To make a map in Minecraft, craft an Empty Map from 8 paper around a compass, then use it: it draws the 128×128 blocks around you, with a marker where you stand. Paper zooms it out to as much as 2,048×2,048 blocks, and empty maps copy it.
Everything below is Minecraft 26.3, Java Edition, from the game's recipe and trade files and the Minecraft Wiki; Bedrock differences are noted.
The recipe
- Paper: 3 sugar cane in a row make 3 paper.
- Compass: 4 iron ingots around 1 redstone dust make a compass.
- Empty Map: 8 paper around the compass, at a crafting table. Our Minecraft crafting recipes show the grid.
In Bedrock Edition, that recipe makes an Empty Locator Map, which shows your position, and 9 paper make a plain Empty Map, without the marker. Bedrock's cartography table also turns paper into maps.
Drawing the map
Hold the Empty Map and use it: it becomes a Map of the area around you, north at the top. It doesn't center on you: the world is cut into fixed squares, and the map shows the square you were in. It only fills in while you hold it, within 128 blocks of you, and an area changes on the map only when you pass by again. In the Nether, maps only show a red and gray pattern.
Zooming out
| Zoom |
Area covered |
Blocks per pixel |
| Level 0, a new map |
128 × 128 blocks |
1 |
| Level 1 |
256 × 256 blocks |
2 |
| Level 2 |
512 × 512 blocks |
4 |
| Level 3 |
1,024 × 1,024 blocks |
8 |
| Level 4 |
2,048 × 2,048 blocks |
16 |
Each level takes 1 paper at a cartography table, or 8 paper around the map at a crafting table. A zoomed-out map starts blank again, and a locked map can't be zoomed out.
Copying, locking and framing
- Copy: a Map and up to 8 Empty Maps at a crafting table give that many copies, and the cartography table copies too. Copies stay in sync, so friends exploring with them fill in each other's map.
- Lock: a Map and a Glass Pane at a cartography table give a locked copy that never changes again.
- Frame: a map fills the item frame it is put in, so maps side by side make one big wall map. A framed map shows up as a green marker on its copies.
- Mark: in Java Edition, use a map on a placed banner to add a marker in its color, with its name if it has one.
The cartography table itself is 2 paper above 4 planks.
Maps from cartographers
A cartographer villager sells an Empty Map for 7 emeralds, then maps that lead somewhere, for emeralds and a compass. Each level unlocks 2 trades from its list, so a given cartographer may not sell every map:
| Level |
Map |
Price |
| Apprentice |
A village map, a Jungle Pyramid Map or a Swamp Hut Map, set by the cartographer's own village: a plains cartographer offers taiga or savanna village maps |
8 emeralds and a compass |
| Journeyman |
Ocean Monument Map |
13 emeralds and a compass |
| Journeyman |
Buried Trial Chambers Map |
12 emeralds and a compass |
| Master |
Woodland Mansion Map |
14 emeralds and a compass |
Every trade is in our villager trades tool. And to see a whole world before you explore it, our seed map shows its biomes and structures from its seed.
