How to make portals in Minecraft

You make a Nether portal in Minecraft by building an obsidian frame at least 4 blocks wide and 5 blocks tall, then lighting the inside with flint and steel. An End portal works differently, you can't build one from scratch. You find a pre-generated frame in a stronghold and fill its 12 slots with eyes of ender to activate it. Both portals move you between dimensions instantly once triggered across all platforms including Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

How to make portals in Minecraft?

Minecraft has 2 portals you build or activate yourself, plus a 3rd type you only encounter after reaching the End. Each works on a completely different mechanic, so treating them the same way trips a lot of players up.

Making a Nether portal in Minecraft

A Nether portal needs an obsidian frame and a spark, that's the whole process stripped down. Once lit, the inside fills with a shimmering purple surface, and walking into it teleports you to the Nether after a short delay.

Gathering materials for a Nether portal

You need 10 obsidian blocks minimum for the smallest legal frame, plus flint and steel to light it. Obsidian forms when flowing water touches a lava source block, so if you don't have a diamond pickaxe yet (or sturdy diamond armor for Nether protection), pour a water bucket onto a lava pool and let it turn to obsidian before mining it with the right tool. This lava and water method is the standard way to make obsidian in Minecraft before you've got the enchanted or diamond gear needed to farm it faster.

Building the Nether portal frame

Lay out a rectangle of obsidian at least 4 blocks wide and 5 blocks tall, with the interior opening at least 2 blocks wide and 3 blocks tall. Corners don't need to be filled in, only the top, bottom, and 2 side columns matter for the frame to register. You can go bigger too, up to a 23 by 23 block outer frame in current versions, useful if you want a portal wide enough to ride a horse or craft a boat to transport mobs through without dismounting.

Activating the Nether portal

Right-click any obsidian block inside the frame with flint and steel equipped, and the portal lights up immediately. Fire charges and fire resistance-boosted flame arrows work too if you'd rather trigger it from a short distance instead of standing right next to the frame.

Making an End portal in Minecraft

An End portal isn't something you craft or assemble, you locate 1 inside a stronghold and activate it by filling its frame with eyes of ender. Strongholds generate underground in specific world seeds (see our top Speedrun Seeds and Minecraft Seeds), usually below y0, and the portal room sits at the center of the structure with a 5 by 5 ring of stone frame blocks already in place around a pool of lava.

Materials needed for an End portal

You need up to 12 eyes of ender, 1 for each slot in the frame, though naturally generated strongholds often already have a few eyes filled in randomly, so you rarely need the full 12. Craft eyes of ender by combining blaze powder and an ender pearl. Blaze powder comes from blaze rods dropped in Nether fortresses, and ender pearls drop from endermen.

Activating the End portal

Place an eye of ender into each empty slot around the frame's edge, right-clicking each one individually. Once every slot holds an eye, the portal's center fills in and becomes walkable, stepping into it drops you into the End to fight the Ender Dragon and claim your Elytra flight wings.

Nether portal vs. End portal

These 2 portals share almost nothing beyond both being called portals, one you build with materials you gather, the other you find and unlock.

What is the difference between Nether and End portals?

A Nether portal is buildable anywhere with obsidian and flint and steel, and it's reusable in both directions instantly. An End portal only exists in naturally generated stronghold locations, needs Eyes of Ender instead of a frame you place yourself, and normally only takes you 1 way, back out of the End happens through the exit portal after beating the dragon, not by walking back through the same portal.

Can you make an End portal in Survival mode?

No, not from scratch. End portal frame blocks aren't obtainable in Survival inventory at all, they only exist in the pre-generated stronghold structure, so activating one means finding an existing frame rather than building your own.

How many portals are in Minecraft

Minecraft has 3 portal types: the Nether portal, the End portal, and the End gateway portal. Nether and End portals are the 2 covered above, both required to progress through the game's main dimensions. End gateway portals only show up after you've beaten the Ender Dragon, they generate around the outer End islands and teleport you between the main island and the further-out chorus fruit islands, triggered by throwing an Ender Pearl through one rather than walking in directly.

How to make all portals in Minecraft with no mods

Vanilla Minecraft only has the 3 portal types above, no additional portal mechanics exist without installing a mod. If a video or guide shows a portal type beyond Nether, End, or End gateway, that's modded content (explore our curated Minecraft Mods collection), common examples include the Twilight Forest mod's portal (built from flowers around a small pool of water) or the Aether mod's portal (built from glowstone around a water source), and neither works without Forge or Fabric plus the specific mod installed.

Making a Nether portal in Minecraft Creative mode

Creative mode uses the same frame and activation steps as Survival, the only real difference is that obsidian and flint and steel cost nothing and take no mining time to get. If you want to switch modes, check our guide on switching from Survival to Creative mode. Operators can also use teleport commands or place a working portal block directly using /setblock ~ ~ ~ nether_portal.

Can you make a portal in real life?

No, not one that actually teleports anything, real-world physics doesn't have an equivalent to Minecraft's dimension travel. If the appeal is the look of it rather than genuine travel, building a portal-shaped prop frame for a costume or a room display is a straightforward craft project using foam board or wood and some purple LED strip lighting, completely unrelated to anything that would need to function.

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