Nether portal calculator
Convert Overworld coordinates to Nether coordinates and back, so your portals link exactly where you want them.
Build the Nether portal at X 125, Y 64, Z −300.
How to use it
- Stand where you want your Overworld portal and read your coordinates. In Java Edition, press F3 and look at the XYZ line. In Bedrock Edition, turn on Show Coordinates in the world settings.
- Type X and Z into the Overworld box. The Nether box shows where to build the matching portal.
- Go through any portal into the Nether, travel to those coordinates, and build and light the second portal there.
It works the other way too: type Nether coordinates to find the matching spot in the Overworld.
The formula
The Nether is scaled 1:8 against the Overworld on the horizontal axes. Height is not scaled.
| Direction | X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overworld to Nether | X ÷ 8, rounded down | unchanged | Z ÷ 8, rounded down |
| Nether to Overworld | X × 8 | unchanged | Z × 8 |
"Rounded down" means toward negative infinity, which matters for negative coordinates: −77 ÷ 8 is −9.625, which rounds down to −10, not −9.
| Overworld X, Z | Nether X, Z |
|---|---|
| 1000, −2400 | 125, −300 |
| −77, 300 | −10, 37 |
| 5000, 5000 | 625, 625 |
Why portals link to the wrong place
When you step through a portal, the game first looks for an existing portal near the converted coordinates. It only builds a new one if it finds nothing.
| Edition | Search distance in the Overworld | Search distance in the Nether |
|---|---|---|
| Java | 128 blocks | 16 blocks |
| Bedrock | 128 blocks | 128 blocks |
If it finds more than one portal, it uses the closest. That causes the classic problem: you build a second Overworld portal, walk through, and arrive at your first Nether portal. In Bedrock the Nether search covers 128 Nether blocks, which is about 1,000 Overworld blocks, so this happens a lot.
The fix is to build both sides yourself, using the calculator. A portal at the exact converted coordinates is always the closest one, so it always wins.
Portal frame sizes
A portal frame is a rectangle of obsidian, at least 4 blocks wide and 5 tall, and at most 23 by 23. The corner blocks are optional, so the smallest portal needs only 10 obsidian.
Travel tips
- Every block you walk in the Nether covers 8 in the Overworld. A 1,000-block trip in the Overworld is 125 blocks in the Nether.
- The Nether is only 128 blocks tall and has a bedrock ceiling, so pick a sensible height for your Nether portal. Only X and Z need to match.
- Write your portal coordinates down, or put them on a sign next to each portal. It makes a hub of linked portals much easier to manage.