How to Host a Minecraft Server

What Is a Minecraft Server?

If you've ever wanted to play Minecraft with a group of your friends, this guide is for you! A Minecraft server lets you invite others to join a world and play together. This guide will show you how to create, launch, and host your server for free, using your home computer. You'll also learn how to port forward the server, allowing your friends to connect and play from anywhere on the globe!

Required Materials:

Before you begin, make sure that you have the following items:


If you have these items, you're ready to get started!

Note: The .gifs on this site can be opened in a new tab to be resized and zoomed if needed.

  1. Downloading the server file

    2. To download the server file, visit Minecraft's server download page and click "Download minecraft_server.X.XX.X.jar".

  2. Creating the server folder

    3. Open File Explorer and create a new folder in your C: drive. Name it anything you'd like, but for the purpose of the guide, I'll name mine "Minecraft Server".

  3. Moving the server file to the new folder

    4. Navigate to wherever your browser's downloads are stored. Then, move the downloaded server.jar file to the new server's folder.

  4. Finding the server in Command Prompt

    5. Open Command Prompt by typing "cmd" in the windows start menu. Then, use the following commands to navigate out of the user folder and into your server's folder:

    1. cd..
    2. cd..
    3. cd Minecraft Server

  5. Pasting the Start Command

    6. Next, return to the minecraft website and copy the start command shown on the website. Paste this into your command prompt window.

  6. Modifying the Start Command

    7. While the command you pasted forms the backbone of your final start command, a few things need to be edited to make your server run well. Change both "1024" values to "2048". These values tell the computer how much Random Access Memory (RAM) to dedicate to the server while its running. Changing the value from 1024 to 2048 will give your server much more room to run smoothly on your computer without you noticing much of a performance decrease in your everyday computer usage.

    Secondly, change the section "minecraft_server.X.XX.X.jar" to simply read "server.jar". This is because the file you downloaded from the Minecraft website was named server.jar. The file name and the name in the start command must match in order for the server file to open.

  7. Starting the Server

    8. Press enter to start the server. It may take a little bit to finish starting.

  8. Agreeing to the EULA

    9. Notice that it failed to start the server. This is because the EULA must be agreed to. Check the server folder again and notice that a few new folders and files have populated there. Click on "eula.txt" and change "false" to "true". Save and exit the file.

  9. Restarting the Server

    10. Having agreed to the EULA, return to the command prompt window and re-enter the start command to restart the server.

  10. Connecting to Your Server Locally

    11. To let friends on your local network (usually meaning within your house) connect to your server, you'll need to find your local IP address. This is the number that your friends will type into Minecraft in order to connect. To find your local IP address, open command prompt. From there, type "ipconfig" (without the quotes) into the window. Several lines of info will appear. Find the line that reads: "IPv4 Address: <string of numbers>". This is what you'll give your friends to let them connect from your local network.

    Note: Local IP addresses are private information that should not be shared publicly. Make sure you only share this IP with friends and others you trust, as they can present a significant security risk if shared publicly.

  11. Joining Your Server

    12. With your IP found, you're ready to join the server! Open Minecraft and click on the Multiplayer tab. There, click "Add Server." Name your server whatever you'd like (Only you will see this name) and enter your local IP address. Click "Done," find your server in the server list, and click "Join Server." Congrats! You have a working Minecraft server!

    Managing Your Server

    Now that you have a working Minecraft server, you'll want to learn how to operate, optimize, and modify your server to best suit your needs. For example, the server you have currently only allows people on your local network to join, meaning that the people playing on your server will have to be in the same residence or building as your server is. To expand the server to let friends from around the globe play, you'll need to Port Forward. You can learn more about the process of setting this up on our Connecting Worldwide: Port Forwarding page.

    If your server is running from a computer that has decent hardware, you'll be able to boost some of the server properties so that more people can play at once, so that people on your server can see farther, or travel longer distances. On the other hand, if your server is from a weaker computer, you may want to turn some settings down in order to make it perform better. Both of these use cases can be achieved by tweaking values in the server properties folder. For more information on this, view our Modifying Your World: Server Properties page!

    If you're in-game and want to change the world's spawn point, teleport yourself to another player, change your gamemode or difficulty, control the weather and time of day, locate your favorite biome, or give any item in the game to yourself or another player, you'll need to know some server commands. Check out our Changing the Game: Server Commands page to learn more about these and other commands!

    Lastly, if you've gone through all the guides and still have questions, learn where and how to reach out on the     Getting in Contact page! The owner of the website will be happy to answer any remaining questions and walk you through any step you're having trouble with. If you would like the owner of the site to set up and host a server for you for $5 a month, leave inquiries at ajrtp9@umsystem.edu.