Twitch badges
Twitch badges are the small icons to the left of a username in Twitch chat. Each one shows something about that chatter: a role in the channel, such as broadcaster, moderator or VIP, a subscription, Bits cheered, or an event they took part in.
How to read it
Twitch’s help centre says a chatter can show up to three badges at once, or four with a prediction badge. They come from three slots: global badges such as Prime, Turbo and Twitch Staff appear in every channel; channel badges such as subscriber, VIP and Bits badges appear only in the channel where they were earned; event badges come from events like TwitchCon. In the chat data Twitch sends to apps, each badge is a name and a version, such as moderator/1, and Twitch’s developer documentation says most badges have only one version, while subscriber badges have one for each length of subscription. This page gives the badges as Twitch’s help centre describes them, September 2026.
Also searched as: Twitch chat badges, Twitch sub badge.
What each badge shows
| Badge | What Twitch says it shows |
|---|---|
| Broadcaster | The owner of the channel being watched, who can enforce its chat rules and appoint or remove moderators |
| Moderator | A moderator of that channel, chosen by the channel owner, who can time out and ban chatters and turn on slow or subscriber-only mode |
| Lead moderator | A moderator who can also manage the mod team, add or remove VIPs and change all of the channel’s moderation settings |
| VIP | A chatter the streamer recognises as a loyal member of the community; slow, subscriber-only and followers-only modes don’t apply to them, but moderators can still act on them directly |
| Subscriber | A subscriber to the channel; the streamer designs it, and Twitch’s default is a star |
| Founder | One of a channel’s first subscribers: the first 10 Prime or paid subscribers, or the first 25 on a Partner’s channel |
| Bits (cheer) | How many Bits the chatter has cheered in that channel; it stays indefinitely, but only in that channel |
| Sub gifter | Gift subscriptions bought in that channel; the level it reaches stays permanently |
| Top cheerer, top clipper, top gifter | A place on the channel’s leaderboard, where the channel has leaderboards turned on |
| Artist | A member of the community credited with work on the channel’s look, such as emotes, overlays or avatars; each channel has five |
| Chat bot | Messages from an approved chat bot in that channel |
| Partner | A Twitch Partner |
| Prime | A Prime subscriber; Twitch calls Prime a premium user service with additional benefits |
| Turbo | A subscriber to Turbo, Twitch’s monthly premium service |
| Twitch Staff | A Twitch employee; the badge can’t be granted to anyone else |
| Ambassador, DJ | A member of the Twitch Ambassador Program or the Twitch DJ program |
| Watching without video, watching without audio | A viewer who chose it to show they follow streams without video, or with little or no sound |
| Event badges | Earned at an event, such as TwitchCon 2023 Las Vegas, or online, such as r/place 2023 Cake; Twitch says once an event’s badges are gone they can’t be reissued |
The Partner badge shares the global slot with the Prime, Turbo and Bits badges, not the slot used by broadcaster and moderator badges. The lead moderator role and badge arrived in December 2025, announced on Twitch’s developer forum on 18 December; a lead moderator can choose to show the ordinary moderator badge instead.
Moderator, lead moderator or founder
In chat data the two moderator badges are separate values, moderator and lead_moderator, and Twitch’s developer forum says every moderator has one or the other. The Mod Club Founder’s Badge, from 2026, is a different badge from a channel’s Founders badge, as Twitch’s help centre points out: it went to founding members of the Twitch Moderator’s Club who applied by 8 June 2026, and no new members get it after that date.
Subscriber badges change over time
A subscriber badge is shown next to the subscriber’s name whenever they chat in that channel. As they stay subscribed they reach milestones, three months, six months and so on, and the streamer can give each milestone its own badge; streamers who earn money on Twitch start with badge slots up to one year, and Partners up to ten years. Twitch’s chat data carries the number of months alongside the badge. On Tier 2 and Tier 3 subscriptions a channel can add badge flair, an overlay on top of the subscriber badge.
More social media icons and badges
Browse symbols drawn with crosses, diamonds or stars.
Sources
- Twitch Chat Badges Guide, Twitch Help (read September 2026), Twitch, whole article
- How to Use Badges, Twitch Help (read September 2026), Twitch, whole article
- Subscriber Badge Guide, Twitch Help (read September 2026), Twitch, whole article
- Managing Roles for your Channel, Twitch Help (read September 2026), Twitch, Types of Roles
- Chat and Chatbots: IRC concepts and tag reference, Twitch Developers documentation (read September 2026), Twitch, GLOBALUSERSTATE and PRIVMSG tags: badge-info, badges, mod, subscriber, turbo
- Lead Moderator role and chat badge introduced, Twitch Developer Forums, Announcements (jbulava, Twitch Staff), 18 December 2025, Twitch, first post
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research