The data and rules in this tool were last checked on 12 October 2026 against:

Minecraft MOTD generator