How to Teleport in Minecraft

Teleporting in Minecraft is one command and a surprising amount of small print. /tp will move you, a friend, every player online or a single sheep to a coordinate, to another entity, or into a dimension you have never set foot in. What stops people is rarely the syntax — it is that the command is switched off until something turns it on, and what that something is depends on whether you are in a single-player world, on a Realm, on a Java server or on Bedrock.

This guide covers the current syntax in both editions, how to turn commands on in a world you have already started (which changed in Java 26.2, and most guides have not caught up), the ~ and ^ shorthands that make /tp worth typing, target selectors, dimension hopping, and why you should not hand teleporting to players by opping them.

Versions and date checked

Every syntax line, permission level and edition difference below was verified against minecraft.wiki on 12 September 2026, against the current releases: Java Edition 26.2 and Bedrock Edition 26.45 (Bedrock Dedicated Server 1.26.45.1). Where behaviour differs between editions it is called out rather than averaged.

The command in Java Edition

The command is /teleport, and /tp is an official alias for it rather than a legacy leftover — the two have been identical since 1.13, when tp was folded into teleport.

One asymmetry catches people building lobby spawns: teleporting to an entity copies that entity's rotation, while teleporting to coordinates leaves rotation untouched unless you supply one.

/teleport needs permission level 2 in Java. In a single-player world where commands were enabled at creation your level is 4, so it just works. On a dedicated server the level comes from ops.json, and op-permission-level in server.properties decides what a plain /op PlayerName grants — it ships as 4.

The command in Bedrock Edition

Bedrock has the same two names and a different argument order, plus one argument Java does not have.

checkForBlocks is the Bedrock-only one, and it is genuinely useful: set it to true and the game "teleports the target(s) only if the target(s) would not collide with a block it cannot be inside" — the difference between landing in a cave and landing inside solid deepslate. It defaults to false: no check, just teleport. Java has no equivalent.

Two more differences. /teleport needs only permission level 1 on Bedrock, but it is also marked cheat only — the permission alone is not enough, cheats must be on too. And there is no facingAnchor: Bedrock always faces the target entity's feet from your feet.

Which edition you are on decides more than syntax, including who can join you. Is Minecraft Crossplay? covers whether your Java and Bedrock friends can share a world at all.

Turning commands on in a world you already started

This is the actual question behind most "how do I teleport" searches, and the answer changed recently.

Java Edition. The world-creation option is called Allow Commands — it was renamed from "Allow cheats" back in 1.20.5. If you left it off, you used to be stuck with the Open to LAN workaround. As of 26.2 you are not: the host of a world now has access to the "Game Mode" and "Allow Commands" buttons in the World Options screen, which lives in the pause menu. Flip Allow Commands on there and /tp works, in the world you are already standing in.

The same release moved Open to LAN's copies of those buttons under a "Settings for Other Players" header, where they no longer affect the host at all — so any guide telling you to Open to LAN to get commands for yourself is describing a version that no longer exists.

Hardcore worlds cannot do this

The "Game Mode" and "Allow Commands" buttons are not available in Hardcore worlds, in World Options or in Open to LAN — so a Hardcore world has no in-game switch for this.

Bedrock Edition. Cheats live in the "Cheats" tab of the world settings and can be toggled at any time. The cost is permanent: enabling cheats in a Bedrock world permanently prevents players from unlocking achievements in that world, even if cheats are later turned off. On a Bedrock Dedicated Server it is allow-cheats in server.properties — "if true then cheats like commands can be used" — and it ships as false. /changesetting can toggle it from the server console.

~ and ^: the two shorthands that make /tp worth typing

Absolute coordinates work when you know them. These two shorthands make /tp usable in the moment.

Tilde — relative world coordinates. A number after ~ is an offset from where the command is executed, along the world axes, and a lone ~ means an offset of zero. You can mix tildes with absolute numbers freely:

/tp ~ ~10 ~          lift yourself ten blocks straight up
/tp ~ 64 ~           keep your X and Z, drop to an absolute height of Y=64
/tp ~100 ~ ~         100 blocks east, same height, same Z

That second one is worth memorising: it keeps your horizontal position and sends you to a fixed altitude, which is the fastest way out of a cave you are lost in.

Caret — local coordinates. A number after ^ is an offset in a frame that moves and turns with you: ^sway ^heave ^surge. Positive sway is to your left, positive heave is up, positive surge is forward, in the direction you are looking.

/tp ^ ^ ^5           five blocks forward, wherever you are facing
/tp ^ ^ ^-1          one block backward

Two rules. Carets cannot be mixed with world coordinates — ^ 0 ^ fails to parse, with "Cannot mix world & local coordinates (everything must either use ^ or not)". And ^ ^ ^5 follows your pitch as well as your yaw, so looking up sends you up. To move forward at a constant height, flatten the pitch:

/execute rotated ~ 0 run tp ^ ^ ^3

That teleports you three blocks forward at the same Y.

Target selectors: who gets moved

A selector in the <targets> slot turns one command into many. Java has six; Bedrock has those plus @initiator for NPC dialogue buttons.

