Zalgo Text Generator

Type anything into the box below and the Zalgo text generator buries it under stacked Unicode marks – Z̸̳̙͍̄̏̅ȧ̸̙͍͎̎ͣl̴͉̠̪̿̃̎g̴͍̫͉̀̉͌o̴͎͍͕ͯͦ̋ – the eerie, dripping look from the “He comes” meme. Choose how heavy you want it, from a faint shimmer to letters you can barely make out, then copy and paste the result into a Discord message, a bio, a caption or a comment.

How to use the Zalgo text generator

1. Type or paste your text. A word, a name, a short line. Zalgo grows fast, so short works best.
2. Pick your intensity. The results run from light to maximum, with variants that stack the marks above the letters, below them, or straight through.
3. Check it in the preview. Tap IG / FB Preview and the same line appears inside an Instagram bio, an X bio, a Facebook intro or a Discord “about me” mock-up – with the real character limit – so you can see whether it fits before you commit.
4. Tap copy and paste it into the message, bio or comment box.

Edit the text and every variant updates at once, so you can compare a light version against a heavy one before you choose.

What is Zalgo text?

Zalgo text is ordinary text with dozens of combining marks piled onto each letter, so the marks spill above and below the line and the word looks like it’s being pulled apart. The name comes from an internet meme that began in 2004 on the Something Awful forums, where the artist Dave Kelly reworked newspaper comic strips so the characters’ eyes ran black and they spoke in dread about an entity on its way – “He comes.” By 2009 the meme had its own Urban Dictionary entry, and the comic’s black, dripping lettering had found its text form: someone realised that Unicode lets you stack accent marks without limit, and the Zalgo text generator was born.

Since then it has become the standard way to write as if something is wrong with the words themselves – in horror memes, creepypasta, alternate-reality games and, every October, a great many bios.

How Zalgo text works

Unicode’s combining diacritical marks – the block from U+0300 to U+036F – were designed to add one accent to one letter: the é in café, the ñ in piñata. Nothing in the standard stops you adding thirty. Each mark attaches to the letter before it, the screen draws them in a stack, and the stack pushes into the rows above and below. That’s the entire trick.

It also explains three things about Zalgo text:

• It isn’t a font. There is no file to install, and the letters underneath are unchanged. A search box or a screen reader still finds “hello” inside the mess. The font generator this page belongs to works the same way for every style – Zalgo is simply the category that opens selected here.
• It has directions. Marks above the letter rise like smoke – r͛ͤͦͪ̃i̓ͬͦͮ͐s̿̆̈́ͣ̃ǐ̄̍͂̊ṅ͗̃̆̕g̀͑̉͌̆ – marks below drip – d̯͔̗̜̥r̡̨͔̰͕i̮͓̯̻̟p̟̼̺̻̫p̡̨̝̞̭i̢̻͇̗͜n̡̥͇̯͜g͈̗͇̫͖ – and overlay marks cut straight through – t̴̶h̸̶r̵̶o̵̶u̵̸g̵̷h̵̸. Above-and-below together is the classic look.
• It counts. Every mark is a character. The word hello at maximum intensity is 90 characters long, which is why Zalgo eats bio limits and post counters so quickly.

Zalgo intensity – light, medium and maximum

The generator gives you the same text at several strengths, so you can match the effect to the place it’s going.

Light – Z̡̔a͖̿l̜̃g͈ͯŏ̯ t̙͒e̥͊x̝̂t̲́ One or two marks per letter. Still readable, survives most username fields, and the safest choice for anything people need to actually read.

Medium – Z̸̳̙͍̄̏̅ȧ̸̙͍͎̎ͣl̴͉̠̪̿̃̎g̴͍̫͉̀̉͌o̴͎͍͕ͯͦ̋ ť̸̜͍̽̆͟ẽ̷͚͈̳͛̍x̸̺̯̫ͬ̔̓t̵̝͍̫̏ͭ̋ The classic meme look. Right for a message, a caption or a comment where the point is the effect.

