Set up Levels

This takes about five minutes. You need the Manage Server permission to open the dashboard for your server.

Open Levels in the dashboard and turn on the switch at the top right of the panel. The switch saves at once; members start earning XP with their next message.
On the Settings tab, check XP Rates. The defaults are 15 to 25 XP per message with a 60 second cooldown and 5 to 10 XP per active voice minute, at a 1x multiplier. See XP System for what each value does.
Under Level-up Notifications, choose where level-ups are announced: Current channel (on by default), DM the member and Dedicated channel. Turning on Dedicated channel shows a Level-up channel picker. The pencil button next to each one opens its message template.
Optional: under XP Filters, block channels such as a bot-commands channel, or limit XP to certain roles. See Filtering.
Click Save Changes in the bar at the bottom of the page.
Open the Reward Tracks tab, click Add Track, name it and save. Then click Add reward in the track, pick a level and a role, and save. See Reward Tracks.
If members already have XP (for example after a MEE6 import), run /xp sync_roles in Discord so they get the rewards they already qualify for. New rewards are never handed out on their own.

The Levels settings tab — Settings: XP rates, level-up notifications, XP filters and the leaderboard option

Note

The bot can only give a reward role that sits below its own highest role and that it has the Manage Roles permission for. The dashboard refuses a role it cannot assign, and a role above your own highest role.

Check that it works

Send a message, then run /rank. Your card shows your level, rank and XP.
Run /leaderboard to see the board in the channel. When your server has a public dashboard, its Full leaderboard button opens the web leaderboard.
Every change you make in the dashboard or with /xp is recorded on the Logs tab.