If you’ve spent hours mining for diamonds, fighting creepers at night, and stocking up on food for long adventures, you’ve probably asked at some point: how do i make a Minecraft portal? Portals are the only way to access the game’s most dangerous, rewarding dimensions, full of rare loot, exclusive mobs, and resources you can’t find anywhere in the Overworld. I’ve built hundreds of portals across survival, creative, and modded servers over the last 8 years, so I’m breaking down everything you need to know to build yours correctly the first time, no wasted obsidian or frustrating misfires.
What to Gather Before You Figure Out How Do I Make a Minecraft Portal
The vast majority of players start with a Nether portal first, since it’s the only portal type you can craft fully from scratch in survival mode. Before you start placing blocks, make sure you have all required materials on hand, especially if you’re playing in hard mode where mobs can interrupt your build halfway through.
Many new players make the mistake of trying to use cobblestone or crying obsidian for their portal frame, but those won’t work. Obsidian is the only block that works for standard Nether portals, even if you’re building a larger custom size for a server hub. Crying obsidian is only for crafting respawn anchors, not portal frames, so save that for when you set up a spawn point in the Nether later. If you’re playing in creative mode, you don’t have to worry about gathering anything, just pull obsidian and flint and steel straight from your inventory menu.
Step-by-Step Instructions for Building a Working Nether Portal
Once you have all your materials, find a flat spot at least 5 blocks away from any flammable structures like wood houses or crop farms. Portals don’t spread fire on their own, but ghasts can shoot fireballs through them from the Nether, and you don’t want to lose your base to a random fire because you placed your portal too close.
First, place your obsidian in a rectangle shape. The minimum size is 4 blocks wide and 5 blocks tall, not counting the corners if you’re using the 10-block design. So first, place 2 obsidian blocks on the ground, side by side. Then stack 3 obsidian blocks on the left end of the base, and 3 on the right end. Then place 2 obsidian blocks across the top to connect the two vertical stacks. Now you have your frame.
Next, take your flint and steel, right click on any of the inner bottom blocks of the frame. If you see a purple, wavy portal block fill the inside, you’ve done it correctly. If it doesn’t light, check that your frame is the right size, no blocks are stuck in the middle of the frame, and you didn’t use the wrong block type. I’ve forgotten to do this before on a new survival world, and ended up spawning 2000 blocks away from my base in the middle of a Nether fortress, which was not a fun time when I only had iron armor on. If you’re in a biome with lots of rain, the fire might go out before it activates the portal, so build a small cobblestone roof over the top if you’re in a taiga or jungle.
You can also build portals up to 23x23 blocks wide if you want a grand entrance for a city or server spawn, just follow the same rectangle rule and light any part of the inner frame to activate it.
How to Build an End Portal (No Mods Required)
Most people asking about Minecraft portals also want to access the End, to fight the Ender Dragon and get elytra, the game’s most useful transportation item. End portals work differently than Nether portals, because you can’t craft the frame blocks in survival mode. You have to find a stronghold first, using Eyes of Ender.
To find a stronghold, equip an Eye of Ender and right click to throw it. It will float a few blocks in the direction of the nearest stronghold, and you can follow it until it starts floating down into the ground, meaning the stronghold is underneath you. Dig down until you find the stronghold’s stone brick corridors, then explore until you find the portal room.
Once you find the portal room, you’ll see a 3x3 frame of End portal blocks, arranged in a ring, with an empty space in the middle. All 12 End portal frame blocks need to have an Eye of Ender placed in them to activate the portal. You can craft Eyes of Ender by combining blaze powder and ender pearls, and you’ll usually need between 12 and 20 to find the stronghold and activate the portal, since some Eyes break when you throw them to locate the stronghold. A common mistake here is placing the Eyes from the wrong side: you have to be standing in the middle of the portal ring when you place them, otherwise they won’t align correctly. Once all Eyes are placed, the middle will fill with black, starry portal blocks, and you can jump in to go to the End.
Pro Tips to Keep Your Minecraft Portals Working Long-Term
Building a portal is only half the battle, you need to maintain it if you don’t want to get stuck in another dimension thousands of blocks from home. First, for Nether portals, make sure you light both sides when you first use it. If you only light the Overworld side, when you come back from the Nether, the game might generate a random new portal somewhere far from your base, which is a huge hassle.
Build a small safe area around both ends of your Nether portal, with torches to stop mobs from spawning right next to it, and a fence or wall to keep creepers from blowing up the frame. If you’re playing on a multiplayer server, you can even lock your portal with a redstone door to stop other players from using it to raid your base. You can also name your portals with a sign so you don’t mix them up if you have multiple portals leading to different parts of the Nether.
For End portals, you don’t have to worry about them breaking, but you should place a chest next to the stronghold portal to store extra Eyes of Ender, potions, and gear before you head to the End, so you don’t have to run all the way back to your base if you forget something. If you’re playing modded Minecraft, you can build custom portals for other dimensions, but most follow the same basic rule: a frame of a specific block, activated with a specific item, so you can apply the same basics you learned for Nether portals to those too.
At the end of the day, once you know the basic rules, figuring out how do i make a Minecraft portal is way simpler than most new players expect. You don’t need fancy gear or years of experience, just the right materials and a few minutes to set up your frame correctly. Whether you’re heading to the Nether to collect netherite, to the End to get your first elytra, or just building a cool portal design for your creative mode base, these tips will help you avoid the common mistakes that waste time and resources. Try building your first portal this weekend, and see what new adventures you can unlock in your world.