What is the Minecraft world border?
The world border is the edge of a Minecraft world: an animated wall that players can't walk through, which you can make smaller with the /worldborder command. By default it's so far away that nobody reaches it – 29,999,984 blocks from the centre in every direction.
| Default value | Setting |
|---|---|
| Size (width) | 59,999,968 blocks |
| Centre | X 0, Z 0 |
| Damage outside the border | 0.2 per block per second |
| Safe zone outside the border (buffer) | 5 blocks |
| Warning distance (red screen tint) | 5 blocks |
| Warning time for a shrinking border | 15 seconds |
What happens at the border:
- Players and mobs can't move through it, and players can't place or break blocks on the other side.
- A player who ends up outside – for example because the border shrank past them – takes damage once they're more than the buffer distance outside.
- The wall is light blue when it stands still, green while it grows and red while it shrinks.
The /worldborder command exists only in Java Edition. Bedrock has no world border command.
How to set a world border in Minecraft
Stand where the middle should be and run /worldborder center ~ ~, then set the size with /worldborder set <width>. The size is the full width of the square, not the distance from the centre.
/worldborder center 0 0
/worldborder set 10000
This makes a square 10,000 × 10,000 blocks around X 0, Z 0 – players can go 5,000 blocks in every direction. Use /worldborder get to see the current size.
You need operator rights (permission level 2) to use the command. On a server, you can also type it in the console without the slash. Coordinates are explained in Minecraft coordinates.
How big should the border be? There's no official recommendation – it depends on how many people play and how much they explore. Some rough starting points:
| Server | Border width (example) | Players can go from the centre |
|---|---|---|
| A few friends | 5,000 | 2,500 blocks |
| Small survival server (10–20 players) | 10,000 | 5,000 blocks |
| Larger community | 20,000 or more | 10,000 blocks |
Start smaller; you can always make the border bigger later with /worldborder add, but making it smaller cuts players off from builds they made outside.
All /worldborder commands with examples
set and add change the size, center moves it, damage and warning change what happens near it, and get shows the size.
| Command | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
/worldborder set <width> [time] |
Sets the width; with a time, it grows or shrinks gradually | /worldborder set 8000 |
/worldborder add <blocks> [time] |
Adds to (or with a negative number, takes from) the current width | /worldborder add 2000 |
/worldborder center <x> <z> |
Moves the centre | /worldborder center 250 -400 |
/worldborder get |
Shows the current width | /worldborder get |
/worldborder damage amount <number> |
Damage per block per second outside the buffer | /worldborder damage amount 1 |
/worldborder damage buffer <blocks> |
Distance outside the border before damage starts | /worldborder damage buffer 2 |
/worldborder warning distance <blocks> |
Red screen tint when closer than this | /worldborder warning distance 20 |
/worldborder warning time <time> |
Red tint when a shrinking border will reach you within this time | see below |
/worldborder add changes the width, so add 2000 moves every edge by 1,000 blocks.
Growing or shrinking the border over time
Add a time after the size and the border moves gradually instead of jumping – the classic setup for battle royale or a server that "opens" new land week by week.
The time unit depends on your version:
| Minecraft version | /worldborder set 2000 600 means |
For 10 minutes write |
|---|---|---|
| 1.21.11 and newer (incl. 26.x) | 600 ticks = 30 seconds | /worldborder set 2000 600s |
| 1.21.10 and older | 600 seconds = 10 minutes | /worldborder set 2000 600 |
Since 1.21.11 the time is counted in game ticks (20 ticks = 1 second) and you can add s for seconds or d for in-game days. The same applies to warning time, e.g. /worldborder warning time 30s. Because it now counts game ticks, a moving border also stops while the game is paused or frozen with /tick.
A shrinking border turns red, and players caught outside take damage – with the default 0.2 per block, it's slow at first. For a tough endgame, raise it: /worldborder damage amount 2.
How does the world border work in the Nether and the End?
Since Minecraft 1.21.9 each dimension has its own world border, so you set the Nether border separately – run the command in the Nether or use /execute in. In older versions one border setting applied to all dimensions.
From the overworld or the console:
/execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set 1250
/execute in minecraft:the_end run worldborder set 5000
The /worldborder command only affects the dimension it's run in, which is why the plain command from the console changes the overworld only.
