Minecraft MOTD Generator

MOTD stands for 'message of the day': the up-to-two-line description players see next to your server's icon in the multiplayer server list. It's the first thing players read about your server, so a clear, styled MOTD helps you stand out.

Edit the motd= line in server.properties, found in your server's root folder, then restart the server. Build your message above and copy the server.properties output — it's the complete line, ready to paste.

A section sign (§) followed by a character changes the text after it: §0–§9 and §a–§f pick one of 16 colors, §l is bold, §o italic, §n underline, §m strikethrough, §k the scrambled 'obfuscated' effect, and §r resets everything. Inside server.properties the § has to be written as the escape sequence \u00A7, which is exactly what the generated output does.

Two lines, and the client gives each line roughly 45 characters of width (formatting codes don't count). Anything longer is cut off, so the counters next to each line warn you when you cross the limit.

Not in vanilla — server.properties only supports the 16 classic colors. The gradient MOTDs you see on big networks come from proxies like Velocity or BungeeCord plugins that build the MOTD programmatically.

Partly. Bedrock dedicated servers set their list name through server-name in server.properties and ignore § formatting codes there. Third-party Bedrock software, and Java servers reached through Geyser, generally do support these codes.