Hosting images for embeds

Madsi needs a direct image URL for embed thumbnails, icons, and images. Here's where to host them for free.

Why you need a URL

Admin

Discord embeds don't store image files. They store direct links to images hosted elsewhere. So you can't drag a file into the editor; you need a URL like https://example.com/picture.png that points straight to the image (no HTML page wrapping it).

Madsi doesn't host your images yet. We may add it later, but for now you'll use a free third-party image host.

Recommended free hosts

Admin

Imgur

imgur.com: the classic. Drop a file, right-click the image, Copy image address. Get a direct URL like https://i.imgur.com/abc123.png. No account needed for one-off uploads.

PostImage

postimages.org: no account needed, pick Direct link from the post-upload share box. URLs stay live forever.

ImgBB

imgbb.com: clean uploader. After upload pick the Direct links dropdown → HTML full linked, then grab just the src URL.

Cloudinary (free tier)

cloudinary.com: sign up for the free tier (25 credits/month) if you want stable URLs you control. Best for branded server icons that should never break.

Hosts to avoid

Admin
  • Google Drive / OneDrive / Dropbox share links: they return an HTML page, not the raw image. Discord can't render them.
  • Pasted screenshots from your clipboard. Those aren't URLs at all, just raw image bytes. You need to upload them somewhere first.

Discord CDN links (cdn.discordapp.com/...) are a grey area, not an automatic "avoid." They carry an expiring signature (?ex=…&is=…&hm=…), but that signature only lapses when a link is loaded outside Discord. Because Madsi posts your embeds back into Discord, Discord refreshes the signature and the images generally keep working (which is why they don't break after a day). The catch: the link dies if you delete the original upload or its message, and it isn't an officially permanent URL. Fine in a pinch, but for a template you never want to break, use one of the dedicated hosts above.

Getting a direct URL

Admin

A "direct URL" ends with the image file extension (.png, .jpg, .webp, .gif) and shows nothing but the image when you open it in a browser.

  1. Upload to one of the hosts above.
  2. Right-click the image on its page and choose Copy image address (Chrome/Firefox/Edge). On Safari it's Copy Image Address in the right-click menu.
  3. Paste into the Madsi embed editor. The preview thumbnail confirms it loaded.

If the preview shows the broken-image icon, the URL probably points to an HTML page instead of the raw image. Try the Copy image address trick instead of copying the page link.

Size and format limits

Admin

Discord renders these formats in embeds: PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP. Animated WebP works. SVG does not; convert to PNG first.

There's no hard byte cap, but Discord's client caches images, so keep them under ~1MB for fast loads. Thumbnails get scaled to 80×80, so don't waste bandwidth on a 4K thumbnail.