How to make a map in Minecraft and make it bigger
Published on 27 October 2026
How to make a map in Minecraft: put a compass in the middle of a crafting table and surround it with eight paper. You get an empty map. Hold it and use it, and it starts drawing the land around you. To make the map bigger, add paper at a cartography table, up to four times. Below: zooming out, copying, locking, a map wall and the explorer maps you can buy. Checked against the game data of Java 26.3 on 27 October 2026.
How to make a map in Minecraft
You need nine sugar cane and a compass, which comes down to:
- Paper: three sugar cane side by side make three paper. A map takes eight.
- A compass: four iron ingots around one redstone dust.
On a crafting table, place the compass in the centre and fill the other eight squares with paper. In Java the result is an empty map that shows a marker for you. In Bedrock that version is called an empty locator map; nine paper without a compass gives a map without your position on it.
Now hold the empty map and use it (right-click, or the use button). The map fills in as you walk. It records the land within 128 blocks of you, with north at the top, and only shows the surface, even when you’re underground. In the Nether a map only shows a red-and-grey pattern, so it’s of little use there. In the End it works normally.
A map doesn’t centre on you. The world is divided into fixed squares, and a new map shows the square you’re standing in. Two new maps in the same spot are therefore identical. For the next area, walk past the edge of your first map and use a new one.
How do you make a map bigger?
A new map is zoom level 0: one pixel per block, 128 by 128 blocks. Each zoom step doubles the width and height.
| Zoom level | Area | One pixel is |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (new map) | 128 by 128 blocks | 1 block |
| 1 | 256 by 256 blocks | 2 by 2 blocks |
| 2 | 512 by 512 blocks | 4 by 4 blocks |
| 3 | 1024 by 1024 blocks | 8 by 8 blocks |
| 4 (maximum) | 2048 by 2048 blocks | 16 by 16 blocks |
To zoom out, put a filled map and one paper in a cartography table, or surround the map with eight paper on a crafting table. Two things to know. Zooming wipes what was drawn, so you have to walk the area again. And an empty map can’t be zoomed out: use it once first.
Use a cartography table
A cartography table is the cheapest way to work with maps. You craft it from two paper on top of four planks, and it uses less paper than a crafting table:
- Zoom out: map plus one paper.
- Copy: map plus an empty map gives two identical maps.
- Lock: map plus a glass pane. A locked map never changes again, even if the land does. Stained glass panes don’t work, and a locked map can’t be zoomed out.
An unemployed villager can also take a cartography table as its job block and become a cartographer.
Lock, copy and name a map
Copies stay linked. Whatever one player draws appears on every copy, so a group can each map a different direction and fill one shared map together. In Java, other players only show up on your map if they carry a copy of that same map. A copy that you zoom out loses the link and becomes a map of its own.
You can also copy on a crafting table: one filled map plus up to eight empty maps. To give a map a name, use an anvil in Java; in Bedrock you can also rename it at a cartography table, without spending experience.
In Java you can mark places too. Use your map on a placed banner and a marker in the banner’s colour appears. If you named the banner on an anvil first, the map shows that name. Handy for your base, a village or the Nether portal.
Build a map wall
Put maps in item frames side by side and they join up without seams. That gives a big map with more detail than one zoomed-out map. Four level 2 maps in a 2 by 2 square cover the same 1024 by 1024 blocks as one level 3 map, at twice the detail.
- Make the maps at the same zoom level, each from its own neighbouring square.
- Craft item frames: eight sticks around a piece of leather.
- Hang the frames on a wall and place the maps in the right order, north at the top.
- Lock the maps if you want the wall to show the world as it is now.
A framed map shows a green marker at the spot where the frame hangs, on every copy of that map. That makes a wall map at spawn a handy “you are here” for new players. Need coordinates instead? See how to show coordinates in Minecraft.
Explorer maps and treasure maps
Some maps point the way to a structure. You buy them from a cartographer for emeralds plus a compass, or find them in chests.
| Cartographer level | Map | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | Village maps, swamp or jungle explorer map; which ones depends on the villager’s biome | 8 emeralds and a compass |
| Journeyman | Trial explorer map | 12 emeralds and a compass |
| Journeyman | Ocean explorer map (ocean monument) | 13 emeralds and a compass |
| Master | Woodland explorer map (woodland mansion) | 14 emeralds and a compass |
Buried treasure maps come from chests in shipwrecks and underwater ruins. Since 26.3, chests in the new abandoned camps can hold empty maps and maps that lead to another abandoned camp. Explorer maps can be copied, but not zoomed out. Want more trades? See how to breed villagers.
A shared map of your server
On a server with friends, maps work best as a group project. Agree on one zoom level, let everyone fill their own copies, and hang a locked set at spawn. Update that wall now and then with fresh, newly locked copies.
Want a map you can open in your browser, live and for the whole world? That’s a plugin job. With BlueMap, a web map runs next to your server; the steps are in a live web map with BlueMap.
Mapping the world with your group? On your own Minecraft server the world stays online, so everyone can explore whenever it suits them, and you can add plugins such as a web map. From €4.95 a month. See the Minecraft server plans.
