Discord Scheduled Webhook Messages — Send Messages at Any Time

You want to post a maintenance notice at 3 AM. Or remind your community about an event two hours before it starts. Or send a weekly digest every Monday morning without touching your computer.

The problem: Discord has no native scheduling for webhook messages. You either send it now or you don’t send it at all — unless you build something yourself or use the right tool.

This guide covers three ways to schedule Discord webhook messages, from the simplest (a visual tool that handles everything) to the most hands-on (writing your own cron job).

Why Schedule Webhook Messages?

Before getting into the how, here’s where scheduled webhooks actually shine:

Maintenance windows. Post a warning 30 minutes before you take a server down. No one has to be awake to send it.

Event reminders. Announce a game night, stream, or community call at exactly the right moment — 24 hours before, 1 hour before, whatever cadence works for your audience.

Daily announcements. A “good morning” message, a daily challenge, a tip of the day. Consistent posting without manual effort.

Weekly digests. Round up the week’s highlights every Friday at 5 PM. Your members see it when they log on for the weekend.

Time-zone-friendly posts. Your community spans multiple continents. Schedule messages to land during peak hours for your audience, not whenever you happen to be awake.

---

Option 1: discord-webhook.com (Built-in Scheduler)

discord-webhook.com is the only Discord webhook builder with a built-in message scheduler. Every other tool makes you send immediately. This one lets you pick a date and time, then handles delivery for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Build your message visually. Use the embed builder to set your title, description, color, fields, and footer. What you see is what Discord receives. No JSON wrangling required. (New to webhooks? Start with the Discord webhook setup guide.)

2. Set the schedule. Pick the date and time you want the message to go out. The scheduler supports any future date and time you choose.

3. Click Schedule. The message goes into a queue. The server checks that queue every 30 seconds and fires off any messages whose time has come.

4. Manage your queue. You can see all pending messages in your dashboard and cancel any of them before they send. You can have up to 25 messages scheduled at once.

A free account is required to use the scheduler. That’s it — no paid plan, no API key setup, no server to maintain.

This is the fastest path if you want to schedule a one-off announcement or set up a handful of recurring reminders without writing any code.

---

Option 2: cron + Script

If you’re comfortable with a terminal and want full control, a cron job paired with a small script is a solid approach. You write the message logic once, schedule it with cron, and your server handles the rest.

JavaScript (Node.js)

// send-webhook.js
const webhookUrl = "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_ID/YOUR_TOKEN";

const payload = {
  embeds: [
    {
      title: "Scheduled Announcement",
      description: "This message was sent automatically.",
      color: 0x5865f2,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    },
  ],
};

fetch(webhookUrl, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify(payload),
})
  .then((res) => {
    if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
    console.log("Message sent.");
  })
  .catch((err) => console.error("Failed:", err));

Then add a cron entry to run it at your chosen time. Open your crontab with crontab -e and add:

# Every Monday at 9 AM
0 9 * * 1 node /path/to/send-webhook.js

See the full Discord webhook JavaScript guide for more on building payloads and handling errors.

Python

# send_webhook.py
import requests
from datetime import datetime

webhook_url = "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_ID/YOUR_TOKEN"

payload = {
    "embeds": [
        {
            "title": "Scheduled Announcement",
            "description": "This message was sent automatically.",
            "color": 5765362,
            "timestamp": datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
        }
    ]
}

response = requests.post(webhook_url, json=payload)
if response.status_code == 204:
    print("Message sent.")
else:
    print(f"Failed: {response.status_code} {response.text}")

Cron entry:

# Every day at 8 AM
0 8 * * * python3 /path/to/send_webhook.py

The Discord webhook Python guide covers more advanced patterns, including sending files and handling rate limits.

What you need for this approach: a server or VPS that runs 24/7, basic command-line comfort, and a willingness to maintain the script over time. It’s more work upfront, but you get complete control over the message content and timing logic.

---

Option 3: Third-Party Automation Tools

If you’d rather not write code or manage a server, a few automation platforms can trigger webhook calls on a schedule:

IFTTT and Zapier both support Discord webhooks as an action. You can set a time-based trigger and have them POST to your webhook URL. The free tiers have limits on how often they run and how many automations you can have active.

GitHub Actions supports cron scheduling natively. You can write a workflow that runs on a schedule and calls your webhook using a curl step or a small script. It’s free for public repos and has generous limits for private ones. Example:

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 9 * * 1"  # Every Monday at 9 AM UTC

jobs:
  notify:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Send Discord message
        run: |
          curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
               -d '{"content": "Weekly update!"}' \
               ${{ secrets.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL }}

These tools work, but they add complexity. You’re managing another platform, another set of credentials, and another potential point of failure.

---

Choosing the Right Approach

	discord-webhook.com	cron + script	Third-party tools
Setup time	Minutes	Hours	30–60 minutes
Requires server	No	Yes	No
Requires code	No	Yes	No
Max scheduled messages	25	Unlimited	Varies
Visual message builder	Yes	No	No
Cancel before send	Yes	Manual	Varies

For most people scheduling a handful of announcements or reminders, discord-webhook.com is the obvious choice. It’s the only tool built specifically for this, and it takes minutes to set up.

For teams with existing infrastructure who need to send hundreds of messages or integrate scheduling into a larger system, a cron job gives you the flexibility you need.

---

Practical Tips

Test before you schedule. Send the message immediately first to confirm it looks right in Discord. Then schedule the real one. A typo in a 3 AM announcement is embarrassing.

Account for time zones. The scheduler uses UTC by default. Double-check your target time against your audience’s local time, especially around daylight saving changes.

Don’t over-schedule. A channel flooded with automated messages trains people to ignore them. Keep scheduled posts meaningful and spaced out.

Use embeds for important messages. Plain text gets lost. An embed with a clear title and color stands out. The Discord webhook notifications guide has patterns for different types of alerts.

Schedule a poll. You can schedule a discord webhook poll to go live at a specific time — perfect for launching a community vote at the start of an event or opening a feedback survey on a set cadence.

Schedule to a thread or forum. Combine scheduling with thread and forum support to post updates into specific threads or create timed forum posts without manual intervention.

Schedule messages with buttons. Pair scheduled messages with interactive buttons and actions to post role-selection panels, ticket forms, or FAQ menus exactly when they’re needed.

---

Scheduling Discord webhook messages doesn’t have to be complicated. Pick the approach that fits your setup, test it once, and let it run. Your community gets timely, consistent communication. You get your sleep.