Minecraft Ore Distribution Calculator

Editions: Java (Bedrock not modeled — see FAQ) · Verified: Java 26.3 · 2026-10-07

Reviewed by C. B. Zakarian on October 7, 2026

Pick an ore and a band of Y levels to see how many of the game's ore attempts land there in each chunk, layer by layer, computed from the generation settings inside Java 26.3 itself. For diamonds the files give a plain answer: the densest layer is the bottom of the world, Y -64, and -59, the lowest layer clear of bedrock, gets 95% as many attempts.

Attempts by height

Plate I. Diamond, by height

Each row of the chart is one layer, Y increasing upward, and each bar is the expected number of attempts per chunk aimed at that layer, split by the feature that makes them. The chart starts at the bottom of the world and stops a little above the ore's highest attempts or your band, whichever is higher. Your band is tinted, bedrock is grey, and the dashed line is sea level.

The features behind this ore

Feature	Attempts per chunk	Height rule	Inside the world	In your band	Vein size	Skips blocks touching air

Every ore at a glance

Attempts per chunk that land inside the world, from the same files, with no biome switch on unless the row says so.

Ore	Attempts per chunk	Densest layer	Attempts land in	Aimed outside the world
Diamond	7.624 of 13.111	-64	-64 to 16	41.8%, below it
Iron	101.753 of 110	232 (16 below sea level)	-64 to 319	7.5%, above it
Gold	4.5	-16	-64 to 32	none
Gold, in badlands	54.5	32	-64 to 256	none
Redstone	8.121 of 12	-64	-64 to 15	32.3%, below it
Lapis lazuli	6	0	-64 to 64	none
Copper	16	48	-16 to 112	none
Coal	50	136	0 to 319	none
Emerald, mountain biomes	78.966 of 100	232	-16 to 319	21.0%, above it
Nether quartz	16 (32 in basalt deltas)	flat, 10 to 117	10 to 117	none
Nether gold	10 (20 in basalt deltas)	flat, 10 to 117	10 to 117	none
Ancient debris	2	16	8 to 119	none

Biomes change three ores. In the three badlands biomes gold gains a band of 50 attempts spread evenly from 32 to 256; in dripstone caves copper's 16 attempts make veins with a size setting of 20 instead of 10; and in basalt deltas Nether quartz and gold make 32 and 20 attempts instead of 16 and 10. Emerald generates in ten mountain biomes and nowhere else. Every other ore here generates the same way in all 56 Overworld biomes or all five Nether ones.

The world's vertical limits

The same download sets the height of each dimension. These are the Java values; the paired guide explains each row.

	Overworld	Nether	The End
Lowest block	-64	0	0
Highest block	319	255	255
Terrain generated in	-64 to 319	0 to 127	—
Top liquid layer	water at 62	lava at 31	none
Bedrock	-64 to -60, solid at -64	0 to 4 and 123 to 127, solid at 0 and 127	no floor
Deepslate	below 8, solid from 0 down	—	—

The worked example

Diamonds come from four features in the game's files. Three share one height rule: 7 small veins and 4 buried veins per chunk, plus a large vein in 1 chunk out of 9, each aimed by a triangle that runs from Y -144 to 16, 80 layers either side of the world's floor at -64. One of those attempts lands on a given layer with chance (81 minus the layer's distance from -64) / 6,561, so -64 gets 81 / 6,561 and -59 gets 76 / 6,561. The fourth feature, 2 medium veins a chunk, spreads evenly over -64 to -4: 2 / 61 a layer.

Added up, layer -64 gets 11.111 × 81 / 6,561 + 2 / 61 = 0.17 attempts per chunk, and -59 gets 0.161, which is 95% of it. Climbing from there, each layer loses about 1% of the floor's figure until Y -4, where the medium veins stop and the next layer up gets half as many: 0.068 at -4, 0.034 at -3. Of the triangle's attempts, 41 in 81 fall inside the world; with the medium veins that is 7.624 of the 13.111 the game makes in each chunk, so 41.8% of all diamond attempts are aimed below the bottom of the world.

The same arithmetic explains the strange-looking iron and coal rows. Ninety of iron's 110 attempts per chunk aim at a triangle from 80 to 384 that peaks at 232; wherever the land is lower than that, those attempts land in open air. Underground, the densest iron layer is 16. Coal is densest at 136, where its even upper band starts on top of the lower band's triangle.

These are attempts, not ore blocks. An attempt only replaces certain blocks: stone and its granite, diorite and andesite patches, tuff and deepslate in the Overworld, and netherrack in the Nether, where ancient debris also takes basalt and blackstone. Attempts that land in air, water, lava or a cave place less or nothing; some features skip ore blocks that would touch air, as the features table shows; and each vein is a different size. The large copper and iron ore veins are a separate system and are not counted. Bedrock Edition is not modeled.

The settings come from the game's own files: the vanilla data pack inside the Java 26.3 server download from Mojang (the placed_feature and feature files for each ore, read 2026-10-07). Every one matches the Minecraft Wiki's Ore (feature) table, revision 3818717, apart from five height cells the paired guide explains, and the height rules are the ones the wiki's height provider page describes.

Questions builders actually ask

What is the best Y level for diamonds?

The game aims the most diamond attempts at Y -64, the bottom of the world, and the figure drops by about 1% of that for each layer up until Y -4, then halves. Layers -64 to -60 are partly bedrock, so -59 is the lowest layer clear of it, and it gets 95% as many attempts as -64. A two-high tunnel at -59 and -58 sees 0.321 attempts per chunk.

Why does the Minecraft Wiki's ore table say diamonds generate from -64 to 16?

The table prints the part of the range above the floor. In the game's files the three triangular diamond features run from -144 to 16, 80 layers either side of the bottom of the world, so they peak at -64 rather than at -24, the middle of -64 to 16. Redstone's lower band is printed the same way: -64 to -32 in the table, -96 to -32 in the files.

Does this show how much ore you will find?

No. It counts placement attempts, which the game's files fix exactly. Attempts only replace stone-type blocks, so those landing in air, water or caves place less or nothing; some features skip ore blocks that would touch air; and veins vary in size. That is why iron's and coal's densest layers, 232 and 136, only pay off where the land rises that high.

Does this match Bedrock Edition?

It models Java only, because its numbers come from Java's own files. The Minecraft Wiki's ore table marks several rows as different in Bedrock, and without a second source for those values this calculator leaves Bedrock out rather than guess.

Where do the big iron and copper veins fit in?

They are a separate system and are not counted here. Copper veins, mixed with granite, form between Y 0 and 50, and iron veins, mixed with tuff, between Y -60 and -8, thickest around 20 to 30 and -40 to -28. This page covers the ordinary ore blobs.