Most Kick emote guides are Twitch guides with the logo swapped — three-size upload sets, review queues and slot ladders that do not exist on Kick. This guide keeps only what we could verify against Kick's help articles, developer docs and 2026 sources that agree, and flags how solid each fact is.
Kick emotes come in two classes: up to 60 channel emotes every channel gets from day one, and up to 24 subscriber emotes for Affiliate and Verified channels. You upload one square image at 500×500 pixels or less — PNG static, GIF animated — and there is no documented approval queue: Kick publishes content rules and enforces them after the fact (last verified August 2026).
Key takeaways
- Every channel gets up to 60 channel emote slots at creation — no Affiliate needed — but they work only in your own chat (last verified August 2026).
- Affiliate and Verified channels add up to 24 subscriber emotes with inverted reach: active subs can use them in any chat on Kick.
- One upload at 500×500 pixels or less. The 28×28/56×56/112×112 three-size sets most guides list are Twitch specs pasted onto Kick.
- No review queue, approval timeline or SLA is documented anywhere — "approval" on Kick means staying inside the content rules so your emotes never get removed.
- 7TV emotes are extension-only on Kick: both you and each viewer need the extension with Kick support switched on, or nobody sees them.
What are the two kinds of Kick emotes, and who can use each?
Kick splits emotes into channel and subscriber emotes with opposite reach — the most garbled fact in emote guides. Channel emotes are the free tier: per Kick's help center, every channel can upload up to 60 from the moment it exists, usable only in your own chat — they never travel to other streamers' chats (last verified August 2026). Subscriber emotes invert that: Affiliates and Verified channels add up to 24 sub-only emotes that active subscribers can use in every chat across Kick — a walking advertisement for your channel.
Kick also ships global emotes plus standard emojis that work in every chat for every viewer, no sub required — we will not quote a count, because no official number exists. And community-observed channel data shows each channel emote carries its own subscribers-only flag, so one channel set can mix emotes open to everyone with sub-gated ones. Kick also does not drip-feed slots: no documented ladder unlocks extra emotes as your subscriber count grows the way Twitch's does — 60 arrive with the channel, 24 with Affiliate or Verified, all at once.
What size and format do Kick emotes need to be?
One square image at 500×500 pixels or less — the only dimension Kick itself states — uploaded as a single file rather than a Twitch-style set of three sizes (last verified August 2026). Here is the spec sheet, with an honest note on how solid each line is.
| Spec | What to use | How solid is this? |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 500×500 px or less, square, one file | Kick's own help article (last verified August 2026) |
| Static format | PNG, transparent background | 2026 guide and tool consensus; not in the official article |
| Animated format | GIF — plays natively in Kick chat | 2026-source consensus; visible on large channels |
| File size | Under 1 MB | Tool-site consensus — not an official Kick number |
| Emote name | Letters and numbers, no spaces; short and easy to type | Sources conflict — no verifiable official rule |
| Channel emote slots | Up to 60, from channel creation | Kick's help center (last verified August 2026) |
| Subscriber emote slots | Up to 24, Affiliate or Verified only | Kick's help center (last verified August 2026) |
Ignore any guide telling you to prepare 28×28/56×56/112×112 versions — that is Twitch's spec copy-pasted onto Kick; Kick scales your single upload. The under-1-MB cap is what resizer tools work to, not a number Kick publishes.
On names, no exact rule is verifiable: 2026 guides conflict on length and casing, while Kick's own developer docs show real emote names in capitals — KEKW and HYPERCLAP among them — so a lowercase-only rule cannot be true platform-wide. Stick to letters and numbers, short and unique. Community-observed endpoint data shows channels carry an editable emote prefix so names do not collide; treat the exact mechanics as undocumented.
How do you upload emotes to your Kick channel?
The whole flow lives in your Kick dashboard under Community, then Emotes — there is no other door. Kick's public API has no emote-management endpoints, so any tool promising to bulk-upload emotes is describing something the platform does not expose. Under the hood, chat delivers your emote as an [emote:id:name] token — one more reason the name matters.
How do you unlock subscriber emotes on Kick?
Reach Affiliate or Verified status — subscriber emotes ride on subscriptions, which switch on at Affiliate. Most 2026 sources still cite 75 followers plus 5 cumulative streamed hours for Affiliate, though some report Kick dropped the follower half — your dashboard's Achievements tab is authoritative. Either way the bar is deliberately low — not to be confused with the Kick Partner Program, whose bar is far higher and governs revenue, not emotes. Affiliate lands all 24 subscriber slots and sub badge configuration at once. Pricing, tiers and gifting are covered in our guide to Kick subscriptions; the application-based Verified route in our Kick verification guide.
If the Affiliate bar stands between you and sub emotes, that is a visibility problem, and visibility on Kick tracks concurrent live viewers — the biggest streams are the most visible. Some streamers pair genuinely good streams with a service to buy Kick live viewers for the climb — we sell exactly that, so weigh our words accordingly and hear the honest part first: buying viewers goes against Kick's Terms of Service and carries a real, non-zero risk that no provider, us included, can wave away. Gradual, proportional delivery lowers the risk; nothing eliminates it.
Is there an emote approval process on Kick?
No documented one — this is where guides quietly invent things. Third-party articles claim review within 1 to 24 hours; others say 24 to 48; they cannot both be right, and neither cites anything. Kick's own help article ends the upload flow with the emote added to its slot, which reads as immediate, and no official review queue, approval step or turnaround time is documented anywhere we could find (last verified August 2026). That is a finding, not a gap: Kick's model is published rules plus after-the-fact enforcement, not a Twitch-style pre-publish gate.
