How to Make Paper in Minecraft: Easy Recipe Guide

Learning how to make paper in Minecraft takes about ten seconds. Having enough of it is the hard part. A book needs three paper. A cartographer can pay one emerald for 24 paper. And zooming out a map costs eight paper at a crafting table, but only one at a cartography table.

The recipe is simple, three sugar cane make three paper. So your paper supply is really your sugar cane supply. A full stack of 64 sugar cane gives you 63 paper, with one cane left over. A double chest filled with sugar cane holds 3,456 which makes 3,456 paper.

Below, you get the exact recipe and a four plant starter farm. You also get the paper cost of each recipe, chest loot, villager trades and the new name tag recipe. Where Java and Bedrock differ we'll point it out.

Minecraft Paper Recipe: How to Make Paper in Minecraft

To make paper, place three sugar cane in a horizontal row inside a crafting table. You get three paper. The top, middle and bottom rows all work.

That is the whole recipe. You need no fuel, no extra ingredients and no tools. Just three sugar cane and a crafting table. Here are the steps for how to make paper in Minecraft:

1. Collect three sugar cane. You can break it by hand.

2. Open a crafting table. If you do not have one, craft it from four planks of any wood.

3. Place the three sugar cane side by side in one row of the 3x3 grid.

4. Check the result slot. If three paper appear, the pattern is right. Take them.

Why not craft it in your inventory? The 2x2 grid cannot hold three items in a row. So the crafting table is not optional.

The recipe is identical in Java and Bedrock. One craft uses three sugar cane and gives three paper, so one cane always equals one paper. Say you want three books. That takes nine paper, so you need nine sugar cane and three crafts.

Where to Find Sugar Cane in Minecraft?

If you are learning how to make paper in Minecraft, start by finding sugar cane. It is the only ingredient. Sugar cane generates in patches next to water. According to the Minecraft Wiki, deserts generate it most often, followed by swamps. You can also spot it along:

• Riverbanks

• Beaches

• Lake and pond edges

Natural plants are two to four blocks tall. Look for green columns rising from sand or dirt beside water. Riverbanks are usually the quickest place to start. Grab more than three. You will want extra to plant near your base later.

Sugar Cane vs Bamboo

At a glance, sugar cane and bamboo can look alike. Check three things:

• Sugar cane has no leaves. Bamboo has leaves near the top.

• Sugar cane grows next to water. Bamboo is common in jungles.

• Sugar cane stays at four blocks or less. Bamboo grows much taller.

Bamboo cannot replace sugar cane. If you break it, you get bamboo not something you can craft into paper.

How to Build a Sugar Cane Farm for Paper in Minecraft

Once you know how to make paper in Minecraft, supply becomes the real problem. Wild sugar cane covers your first few crafts. After that, hunting along rivers gets slow.

A farm fixes that. It gives you a renewable supply and you can grow it as large as you need. The idea is simple. Plant sugar cane on the right block, keep water right beside that block, then harvest the upper parts as it grows.

What Blocks Can Sugar Cane Grow On?

Sugar cane grows on these blocks:

• Dirt, grass blocks and coarse dirt

• Sand and red sand

• Podzol and mycelium

• Mud and moss blocks

Dirt, grass and sand are the easiest to find, so start with those.

Every planting block needs water touching it from the side. That means directly north, south, east or west of the block. Water above the block or diagonal to it does not count. A waterlogged block works too.

How to Make a Simple Sugar Cane Farm?

A working farm needs one water block and four planting blocks. Here is how to set it up:

1. Find flat dirt, grass or sand. Dig a one block hole.

2. Fill the hole with water.

3. Plant one sugar cane on each of the four blocks touching the water: north, south, east and west.

4. Wait until each plant is three blocks tall.

5. Break the top two blocks of each plant.

6. Leave the bottom block alone. It grows back.

Don't break the bottom block. If you do, the cane above it pops off and you have to replant.

Four plants give you eight sugar cane per harvest. That is enough for six paper, with two cane left over.

Want more? Dig a straight water channel and plant along both banks. Planning the space around it? These Minecraft farmland ideas can help you lay out the rest of your base. This small setup is the easiest way how to make paper in Minecraft without hunting for wild cane.

How Fast Does Sugar Cane Grow?

Don't wait for a fixed timer. Sugar cane grows at random, so some plants take longer than others. The Minecraft Wiki lists averages of about 18 minutes per new block in Java and about 54 minutes in Bedrock.

Light does not matter. Your farm grows in the dark, though torches still keep mobs away. Plants you grow yourself stop at three blocks.

Can You Use Bone Meal on Sugar Cane?

On Bedrock, yes. One use of bone meal grows sugar cane to three blocks, so you can speed up a small farm by hand. On Java, bone meal does nothing to sugar cane. You wait for normal growth or build an automatic farm.

How to Make an Automatic Sugar Cane Farm?

When you need paper by the stack, an automatic farm is the fastest way to make paper in Minecraft. The usual design pairs observers with pistons. An observer watches the cane. When the plant grows, the observer sends a signal and a piston knocks off the top block.

Hoppers or flowing water carry the drops into a chest. Redstone works a little differently on Java and Bedrock. So copy a design made for your edition.