/tp @a @s            pull every player to you
/tp @e[type=cow] ~ ~ ~   gather every loaded cow onto your position
/execute as @a at @s run tp ~ ~10 ~   lift every player ten blocks from where they individually stand

@s is empty from the console and from command blocks

@s selects the entity the command was run as, and "does not select anything if the command was not ran as an entity". Run /tp @s 0 64 0 from your server console or over RCON and nothing happens, silently. Name the player instead.

Teleporting between dimensions

/tp on its own cannot change dimension by coordinates — you need /execute in to set the dimension first:

/execute in minecraft:the_nether run tp ~ ~ ~          (Java)
/execute in nether run tp ~ ~ ~                        (Bedrock)
/execute as @a in minecraft:the_end run tp 84 57 79    (Java)

Teleporting to a player across dimensions needs no execute — Java has allowed it since 1.13, and Bedrock since 1.19.50.

execute in ignores the Nether's 8:1 ratio

Nether coordinates map to Overworld coordinates at eight to one — one block in the Nether is eight in the Overworld. /execute in minecraft:the_nether run tp ~ ~ ~ does not apply that ratio; it drops you at the same numeric coordinates in the other dimension. If you want the spot a portal would have taken you to, divide your Overworld X and Z by eight yourself.

Finding somewhere worth teleporting to

/locate is the natural partner to /tp and needs the same permission level 2. /locate structure <structure> returns the nearest match's coordinates, and since 1.13 that output has carried a clickable teleport link — on Java you often do not have to retype anything:

/locate structure mansion
/locate structure trial_chambers
/locate biome desert
/locate structure #village        (Java — the # makes it a tag, matching any village type)

Trial chambers are the usual target; what is down there is covered in Minecraft Trial Chambers: Loot, Spawners and Vaults.

If you want a way home rather than a way out, the vanilla answer is not a command: a bed or respawn anchor sets your respawn point, and /spawnpoint [<targets>] [<pos>] [<angle>] sets it by command. How to Make a Bed in Minecraft covers the low-tech version.

On a multiplayer server, do not op your players

Here is the trap. Level 2 is not a teleport permission, it is the Gamemaster tier: the same level unlocks /gamemode, /give, /gamerule and command blocks. Grant it so people can teleport to each other and you have granted creative mode and infinite items — and since op-permission-level defaults to 4, a plain /op is worse still. Minecraft Op Permission Levels: 0 to 4 Explained walks through each tier.

The answer on a Java server is a plugin that owns teleporting separately from op. EssentialsX gives you /tpa and /tpahere (request-based, so nobody is yanked around without consent), /tpaccept, /tpdeny, /back, /top, /home and /warp — each behind its own permission node (essentials.tpa, essentials.tpaccept), so teleporting can go to everyone while op stays with you. It also adds what a survival server needs: teleport-delay is a warm-up during which moving or taking a hit cancels the teleport, the standard defence against escaping a fight, and teleport-cooldown limits how often. EssentialsX Setup: Homes, Warps, Kits and Economy covers the configuration.

Bedrock's model is simpler: teleporting is its own per-player toggle. The Teleport permission "allows the player to use the /tp command" and belongs to the Operator role, while Build, Mine and Open containers belong to Member — so a Custom role can hand out /tp without operator commands. On servers that lives in permissions.json, with default-player-permission-level (shipping as member) setting what new players get. Note that setting another player to Operator permanently disables achievements for the world.

Getting a plugin and a permissions manager running is mostly file uploads and a restart — on a managed Minecraft server the plugin folder and server.properties sit behind a panel field, which is what makes the EssentialsX route cheaper than the "just op them" route.

When /tp fails, and when it lags the server

• A named player must be online. If <targets> or <destination> cannot resolve to an entity, the command fails outright.
• Coordinates have hard limits. Since Java 1.16, teleport refuses any position where X or Z falls outside [-30000000, 30000000) or Y outside [-20000000, 20000000). Your server's own max-world-size (default 29999984) will usually stop you long before that.
• It generates chunks. This is the one that bites server owners. Most commands only touch chunks that already exist, but teleport "can send entities into chunks that have yet to be generated. Right before teleporting, the game generates the destination chunk." Send several players to scattered far-flung coordinates and you have asked the server to generate terrain several times at once. If teleporting into fresh territory is how your server works — a random-spawn plugin, a wild command, a new resource world — pre-generate it: Minecraft World Management: Seeds, Pre-generation, Borders and Resets covers how.

What to Read Next

• Minecraft Op Permission Levels: 0 to 4 Explained — what level 2 really grants before you grant it
• Minecraft Server Commands: The Complete Op & Admin List — the rest of the vanilla command set, including /execute
• EssentialsX Setup: Homes, Warps, Kits and Economy — /tpa, /home, /warp and the delay and cooldown settings
• Minecraft World Management: Seeds, Pre-generation, Borders and Resets — pre-generation, and why it matters to /tp
• Multiverse: Running Several Worlds on One Minecraft Server — if your teleports need to cross worlds rather than dimensions
• Getting started with your Minecraft server — start here if the world is not on a server yet
• Is Minecraft Crossplay? — which of your friends can join which world
• Minecraft Trial Chambers: Loot, Spawners and Vaults — the usual destination for /locate structure
• How to Make a Bed in Minecraft — the no-commands way to set where you come back to

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