Maximum – Z̸̢̡̲̭̼̘̜͉͋͆ͩ͂̒͗̄̇̕͟a̷̜̝̩̻̙̫͍̹͑ͭ̔ͧ͗͆͒̕̚͟ļ̸̟̼̙̥̪̠̱͓̒ͨ̾ͥ́̓ͫ̊̚g̸̡̩̲̮̰̦̝̣͕͆̅̊͂̿͐̑̈́o̴̡̲͈̯͔͍̬̠̎ͥͯ̀͆͒̋̐̒ͅ Letters buried completely. Use it for a single word – a name, “RUN”, “He comes” – and expect some apps to trim the stack.

Zalgo is the flood. If you want the flicker instead – letters that look interfered with but stay on one line and keep a sane character count – the glitch text generator is the page for that.

Zalgo text copy and paste – where it works and where it gets cut

Because the output is Unicode, Zalgo text pastes almost anywhere. Whether it displays in full depends on the app:

• Discord. Messages show the full stack, and it’s the platform Zalgo is most at home on. Display names and nicknames are capped at 32 characters, which a medium Zalgo name uses up in three letters – and many servers run automod rules that strip it. For a styled name that passes those rules, the Discord font generator has the readable options.
• Instagram. Bios, captions and comments render it, but the bio limit is 150 characters and a single medium Zalgo word costs around 70 of them. Go light in a bio, and keep the @username plain – it only accepts letters, numbers, full stops and underscores. If you want the rest of the bio styled without spending the whole limit, the Instagram font generator has styles that cost one character per letter.
• X (Twitter). Posts and display names accept it, but the counter charges you for every mark. One light Zalgo word in a post is fine; a sentence at maximum won’t fit. The Twitter font generator page covers the styles that stay inside the 280.
• TikTok. Captions and comments are fine; display names usually strip the marks back to plain letters.
• WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage. Render fully. Very long Zalgo strings can make older phones stutter, so keep it to a line.
• YouTube and Twitch. Comments and titles render it; Twitch chat filters in many channels will block it.
• Reddit. Renders, though some subreddits remove it on sight.
• Games. Roblox, Fortnite and most game chats either filter combining marks or use fonts that can’t draw them, so you’ll see plain letters or boxes.

Where people use Zalgo text

• Horror-themed posts and Halloween. Event names, captions, party invites in the group chat. For the poster or the thumbnail title – something that has to be an image – the horror font generator does that side.
• “Message from the Upside Down” edits. A Zalgo caption is how fans write a message coming through from the other side; for the title on the edit itself, the Stranger Things font page renders the show’s lettering as an image.
• Creepypasta and ARG storytelling. The narrator starts in plain text and decays into Zalgo mid-sentence. Copy a light, a medium and a maximum version of the same line and paste them in sequence.
• Usernames and bios. A light Zalgo name reads as “something is off” without being unreadable – the sweet spot for a profile.
• Memes and replies. The “He comes” reply, the “I have seen things” comment, the reaction to a post that has gone badly wrong.
• Music and art drops. Metal and industrial release announcements, dark-art captions, anything that wants the words to feel damaged.

Tips for Zalgo text that actually works

• Keep it short. One word or one phrase. A paragraph of Zalgo is unreadable and gets clipped almost everywhere.
• Match intensity to the job. Light for names and bios, medium for messages, maximum for one word only.
• Skip the through-the-letter variant if you see boxes. Overlay marks are the ones older systems fail on; above and below are much safer.
• Mix it with plain text. Plain words that decay into Zalgo hit harder than a wall of it.
• Never put essential information in it. Screen readers announce every mark, and search can’t match a Zalgo phrase – keep dates, links and instructions plain.
• Test in the preview, then in the app. Paste, save and reopen your profile to confirm what actually stuck.

Zalgo text FAQ