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Minecraft Enchantment Order Calculator

Find the cheapest anvil order for your enchantments, with exact left and right slots and XP level costs.

Quick answer:Pick your item and enchantments, and the calculator checks every legal anvil order to find the cheapest one, with exact left and right slots.
Edition

1. Choose Your Item

Why Anvil Order Matters

Every anvil use raises a hidden prior work penalty on the result (0, 1, 3, 7, 15, 31 levels after 0 to 5 uses), and the next operation pays the penalty of BOTH items. Merging books in the wrong order or on the wrong side can push one step to 40 levels, which a Survival anvil refuses, even when a cheaper legal order exists. The calculator checks every legal merge order and keeps the cheapest.

Enchantment levels, anvil costs and compatibility come from the Java 26.3 game data. Bedrock uses the same tables with its documented cost differences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Because each merge makes the next one more expensive. Four books on one item can cost around 10 levels in total or run into Too Expensive, depending only on the merge order, since every step also pays the prior work penalty of both items. Pairing books up first usually beats adding them one at a time, but the cheapest order depends on the exact enchantments, so the calculator checks all of them.
It is a hidden cost stored on every item and book. It starts at 0 and becomes 1, 3, 7, 15, 31 after 1 to 5 anvil uses. The result of a merge takes the higher penalty of the two inputs and moves one step up, and both inputs' penalties are added to that merge's level cost.
The operation would cost 40 levels or more. Survival and Adventure anvils refuse those operations in both Java and Bedrock. Lower the cost by merging books in a better order, adding fewer enchantments per step, or starting from an item with less prior work.
Only with a grindstone, and it costs you the enchantments. A grindstone removes every enchantment except curses and resets the penalty, to 0 if no curses remain. There is no way to lower the penalty while keeping the enchantments.
Yes. The left item is the one you keep; the right item is consumed. Enchantments moved from a book use the cheaper book multiplier, and in Java the cost is based on the final level while Bedrock charges only for the levels gained, so swapping sides can change the price. Each plan step above tells you which item goes where.
Often, yes. Merging two books first keeps the item's own penalty low for longer, so the expensive final step pays fewer penalty levels. It is not always cheaper though, which is why the plan compares every tree of merges instead of following a fixed rule.
Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Density and Breach exclude each other. Fortune and Silk Touch exclude each other, as do Infinity and Mending, Multishot and Piercing, Depth Strider and Frost Walker, Riptide with Loyalty or Channeling, and the four Protection types. The calculator greys out conflicting choices unless you enable incompatible enchantments for command-made gear.
Renaming alone does not raise the prior work penalty, and in Java a rename-only operation is capped at 39 levels so it is never Too Expensive. Repairing with materials or another item, or adding enchantments, raises the penalty like any other anvil use.
Yes. In Creative mode the anvil completes operations of 40 levels or more; the limit only applies in Survival and Adventure. Plans with a red Too Expensive step will still work in Creative.
Mostly, not completely. Both use the same prior work penalty and the 40 level limit, but Java charges the multiplier times the final enchantment level while Bedrock charges it only for the levels actually gained. Impaling is also cheaper on Bedrock and Sweeping Edge exists only in Java. Pick your edition at the top to get the matching numbers.

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