How to Get Paper in Minecraft Without Crafting

Crafting is not the only option. You can also find paper in chests, which helps when you are exploring before your farm is ready. Here are the chests that can hold it:

Shipwreck map chests have the best odds, and you can find them in shipwrecks along oceans and beaches. These numbers come from the Minecraft Wiki. They can shift between editions and versions, so treat them as a guide.

In Java, cartographer villagers can also gift paper when you have the Hero of the Village effect, which you get for winning a raid. Chest paper is a one time find, though. For a steady supply, grow sugar cane.

What Is Paper Used For in Minecraft?

Once you know how to make paper in Minecraft, you will see how many recipes need it. It goes into books, maps, firework rockets, banner patterns and, in current versions, name tags. Here is what each recipe costs:

Books

A book takes three paper and one leather. You need books for enchanting. An enchanting table uses one, and each bookshelf uses three. A full enchanting room eats paper fast.

Maps

A map records the area you explore. Craft one with eight paper around a compass, and it also shows your position. Bedrock has a few extra options, which you can see in the Java vs Bedrock table below.

Zooming out is where paper adds up. A crafting table needs eight paper per zoom level. A cartography table needs one. 

The table costs two paper to build, so it pays for itself on your first zoom. After you craft a map, you can turn on coordinates to keep track of where your base sits.

Firework Rockets

One paper and one to three gunpowder make three rockets. More gunpowder means a longer flight. Rockets are the fuel of choice when you fly with an elytra.

Banner Patterns

Each pattern takes one paper plus one item that sets the design. Vines, a creeper head, bricks, an oxeye daisy and a wither skeleton skull each make a different pattern.

Name Tags

Since the first 2026 game drop, you can craft a name tag from one paper and one iron, gold or copper nugget. Rename it at an anvil, then use it on a mob. A named mob will not despawn.

Trading Paper With Villagers

Spare paper turns into emeralds. Librarians and cartographers both buy it. At Novice level, each pays 1 emerald for 24 paper.

Cartographers always offer this trade. Librarians offer it only some of the time: about 67% in Java and every time in Bedrock. So a cartographer is the safer pick.

How Much Sugar Cane Is One Emerald?

One sugar cane makes one paper, so one emerald costs 24 sugar cane. A cartographer can make this trade up to 12 times before restocking. That is 288 paper for 12 emeralds. 

A librarian allows up to 16 trades, which is 384 paper for 16 emeralds. Limits and offers can vary by edition and version.

Now compare that with the starter farm. It gives eight cane per harvest, so you would need 36 harvests to reach 288. That is why paper trading works best with an automatic farm.

How to Get a Cartographer or Librarian?

Place a cartography table next to an unemployed villager, and they become a cartographer. For a librarian, use a lectern. Check the villager's first trade before you buy anything.

If a new librarian does not offer the paper trade, break the lectern and place it again to reroll the offers. This only works before your first trade with that villager. After that the offers are locked in.

How to Make Paper in Minecraft: Java vs Bedrock

The paper recipe is identical in both editions: 3 sugar cane in a row make 3 paper. The differences are in farming speed and villager trading.

Which setup works best for you?

• Playing on Java? Bone meal won't help, so build an automatic observer and piston farm early. For trading, pick a cartographer since they always offer the paper trade.

• Playing on Bedrock? Cane grows slowly, so use bone meal to speed up a small farm. Librarians are reliable here so either villager works.

Common Mistakes When Making Paper in Minecraft

Most players get stuck on how to make paper in Minecraft because of a few small mistakes. Here are the ones to avoid.

Crafting with the wrong grid or too few cane. The recipe needs three sugar cane in a row, and the 2x2 inventory grid can't hold that. Open a crafting table and place all three cane side by side.

Using bamboo. Bamboo looks similar but can't be crafted into paper. Real sugar cane has no leaves and grows beside water, while bamboo has leaves near the top and grows much taller.

Planting cane without water. Each planting block needs water directly beside it (north, south, east or west). Water above or diagonal doesn't count and without it the cane won't grow.

Breaking the bottom block. If you break the base, the whole plant is lost and you must replant. Break only the upper two blocks and the base keeps growing. Using bone meal on Java. It does nothing on Java, so don't waste it. Bedrock players can use it freely to grow cane.

Conclusion

Now you know how to make paper in Minecraft: three sugar cane in a row at a crafting table give you three paper. Crafting it takes seconds. Stockpiling it is the real job, because your paper supply is only as big as your sugar cane farm.

Start small with four plants around a single water block, and when you harvest, leave the bottom block alone so the cane regrows. Demand really jumps once you start trading with villagers, since one emerald costs 24 paper.

That’s when it’s worth building a bigger farm, or using bone meal if you’re on Bedrock. For now, just grab three sugar cane from the nearest river and craft your first batch.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make paper in Minecraft?

Place three sugar cane in one horizontal row inside a crafting table. The recipe produces three paper. The basic paper recipe is the same in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

How many sugar cane do you need to make paper?

You need three sugar cane to craft three paper. Since one sugar cane produces one paper, you need one sugar cane for every paper you want.

Can you make paper without a crafting table?

No. The paper recipe requires three sugar cane in a row, which does not fit inside the 2x2 crafting grid in your inventory. You need a crafting table.

How do you get paper in Minecraft without sugar cane?

You can obtain paper from certain structure chests, including shipwrecks, stronghold libraries and village cartographer chests. In Java Edition, cartographers can also gift paper when you have the Hero of the Village effect.