What is Glitch Text?
Glitch text is ordinary text layered with dozens of Unicode combining marks — special characters that attach visually to a base character rather than occupying their own space. A single combining mark is normal: it's how accented letters like é or ñ are encoded in Unicode. Glitch text adds many combining marks per character, causing them to stack chaotically above and below the baseline and collide with adjacent lines.
The result looks glitchy, cursed, or corrupted — like the text itself is falling apart. It's widely used in horror-themed posts, creepypasta, meme captions, Halloween content, and anywhere you want a "corrupted data" aesthetic.
Internet culture actually calls this effect Zalgo text, after a 2004 running gag by comics artist Dave Kelly, where wholesome newspaper strips like Nancy and Archie were "corrupted" by an eldritch entity called Zalgo — announced with the phrase "H̸e̴ ̷c̶o̵m̸e̶s̷". The meme took off around 2009 as "the Nezperdian hive-mind of chaos," and the stacked-diacritics look has carried the name ever since — "glitch text" and "Zalgo text" describe the exact same effect, so this page (and the FAQ below) uses both interchangeably.
Tip for horror writers: set Shape to Slope Up and the corruption builds gradually across your sentence — clean at the start, unreadable by the end. It's the classic creepypasta "something is taking over this document" effect, and no slider-only generator can do it.
How This Generator Works
Characters controls which type of combining marks are used — bars (strikethrough-style), letters (superscript letter marks), symbols (enclosing/overlay marks), or noise (accent-style diacritics). "All" uses the full Unicode pool.
Position controls where marks attach — above, below, through the middle, or a combination. "Up & Down" gives the classic zalgo look with spires and roots but no strikethrough.
Shape controls how mark density varies across your text. Uniform applies even density everywhere. Slope Up starts clean and builds chaos. Wave oscillates. Pyramid peaks in the middle. Each shape creates a different visual rhythm.
Frequency is the probability that any given character receives marks at all. At 50%, roughly half your characters stay clean — great for a "corruption spreading" look. At 100%, every character is affected.
Amplitude is how many marks stack on each affected character. At 1, it's a subtle accent. At 20, it's maximum visual chaos.
Combining marks vs. "double stack" text: The same Unicode marks behind zalgo also power the "double stack" or Leͥgeͣnͫd look, where a small letter sits on top of each character — that's simply zalgo with Characters set to Letters, Position Up, and Amplitude 1. For clean, readable top-to-bottom stacking instead of layered marks, use the Vertical & Stacked Text Generator.
Glitch Text Copy and Paste Examples
Need cursed text right now? Tap any card to copy it instantly. Every example below was made with this generator — type your own text above and hit ↻ Regenerate for an endless supply of unique corruption.
Unzalgo — Remove Zalgo From Any Text
This is the only major zalgo generator with a built-in unzalgo decoder. Paste corrupted text into the Decode Zalgo box above and it strips every Unicode combining mark, returning the original readable text instantly — no separate "zalgo remover" tool needed.
Use it to read a cursed message someone sent you, clean up text before quoting it, recover something you over-corrupted, or — if you moderate a Discord server or forum — to see what a zalgo username or message actually says before acting on it. Because zalgo is just base characters plus combining marks, decoding is lossless: the original text is always recoverable. For the full explanation (and how moderators auto-filter zalgo), see how to remove zalgo text.
Where to Use Zalgo Text (and Where It Breaks)
Discord is zalgo's home turf — messages render combining marks fully, and no filter blocks them by default (server AutoMod or the MEE6 bot can). Display names and nicknames accept zalgo but cap at 32 characters, and every mark counts — use the Subtle preset for names. Discord usernames (post-2023) are lowercase letters, digits, underscores and periods only, so zalgo is impossible there.
Roblox filters aggressively: heavy zalgo becomes # symbols or boxes, and middle (overlay) marks are the first to break. If you want to try, use the Subtle preset, set Position to Up & Down, keep it short, and test in-game — full breakdown in does zalgo work on Roblox.
Instagram supports zalgo in bios, captions and comments — lighter styles work best, and very tall stacks get clipped by line-height. Usernames reject it. TikTok behaves the same: bios, captions and comments yes, usernames no.
Twitter / X renders zalgo in posts, bios and replies, but every combining mark counts toward the 280-character limit — heavy zalgo on a single word can eat half a tweet. Watch the "Will it fit?" badges under the output, or run any text through the character counter to check it against 25 platform limits at once.
Twitch usernames are plain alphanumeric (no zalgo), but chat renders it — though channel bots often strip or time out heavy glitch text. Minecraft chat, signs, and server MOTDs render combining marks with no filter. Steam renders zalgo unclipped, which is exactly why it overflows profile and group name UI — use sparingly. WhatsApp and Telegram messages render it fine.
A note on etiquette: screen readers announce every combining mark, turning one zalgo word into a long unpleasant ramble, and some communities (fan wikis, forums) ban zalgo outright for breaking layouts. Horror writers' rule of thumb: one zalgo line per ~200 words hits harder than a full corrupted paragraph. And if anyone worries the cursed text could harm their device — it can't: zalgo is Unicode, not code.
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Get the Embed Code →Frequently Asked Questions
Glitch text — also known as Zalgo text — is regular text that has been layered with Unicode combining marks — special characters that attach above, below, or through a base character. The result looks glitchy, corrupted, or cursed, with diacritics stacking wildly above and below the letters. It's purely decorative and has no special meaning; it's just a visually chaotic Unicode effect.
Unicode includes three groups of combining marks: marks that appear above a character (like accent marks), marks that overlay a character in the middle (like strikethrough marks), and marks that appear below. Zalgo text stacks many of these marks on every character. Normally you'd use one or two combining marks per letter; Zalgo text applies dozens, causing them to collide and overflow into adjacent lines.
Yes, Zalgo text is just Unicode — it contains no code, scripts, or malware. It is completely safe to copy and paste. Some platforms may strip or limit combining marks to prevent display issues, so the effect may vary. Very heavy Zalgo text can be visually disruptive to other users, so use it in contexts where that's expected or desired.
Zalgo text works on Discord, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, YouTube comments, and most platforms that support plain Unicode text. It's popular in horror-themed posts, meme captions, Halloween content, and anywhere a corrupted aesthetic fits. Paste it just like any other text.
Different platforms use different text rendering engines and fonts, which handle stacked Unicode combining marks differently. Some platforms clip or limit how far combining marks extend above and below a line. The same Zalgo text may look extremely chaotic on Discord but more restrained on Instagram or WhatsApp. This is normal — the underlying characters are identical; only the visual rendering differs.
Yes. The page URL automatically updates as you type, including your current text, style, and intensity as URL parameters. Copy the URL from your browser address bar to share your exact configuration. When someone opens it, the generator loads with your text and settings pre-filled.
Paste the corrupted text into the Decode Zalgo box on this page. It strips every Unicode combining mark and returns the original, readable text instantly — a built-in unzalgo / zalgo remover. This is useful for moderators cleaning up chat, for reading a zalgo message someone sent you, or for recovering text you over-corrupted.
Partially. Roblox filters many combining marks — heavy zalgo is often replaced with # symbols or shows as boxes. Light zalgo (low amplitude, no middle marks) sometimes passes in chat, and display names are stricter still. Use the Subtle preset, avoid the Mid position, keep it short, and always test in-game.
Every combining mark is a real Unicode character, so each one counts toward platform character limits. A 10-letter word with heavy zalgo can be 200+ characters. That's why heavy zalgo won't fit a 32-character Discord nickname or eats most of a 280-character post on X. The "Will it fit?" checker under the output shows which platform limits your current text still fits.