New How much Minecraft really costs in South Africa — every edition in rand
MinecraftSA

XP & Level Calculator

Work out how many experience points any level needs, the XP between two levels, and what a bottle of enchanting is worth.

XP needed
1 395
points from level 0 to level 30
Next level from “to”
112
points from level 30 to 31
Bottles o’ enchanting
≈ 200
at an average of 7 XP per bottle
Points → level
enter points above
SourceXP eachHow many for this

Uses the Java Edition formulas; Bedrock uses the same curve. Mob XP values are the base drops without Looting and before breeding or smelting bonuses.

How Minecraft levels really work

Experience levels are not linear. The bar gets longer as you climb, in three stages: levels 0–15 each need a little more than the last (7, 9, 11… points), levels 16–30 jump faster (42 points for level 16, 112 for level 30), and from level 31 the cost climbs steeply (121 for level 31, 526 for level 76). The consequence is that level 30 — 1,395 points — is less than a tenth of level 100, and that the last ten levels to 30 cost more than the first twenty.

The formulas, for anyone checking the calculator’s work. Points to go from level L to L+1:

  • Levels 0–15: 2L + 7
  • Levels 16–30: 5L − 38
  • Levels 31 and up: 9L − 158

Total to reach level L from zero: L² + 6L up to 16; 2.5L² − 40.5L + 360 for 17–31; 4.5L² − 162.5L + 2220 from 32.

Why the enchanting table is cheaper than it looks

A level-30 enchantment requires you to have 30 levels, but it only spends three of them (plus three lapis). Level 30 to level 27 is 306 points. So once you are at 30, each top-tier enchant costs about 300 points — the equivalent of a few minutes at a decent mob farm — not 1,395. Anvil operations, by contrast, spend the full number of levels shown, and “Too Expensive!” appears at 40; the enchantments guide explains how to plan combines around that.

Where XP comes from

SourceXPNotes
Ender Dragon (first kill)≈ 12,000Level 0 → 68 in one go. Respawned dragons give 500.
Wither50Plus the nether star.
Blaze, guardian, evoker, ravager10 (ravager 20)Blaze farms are the classic XP farm.
Zombie, skeleton, creeper, spider, enderman, witch5Baby zombies give 12.
Passive animals1–3Breeding gives 1–7.
Bottle o’ enchanting3–11 (avg 7)Sold by master-level clerics.
Smelting (per item)0.1–1Ore blocks and raw food are highest; cactus, kelp and sea pickles are the farmable ones.
Mining ore1–7 per blockDiamond, emerald: 3–7. Lapis, nether quartz, redstone: 2–5. Coal: 0–2.
Fishing1–6Per catch.
Trading3–6 (8–11 if the villager is willing to breed)Every trade gives XP — a trading hall is a quiet XP source.
Sculk blocks (mined without Silk Touch)1 per sculk block, 5 per catalystDeep dark cities are an XP bank.

Frequently asked questions

How much XP is level 30?

1,395 experience points from level 0. Level 30 is the level needed to see the best enchantments on a fully bookshelved table, and a level-30 enchant only spends three levels (about 306 points), so you can enchant repeatedly from level 30 without regrinding to zero.

How is the XP per level calculated?

Three formulas from the game code. Points to go from level L to L+1: 2L+7 for levels 0–15, 5L−38 for 16–30, and 9L−158 from 31 up. So level 1 costs 7 points, level 16 costs 42, and level 31 costs 121. The total to reach any level is the sum, which this calculator does for you.

How much XP does a bottle o' enchanting give?

Between 3 and 11 points, averaging 7. A stack of 64 bottles averages about 448 points — roughly level 21 from nothing, or level 30 from level 27.

How much XP does the Ender Dragon drop?

About 12,000 points the first time (enough for level 68 from zero) and about 500 for each respawned dragon.

Do I lose all my XP when I die?

You drop XP orbs worth 7 × your level, capped at 100 points, and the rest is gone. Dying at level 30 drops 100 points and loses 1,295. The keepInventory game rule keeps XP as well as items.

Advertisement

More free tools

All tools →
All guides →