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How to Craft Charcoal in Minecraft

Charcoal in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own item texture. Fuel source. Minecraft has used the name Charcoal since Beta 1.2.

This one is smelted rather than crafted: 1 Log in a Furnace, fuel below it, no grid involved. What comes out is 1 Charcoal. It doubles as fuel at 1600 ticks apiece, so 8 Charcoal will smelt 64 items.

Charcoal Item ID and Give Command

The item ID for Charcoal is minecraft:charcoal. In commands the namespace may be left off, so charcoal works too. Checked against Minecraft Java 26.2.

Give yourself one
/give @p charcoal
Give a full stack of 64
/give @p charcoal 64
Give it to a named player
/give Steve charcoal 1

Cheats have to be on for Charcoal to appear this way, and the same command works on Bedrock Edition, where the name is written the same.

Overview

Charcoal is made by smelting any log. It works identically to coal for making torches and fueling furnaces. Charcoal is produced by smelting in a Furnace rather than by arranging items in a grid.

Minecraft has used the name Charcoal since Beta 1.2, the oldest release whose language file lists it. The recipe itself last changed in Minecraft 1.16. Guides written before that release show a different set of ingredients for the charcoal, so check the grid above rather than the video.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with log (chop any tree).

What A Stack Yields

Empty a stack of 64 logs into this and 64 charcoals come back. Craft 64 takes the last log, with nothing spare.

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Log1xChop any tree

To make Charcoal you will gather Log (chop any tree), and craft them at a Furnace.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Open your Furnace interface.
  2. Place Log in the top input slot.
  3. Add fuel (coal, charcoal, wood, etc.) to the bottom fuel slot.
  4. Wait for the smelting progress bar to complete. Collect your Charcoal from the output slot.
Minecraft crafting recipe for Charcoal: 1 x Log in a furnace, making 1 Charcoal.

Tips & Notes

  • One craft costs 1x Log. Start with the Log: chop any tree.
  • One piece of coal or charcoal smelts eight of these, so a single coal covers 8 Charcoal; a dried kelp block does twenty at a time and is renewable.

Uses for Charcoal

  • Fuel source
  • Crafting torches (substitute for coal)

View detailed item stats, durability and properties for Charcoal on the Astroworld Items Database.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft Charcoal in Minecraft?
1 Log at a Furnace: that is the whole shopping list for Charcoal. Top slot takes the input, bottom slot the fuel, and one craft produces one Charcoal.
Where do you find the materials for Charcoal?
Here is where each part of Charcoal comes from. Log: chop any tree.
How much Charcoal do you get from one craft?
The Charcoal recipe makes one Charcoal per craft.
What is the item ID for Charcoal in Minecraft?
In Java 26.2 the Charcoal goes by minecraft:charcoal; charcoal without the namespace does the same job in a command.
What is the give command for Charcoal?
Use /give @p charcoal to put Charcoal in your own inventory, or /give @p charcoal 64 for a full stack of 64. Cheats have to be on.
Is the Charcoal recipe the same in Java and Bedrock Edition?
Charcoal works the same on both: 1 Log at a Furnace, the same pattern, one at a time, whether you are on Java or Bedrock.
Can you burn Charcoal as fuel?
Charcoal burns for 80 seconds in a furnace, which at ten seconds per item works out to 8 smelted, or 512 from a full stack of 64. That is level with a piece of coal, which also smelts eight.
How do you unlock the Charcoal recipe in the recipe book?
The Charcoal recipe appears in your recipe book as soon as you pick up any one of the 36 items that trigger it in Java Edition, Dark Oak Log, Dark Oak Wood and Stripped Dark Oak Log among them. One is enough; you do not have to collect the rest.
What version of Minecraft added Charcoal?
Minecraft Beta 1.2 is the earliest release that spells out charcoal. The recipe file cannot narrow that down, because 1.13 renamed every recipe file in the game. The current release still makes Charcoal exactly that way.

Sources

Grid, ingredients and yield
1 Log in, 1 Charcoal out, Furnace. Java 26.2, .
That Bedrock agrees
Bedrock 1.26.40.05, same ingredient.
How far back it goes
The name appears in Minecraft Java Beta 1.2 and in nothing older. From all 163 released Java clients, rd-132211 to 26.2.
When the recipe last changed
Every Java release since 1.13 was checked in order, 50 of them, and 1.16 is where this recipe last changed.
Stack size, burn time
The Astroworld Items Database, built from the same jar.
The recipe book unlock
What unlocks it in the recipe book. Java 26.2.
The stack sum
Counted, not played: 1 Charcoal per craft against the stack size.

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