Which size for the Nether? One block in the Nether equals 8 blocks in the overworld. With a 10,000-block overworld border, a Nether border of 1,250 covers the same area, so portals built at the edge of the Nether still lead to places inside the overworld border. If the Nether border is bigger than that, players can travel through the Nether and come out in the overworld near its edge. The wiki also notes that a portal created at the Nether border won't be placed beyond the overworld border.
On Paper and other plugin servers the Nether and the End are stored as separate worlds named world_nether and world_the_end – those are the names you use in Chunky below. Check each border with /worldborder get while standing in that dimension.
Why limit the world size? Disk space and lag
Every chunk a player visits for the first time has to be generated and then saved, so an unlimited world keeps growing on disk and causes lag spikes whenever someone explores new land. A border caps both.
- Lag: generating new terrain is one of the heaviest jobs a server does. Players flying with elytra into unexplored land can make the server lag for everyone.
- Disk: generated chunks stay in the world folder forever, even if nobody ever returns. Backups and world downloads get bigger and slower along with it.
- Maps: web maps like Dynmap and BlueMap render every generated chunk, so a smaller world also means a faster map.
The best combination is a border plus pre-generation: you generate everything inside the border once, when nobody is online, and from then on the server only loads existing chunks. For more ways to reduce lag, see the best Minecraft performance mods.
How to pre-generate the world inside the border with Chunky
Install Chunky, then run chunky worldborder and chunky start in the console – Chunky takes the centre and size from your world border and generates everything inside it.
| Your engine | Chunky version |
|---|---|
| Paper, Purpur | Chunky plugin |
| Fabric | Chunky (Fabric) – needs Fabric API |
| Forge, NeoForge | Chunky (Forge/NeoForge) |
- Set the border first, e.g.
worldborder set 10000in the console. chunky worldborder– copies the border's centre and size into Chunky's selection.chunky start– starts generating. Progress appears in the console.chunky pausestops and saves progress,chunky continueresumes it.chunky progressshows the status.
For other worlds, select them first. On Paper:
chunky world world_nether
chunky worldborder
chunky start
Run it when nobody plays – pre-generation uses the CPU hard, and a large area can take hours. A 10,000 × 10,000 border means 100 million block columns to generate, so start with the overworld and do the Nether later.
Removing chunks outside the border: if the world already has chunks beyond the new border, chunky trim deletes chunks outside the selection. Deleted chunks are gone for good, so make a backup first and restart the server after trimming, as Chunky's documentation advises.
World border on a Spot.gg server
Type the /worldborder commands without the slash in the "Console" tab, and install Chunky from "Addons" to pre-generate the area inside the border.
- Open "Console" and type
worldborder center 0 0andworldborder set 10000(any size you want). For the Nether:execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set 1250. - Open "Addons" → "Available to install", search for Chunky and install the version marked "Compatible with your server" – the plugin on Paper and Purpur, the mod on Fabric, Forge or NeoForge. Restart when the panel asks.
- Back in "Console":
chunky worldborder, thenchunky start. You can close the panel – the server keeps generating while it's running.
Pre-generated chunks take disk space. If the world gets close to your server's disk limit, you can raise it with "Change parameters" in the panel's top bar. And before chunky trim or any big change to the world, make a backup in "Backup".
Paid Minecraft servers on Spot.gg start from $3.90 per month, and a new server is free for the first 24 hours – enough to set a border and pre-generate a starting area.
FAQ
How do I set a world border in Minecraft?
Run /worldborder center 0 0 and /worldborder set 10000. That creates a 10,000-block-wide square centred on X 0, Z 0. You need OP (permission level 2).
Is /worldborder set the radius or the diameter?
The diameter – the full width. /worldborder set 2000 lets players go 1,000 blocks from the centre in each direction.
How do I remove the world border?
Set it back to the default size: /worldborder set 59999968.
How do I set a world border in the Nether?
On 1.21.9 and newer, run the command in the Nether, or use /execute in minecraft:the_nether run worldborder set <width>. A Nether border one eighth the size of the overworld border covers the same area.
Why does my shrinking border move much faster than I set?
Since 1.21.11 the time is counted in ticks. 600 means 30 seconds; write 600s for 600 seconds.
Can Bedrock players use /worldborder?
No. The command exists only in Java Edition; Bedrock Edition has no world border command.
Does a world border reduce lag?
It stops the world from growing, which prevents lag from constant new terrain generation. Pre-generating the area inside the border with Chunky removes most of the rest.