Master Your Portal Journey - Calculate, Build, Conquer
Instantly convert coordinates, calculate obsidian blocks, and design your perfect Nether portal. Whether you're speedrunning or building massive networks, we've got you covered!
Start CalculatingWelcome to the Nether portal calculator, where we'll demystify Minecraft's Nether portals and how they work. We'll explain how to make Nether portals in Minecraft, how many obsidian for a Nether portal, and how to link Nether portals up to allow fast-travel through the Overworld. We'll even touch on topics like Nether portal designs and how you can make portals without mining obsidian first!
In Minecraft, the Nether portal is a structure that functions as a gateway to the Nether, the game's malevolent alternate dimension. Filled with both hostile monsters and valuable gold ore, the Nether is a crucial part of the player's progression towards beating the Ender dragon.
Remember: The Nether and End portals are two entirely different structures that work in totally different ways. To learn more about the End Portal, try our Minecraft End portal finder.
So let's grab a stack of obsidian blocks and get right to building a portal!
If you just need to use the Minecraft Nether portal calculator without sweating the details, here's how. The Minecraft Nether portal calculator has two modes: coordinate mode and block mode.
Coordinate mode shows you what the coordinates of a location in the Overworld would be in the Nether and vice versa.
Block mode lets you calculate details about the Nether portal you're about to build.
Example: Creating a Nether portal of size 5×5 blocks with corners requires 16 Obsidian blocks.
Read on to learn about the math behind the calculator to better understand Nether portals.
A Nether portal is simply a rectangular frame of obsidian that's been set alight with a flint and steel (or other fire-making tool, like a fire charge). The frame must at least be 4 blocks wide and 5 blocks tall, and can be up to 23×23. The corners of the rectangle are not necessary. We therefore only need 10 obsidian blocks to make a functional Nether portal in Minecraft and still adhere to the required Nether portal dimensions.
To determine exactly how many obsidian blocks you'd need to build a portal of width w and height h, you can follow this formula:
This formula excludes the four optional corners that complete the rectangle. You should add 4 obsidian blocks to the total if your portal will have its corners.
Once the Nether portal frame is complete, we can activate the portal by setting it alight with a flint and steel. This will fill the frame with the iconic purple swirling texture of the portal. Ready to step through?
While the basic rectangular frame can suffice, there are some awe-inspiring Nether portal designs out there. We can even build Nether portals to be circular!
While we've just learned how to make a Nether portal in Minecraft, there are some shortcuts. A common trick, especially for Minecraft speedrunners, is to use the bucket method. We usually obtain obsidian by letting water flow onto lava, thereby forming obsidian. Then we'd mine the block using a diamond pickaxe. But what if we don't have any diamonds? How do we make a Nether portal with just lava?
In this case, we can use buckets to move lava somewhere so that, if we throw water onto it, it forms obsidian in the shape of a Nether portal frame. We can use low-value blocks (like cobblestone or dirt) to build a rudimentary cast into which we place the lava and water so that it doesn't spill.
The Bucket Method: This is the bucket method of making a Nether portal without mining obsidian directly - perfect for speedruns and early-game survival!
Before discussing Minecraft's Nether portal linking, we must examine how the Nether bends space in the Overworld. The Nether and the Overworld's coordinates don't line up in a 1:1 ratio, as distances don't work the same in the two dimensions. Instead, the ratio is 1:8, meaning that traveling one block in the Nether equates to traveling eight blocks in the Overworld (although this doesn't apply for the Y-axis).
When you make your first Nether portal in the Overworld, a corresponding Nether portal is automatically created in the Nether as the dimension is generated for the first time. In this case, you can easily use the above conversion rates to pinpoint your Nether portal coordinates.
When multiple portals already exist, though, things get a bit more complex:
Minecraft Chunks: In Minecraft, the world is divided into segments called chunks that are 16 blocks wide, 16 blocks long, and reach from the world's floor to its ceiling.
With this knowledge, players can calculate distances between their Nether portals to create vast fast-travel networks to reach far-off corners of the Overworld.