The best Discord leveling bots compared: what each free tier includes, what premium costs, and which bot fits your server. Vendor numbers, per-bot verdicts.
Every "best Discord leveling bot" list is a top-ten slideshow padded with bots the author hasn't run. This one is a working comparison: what each bot's free tier actually includes, what its premium costs, and which server each fits. We make Kiai, so everything below cites the vendors' own pages and our per-bot comparisons, and we'll tell you when another bot is the right answer.
What "best" means for a leveling bot
Four questions, in order of importance:
- Is the leveling core free? Message XP and voice XP, role rewards, multipliers, leaderboards. If the basics are paywalled, everything else is decoration.
- Does it count voice? On voice-heavy servers this one line item decides the comparison. Check our voice XP rundown for the per-bot detail.
- Is it still maintained? A beloved-but-stalled bot (rest in peace, classic Polaris) is a liability you inherit.
- What does premium cost, and what does it unlock? The pricing models range from LevelUp's nothing-to-buy to Tatsu's per-member XP boosts. We keep a full pricing comparison.
The field
Kiai (us). Free: message and voice XP, role rewards (roles, UnbelievaBoat money, messages, nicknames), multipliers, level-up messages, denylists, XP streaks, XP drops, leaderboard position roles, a full dashboard, and imports from twelve bots including one-command migrations from MEE6 and Amari. Premium: $1.99-9.99/mo per server (scales with size) for rank card styling, auto leaderboards, prestige, and unlimited temporary multipliers; members can buy card styling once for $4.99. Choose Kiai if: voice XP matters, you want a dashboard, or you're migrating from a dead or capped bot.
MEE6. The name everyone knows. Free tier: message XP, leaderboard. Premium: nearly everything else, including voice XP and role rewards, on a per-server subscription. Choose MEE6 if: you're already deep in their ecosystem for other plugins. If you're choosing new, the free tier's exclusions are the whole story; see MEE6 vs Kiai.
Amari. Leveling-only specialist, free: XP, role rewards, blacklists, leaderboards. Premium: one-time donation from $6.99 unlocking voice XP, multipliers, and announcement customization. Odd model: premium attaches to the donating user, not the server. Choose Amari if: your community is text-first, you configure happily by command, and you want ten years of "we only do levels". Details in Amari vs Kiai.
LevelUp. The closest thing to a free gift in the space: text and voice XP, multipliers, role rewards, rank cards, live leaderboards, MEE6 import. No premium tier at all. The tradeoffs are a command-only setup (no dashboard) and three languages (English, German, French). Choose LevelUp if: those two things don't bother you, because the price can't be beaten. Details in LevelUp vs Kiai.
Lurkr. All features free, forever, with premium $1/month (Max) or $5/month (Ultimate) raising limits: 3 role rewards per level instead of 10, 25 multipliers instead of 5, 500-user leaderboards instead of 100. Choose Lurkr if: you'll configure heavily and want feature access at near-zero cost. Details in Lurkr vs Kiai.
Tatsu. The economy bot: credits, a 2,000+ item store, pets, profile cards, with server "score" leveling on top. Free: 10 activity roles, full economy. Paid: $4.99-8.99/mo per server (more role slots, server-wide XP boosts) and $4.99-39.99/mo per member (personal XP boosts up to +100%). Chat-only XP, no voice tracking. Choose Tatsu if: the economy is the point of your server. Details in Tatsu vs Kiai.
CakeyBot. Multi-purpose: music with 24/7 playback, AI tools, moderation, auto responders, plus solid leveling (message and voice XP free, drops, decay, double-XP days). Leveling caps: 10 role rewards and 5 multipliers free; 20 and 10 on premium ($4.99/mo), with banner images and vanity URLs also paid. Choose CakeyBot if: you want one bot for many jobs and fit inside those caps. Details in CakeyBot vs Kiai.
Others, briefly. Polar Lab's Polaris V3 is a moderation-and-economy suite ($2.99-4.99/mo) unrelated to the classic Polaris leveling bot, which is discontinued (its import path into Kiai is documented, since existing servers are actively migrating). Arcane, ProBot, and others exist; we compared the ones we have import support for, which is also why these posts can promise your levels survive a switch.
The picks, straight
- Voice-heavy community: Kiai or LevelUp. Voice XP free is the deciding feature, and it stays free on both.
- Zero dollars, forever: LevelUp.
- Configuration headroom at minimum cost: Lurkr.
- Text-only server, command purists, budget buyers: Amari.
- Economy-as-identity servers: Tatsu, for the store and pets.
- One bot for music + AI + leveling: CakeyBot, inside the caps.
- Best all-round leveling with a dashboard: we'd say Kiai, and you knew we would; that's why every claim above links the per-bot evidence.
Quick answers
What's the best free Discord leveling bot? LevelUp if you can live without a dashboard, Lurkr if you want every feature free with limits, Kiai if voice XP and a dashboard matter. All three keep the leveling core free.
Which leveling bots have voice XP for free? Kiai and LevelUp ship it free; CakeyBot does too (5-8 XP/minute default). MEE6 and Amari put voice behind payment.
Do levels transfer between bots? Mostly, yes: the ecosystem has import paths in every direction we compared, and twelve bots import into Kiai (several in one command). Verify your specific source before assuming.
What should a small server (under 200 members) actually pick? Whichever free tier covers your needs with zero payment. LevelUp, Lurkr, and Kiai's free tiers all run a small server indefinitely. Premium value shows up at scale, mostly in dashboards, rank card branding, and automation.
Which one has the best rank cards? Styling is premium on most bots (Kiai, MEE6, CakeyBot); LevelUp's are free. Card viewing is free everywhere. Compare screenshots, tastes differ more than feature lists.
Is it worth paying at all? Only for things you'll use: dashboards for multi-admin servers, rank card styling for branded communities, prestige for servers whose top members have outgrown the curve. Otherwise free tiers run indefinitely.
Verify before deciding
Prices and feature tiers move; all numbers here came from the vendors' own pages at time of writing. Two practical checks that matter more than any listicle: run the free tiers of your top two side by side for a week (they don't conflict), and confirm the import path before committing, because a leaderboard you can't take with you is a leaderboard you'll rebuild by hand.
That's also the point of this series: levels should be portable. Ours import from twelve bots; several of these import ours. Pick the one whose free tier matches your server, and don't feel locked in either way.