Practically, "approved" on Kick means the emote uploads cleanly against the specs above and then survives — nobody reports it, no moderator strips it, no rights holder complains. That second half is all about the content rules below.
What gets a Kick emote rejected or removed?
Kick's Emote guide sets out four rule families: no illegal or inappropriate words or imagery; no hate speech or extreme violence; nothing endorsing or promoting illegal activities; and you must hold the rights to everything in the emote — another person's intellectual property, brand or likeness used without permission can trigger takedowns and even legal action (last verified August 2026). Common casualties: copyrighted game and anime characters, brand logos, other streamers' faces, NSFW or gore frames tucked inside animated GIFs, and anything that reads as a hate symbol.
Two details bite skimmers. Under Community Guideline 11 you answer for the emotes your channel runs, including ones your moderators create — a mod-made joke emote is your problem, not theirs. And enforcement is retroactive: an emote that sat quietly for months can still be reported and removed, so audit your set before a clip of it travels.
Do 7TV and other third-party emotes work on Kick?
Yes, but only through browser extensions — there is no native 7TV integration inside Kick. 7TV supports Kick via its browser extension, where kick.com is an optional permission each user must switch on, and the dependency runs both ways: the broadcaster needs it to attach an emote set, every viewer needs it to see the results, and anyone without it sees plain text. NipahTV, a second Kick-focused extension, loads 7TV sets too. Since Kick plays animated GIFs natively, third-party emotes are about cross-platform sets and extra slots, not unlocking animation. Build your native set first; 7TV is a bonus layer your most invested viewers opt into.
How do sub badges and Kick's other badges fit in?
Sub badges are the loyalty half of the identity kit: per Kick's help center they appear automatically next to a subscriber's name in chat and evolve with subscription length, with custom art uploaded as a PNG per time slot — 1 month, 3 months and up — in the dashboard's community settings (last verified August 2026). Two write-arounds: no definitive month-milestone ladder is verifiable, and no Kick-specific badge pixel spec exists anywhere official — the 36×36 and 18/36/72 numbers online are Twitch's badge spec re-badged by resizer tools. Upload a square transparent PNG and judge it at chat size, around 20 pixels, where most badge art turns to mush.
Kick's other documented badge families include Verified, Broadcaster, Moderator, VIP, OG, Founder, Sidekick, Subscriber and Sub Gifter tiers at 25, 50 and 100 — OG and VIP are grantable by the channel owner, and we will not define Founder or Sidekick criteria because Kick has not. Newest: Level Badges, launched around June 2026, a platform-wide watch-time badge that grows passively as a viewer watches — viewers enable it themselves; you configure nothing. Emotes and badges are the visible layer of channel identity; turning chatters into regulars who actually spam your emotes is covered in our guide to Kick community building.
The honest bottom line
Kick emotes are simple once the Twitch debris is cleared: one square upload at 500×500 or less, PNG or GIF, roughly a megabyte, 60 slots from day one, 24 more with Affiliate, and content rules instead of an approval queue. Everything load-bearing traces to Kick's own help articles or developer docs, with community-sourced items flagged — where nothing is verifiable, like approval timelines, name rules and badge pixel sizes, we said so, because a stated negative beats an invented number. If your emote plans run through the Affiliate gate and you are weighing a paid push, read our FAQ first — it spells out what a viewer service can and cannot promise, including the risk we refuse to pretend away.
Frequently asked questions
What size should Kick emotes be?
One square image at 500×500 pixels or less — the only dimension Kick itself states (last verified August 2026). Use PNG for static and GIF for animated emotes, and keep the file under 1 MB, a tool-site consensus figure rather than an official Kick number. Kick handles chat scaling from a single upload; the 28, 56 and 112 pixel three-size sets are Twitch specs.
How many emote slots do you get on Kick?
Up to 60 channel emote slots from the moment your channel exists, no Affiliate required, plus up to 24 subscriber emote slots once you reach Affiliate or Verified status (last verified August 2026). No documented ladder unlocks slots gradually as your subscriber count grows — that is the Twitch model. Each Kick set arrives all at once.
Does Kick support animated emotes?
Yes, natively. Upload an animated GIF through the same flow as a static PNG and it plays in chat without viewers installing anything — consistent across 2026 sources and visible on large Kick channels. No WebP or APNG support could be verified, so stick to GIF; if the file runs heavy, cut frames, shrink the palette or shorten the loop.
Can viewers use your Kick emotes in other streamers' chats?
Only the subscriber class travels. Channel emotes work solely inside your own chat, per Kick's help center (last verified August 2026). Subscriber emotes invert that: active subscribers can use them in any chat across Kick, and they stop working when the subscription lapses. Kick's global emotes and standard emojis work everywhere for everyone, no subscription needed.
Do you need a browser extension to see 7TV emotes on Kick?
Yes, on both sides. 7TV supports Kick only through its browser extension, where kick.com is an optional permission the user must enable; both the broadcaster and every viewer need the extension or the emotes render as plain text. NipahTV is a second Kick-focused extension that also loads 7TV sets. There is no native 7TV integration inside Kick.
Why would a Kick emote get rejected or removed?
Kick's Emote guide bans illegal or inappropriate imagery, hate or extreme-violence content, anything promoting illegal activity, and material you do not hold rights to — copyrighted characters, brand logos, or another person's likeness without permission. Enforcement happens after upload rather than through a documented review queue, and under Community Guideline 11 you are responsible for emotes your moderators create too.