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How to Craft Gray Dye in Minecraft

Gray Dye in Minecraft, drawn from the game's own item texture. Dyeing wool, leather armor, glass, concrete, terracotta and more. Minecraft has used the name Gray Dye since Beta 1.2.

Stand at a Crafting Table with 1 Black Dye and 1 White Dye and you can make Gray Dyes. You end up with 2 Gray Dyes each time.

Gray Dye Item ID and Give Command

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

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

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

Overview

Gray Dye is used to color a wide variety of blocks and items. Gray Dye uses a shapeless recipe, so the ingredients can go in any cells of the grid as long as all of them are present.

Minecraft has used the name Gray Dye since Beta 1.2, the oldest release whose language file lists it. The recipe itself last changed in Minecraft 1.14. Guides written before that release show a different set of ingredients for the gray dye, so check the grid above rather than the video.

The materials come together from a few sources: you will be working with black dye (craft from an ink sac or a wither rose) and white dye (craft from bone meal or a lily of the valley).

One Stack, Counted

Feed 1 black dye a craft, so 64 covers 64 of them: 128 gray dye. Bring 64 white dye along for the ride. Nothing is wasted: craft 64 takes the rest.

Materials Needed

ItemAmountWhere to Find
Black DyeBlack DyeBlack Dye1xCraft from an ink sac or a wither rose
White DyeWhite DyeWhite Dye1xCraft from bone meal or a lily of the valley

For Gray Dye: Black Dye (craft from an ink sac or a wither rose) and White Dye (craft from bone meal or a lily of the valley), brought to a Crafting Table.

The Full Chain

White Dye, then Black Dye, then the Gray Dye. All in: 1 Ink sac or wither rose and 1 Bone meal or lily of the valley.

  1. 1
    Bone meal or lily of the valleyBone meal or lily of the valleyWhite DyeWhite DyeWhite Dye
  2. 2
    Ink sac or wither roseInk sac or wither roseBlack DyeBlack DyeBlack Dye
  3. 3
    Gray DyeGray DyeGray Dyethis page

Gather this first

Ink sac or wither roseInk sac or wither roseInk sac or wither roseBone meal or lily of the valleyBone meal or lily of the valleyBone meal or lily of the valley

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. 1

    Black DyeBlack DyeBlack DyeWhite DyeWhite DyeWhite Dye

  2. 2

    2x Gray Dye

Minecraft crafting recipe for Gray Dye: 1 x Black Dye, 1 x White Dye in a crafting table, making 2 Gray Dye.

Tips & Notes

  • Cell positions do not matter here: drop Black Dye and White Dye anywhere in the grid and Gray Dye appears.
  • One craft costs 1x Black Dye and 1x White Dye. Start with the Black Dye: craft from an ink sac or a wither rose.
  • The recipe returns 2 Gray Dye at a time.

Uses for Gray Dye

  • Dyeing wool, leather armor, glass, concrete, terracotta and more

What Gray Dye Goes Into

2 other recipes list Gray Dye as an ingredient.

Gray Concrete PowderCrafting TableGray Stained GlassCrafting Table

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

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to craft a Gray Dye in Minecraft?
The list for a Gray Dye is short: 1 Black Dye and 1 White Dye, worked at a Crafting Table. Place them in the grid in any arrangement, and one craft produces 2 Gray Dyes.
What do you need to make a Gray Dye from scratch?
From raw materials only, a Gray Dye comes down to 1 Ink sac or wither rose and 1 Bone meal or lily of the valley. The rest you make yourself, and it takes 3 crafts to get there.
What can you make with Gray Dye?
Gray Dye is an ingredient in 2 other recipes on this site, including Gray Concrete Powder and Gray Stained Glass. The section above links to each of them.
Where do you find the materials for a Gray Dye?
Each ingredient in a Gray Dye has its own source. Black Dye: craft from an ink sac or a wither rose. White Dye: craft from bone meal or a lily of the valley.
How many Gray Dyes do you get from one craft?
The Gray Dye recipe makes 2 Gray Dyes in a single craft.
What is the item ID for Gray Dye in Minecraft?
Gray Dye is registered as minecraft:gray_dye. Commands accept the short form gray_dye as well, and Bedrock spells it the same. Checked against Java 26.2.
What is the give command for Gray Dye?
/give @p gray_dye gives you a Gray Dye. Swap @p for a player name to hand it to someone else, and put 64 on the end for a whole stack.
How many crafting steps does a Gray Dye take?
A Gray Dye takes 3 crafts once you count the parts: White Dye and Black Dye, and then the Gray Dye. The chain section above walks through them in order.
What version of Minecraft added the Gray Dye?
As far back as the language files go, the gray dye appears under this name in Minecraft Beta 1.2 and not before. The recipe file cannot narrow that down, because recipes only became separate files in 1.12. Today the game builds it from 1 Black Dye and 1 White Dye, as shown above.

Sources

Grid, ingredients and yield
1 Black Dye and 1 White Dye in, 2 Gray Dyes out, Crafting Table. Java 26.2, .
That Bedrock agrees
Bedrock 1.26.40.05, same 2 ingredients.
How far back it goes
Java Beta 1.2 is the earliest release that calls it this. 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 1.14 is where this recipe last changed.
Stack size
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: 2 Gray Dyes per craft against the stack size.

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