Coordinates are an essential part of Minecraft because they provide a numerical representation of the player’s location. As such, they allow players to orient themselves while exploring the 3 main in-game dimensions – Overworld, The Nether, and The End and locate specific points of interest within them. Additionally, when players begin exploring other options such as renting Minecraft Realms servers or using Minecraft modpacks, coordinates become indispensable. But to get there, they must first learn how to show coordinates in Minecraft. Luckily, we want to help.
1. Show coordinates in Minecraft: Steps required
Here are 4 ways to display coordinates in Minecraft:
1. Java Edition
If you’re playing Minecraft Java Edition, you can make coordinates in Minecraft appear by pressing the F3 key on Windows and Linux, or Fn (Function) + F3 keys together on Mac. On some newer Macs, you might have to press Alt + Fn + F3 simultaneously.
2. Bedrock Edition
Do this to see coordinates in Minecraft Bedrock Edition:
- Enter the Settings menu and select Game from the list of options.
- Scroll down until you find the Show Coordinates option, then toggle it to on.
- Exit out of Settings and you’ll see coordinates in the top left corner.
3. Consoles
Although the option above works with consoles too, there’s an alternative for the single-player game version. All players start with a Map item in their inventory when the Minecraft map is created. Opening it displays the current coordinates, which will be updated as you move, like in the 2 methods above.
4. Using Minecraft Cheats
Another alternative that only works if you’re the server admin is the teleport command. First, make sure you enabled Minecraft cheats. Then, type either of the two commands into the chat and press Enter:
- /teleport ~ ~ ~
- /tp ~ ~ ~
Explanation. You won’t move teleport anywhere. But you can see the coordinates of the current location in the chat.
Coordinates in Minecraft don’t appear. Why?
It’s all but guaranteed it has to do with server configuration. So, you must ask the person responsible for it to change them from true to false (or vice versa) in the console/chat. Here are 2 common reasons Minecraft coordinates won’t appear:
- The server admin ran a command: /gamerule reducedDebugInfo true
- If you’re playing Bedrock Edition, the server owner ran a command: /gamerule showcoordinates false
2. Understanding Minecraft coordinates
Like all three-dimensional spaces, Minecraft uses 3 coordinates to determine exact locations in the world:
- X coordinate represents the East (positive values) and West (negative values) direction from the central point of the map e.g., the longitude.
- Y coordinate determines the player’s elevation e.g., how high or low the player is. It ranges from 0 to 255.
- Z coordinate represents the North (negative values) and South (positive values) direction in reference to the central part of the map e.g., latitude.
3. Interpreting Minecraft coordinates
While traversing or teleporting in-game, players will have to interpret these coordinates in Minecraft:
Elevation numbers
As we mentioned in our guide for finding Villages in Minecraft, players often have to determine the Y coordinate by themselves. With that said, the sea level in Minecraft’s Overworld dimension is at an elevation of 63 while its lava flood sea is at 11. Also, the lava sea elevation in The Nether is 31.
Absolute coordinate
Absolute coordinates are defined with a number and refer to a specific location in the dimension. For example, x, y, z = 114, 70, 237 is an absolute coordinate. Unlike coordinates displayed in Java Edition, they don’t have decimal numbers.
Relative coordinate
Relative coordinates are written with a tilde (~) notation. They refer to a location in the dimension in relation to the player’s current position. For example, ~2, ~3, ~4 represent a location 2 blocks East, 3 blocks up in elevation, and 4 blocks to the South from the player’s current position.