# Snowflake

> A Discord ID: a 64-bit integer that encodes the millisecond timestamp at which the object was created, so an account or message age can be read from the ID itself.

- Canonical: https://discordtools.blog/glossary/snowflake
- Group: Platform
- Also called: Discord ID, object ID
- See also: https://discordtools.blog/glossary/guild, https://discordtools.blog/glossary/audit-log
- Updated: 2026-08-31
- Publication: The Index, an independent site not affiliated with Discord Inc.

---
Every user, guild, channel, role and message on Discord carries a snowflake. Because the
creation timestamp is encoded in the number, an ID alone tells you when the object was made
without any API call — which is how alt-detection and account-age gates work.

The practical consequence for moderation: an account-age requirement can be enforced from the
user ID before the account has done anything at all.