How to use the calculator
Choose your item, tick the enchantments you want and pick each level. The calculator assumes every enchantment comes on its own enchanted book, the way librarians sell them. It then checks every possible way to combine the item and the books, skips any order with a step of 40 levels or more, and shows the cheapest one. Each step tells you what to put in the left anvil slot (the target) and the right slot (the sacrifice). Curses are left out.
If your item already has enchantments or has been through an anvil, tick My item is already enchanted, set how many anvil uses it has and mark the enchantments it already has. Use the presets for the usual "god" gear, and Copy link to share your exact setup.
How anvil costs work
When you combine two items in Java Edition, the cost in levels is:
cost = enchantment cost of the right-slot item + prior work penalty of both items
The enchantment cost adds up, for every enchantment on the right-slot item, the final level of that enchantment times its multiplier. Books have lower multipliers than items, so you almost always enchant with books. A Sharpness V book costs 5 levels (5 × 1), a Mending book costs 2 (1 × 2) and a Soul Speed III book costs 12 (3 × 4). Enchantments already on the left item are free. Renaming adds 1 level and repairing a damaged item adds more, so do those separately.
| Book cost per level | Item cost per level | Enchantments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Protection, Sharpness, Efficiency, Power, Loyalty, Piercing |
| 1 | 2 | Fire Protection, Projectile Protection, Feather Falling, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Knockback, Unbreaking, Quick Charge, Density, Lunge |
| 2 | 4 | Blast Protection, Respiration, Aqua Affinity, Depth Strider, Frost Walker, Fire Aspect, Looting, Sweeping Edge, Fortune, Punch, Flame, Luck of the Sea, Lure, Mending, Impaling, Riptide, Multishot, Breach, Wind Burst |
| 4 | 8 | Thorns, Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, Silk Touch, Infinity, Channeling |
In Survival and Adventure mode an anvil step can cost at most 39 levels. At 40 or more the anvil shows Too Expensive! and refuses, no matter how many levels you have. Creative mode has no limit.
The prior work penalty explained
Every item and book remembers how many times it has been through an anvil. Each use makes the next step more expensive, and the penalty roughly doubles each time (2uses − 1). Both items in the anvil add their penalty, and the result keeps the higher use count plus one.
| Anvil uses so far | Penalty added to the next step |
|---|---|
| 0 (fresh item or book) | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 7 |
| 4 | 15 |
| 5 | 31 |
| 6 | 63 (always Too Expensive in Survival) |
This is why the order matters so much. Add six books to a sword one at a time and the sword pays 0 + 1 + 3 + 7 + 15 + 31 = 57 levels in penalties alone. Combine books in pairs first and nothing goes through the anvil more than three times.
Why the order matters
Take a god sword: Sharpness V, Looting III, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III and Mending. Adding the books to the sword one by one costs 83 levels, and the last step alone costs more than 30. The best order costs 44 levels and no step is above 11. A pickaxe with Efficiency V, Fortune III, Unbreaking III and Mending drops from 27 to 23 levels.
Two things trade off against each other. Pairing everything keeps the penalties low, but every time an enchantment sits in the right slot you pay for it again, because a combined book carries all its enchantments into the next step. The Minecraft Wiki puts it simply: the most expensive enchantment should be in the sacrifice slot as few times as possible. With 7 books for boots, a neat pairing costs 68 levels, while a slightly uneven order costs 66. This calculator checks every order, so it finds that kind of saving for you.
Tips for cheaper enchanting
- The item always goes in the left slot. You cannot put a sword in the right slot of a book, so the item is the target in every step it is part of. Its own enchantments are never charged.
- Put the most expensive book on the item early. Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, Silk Touch, Thorns and Impaling cost a lot per step. Placing them directly on the fresh item means you pay for them once, with no penalty.
- Combine cheap books with each other. Unbreaking III + Mending costs only 2 levels as a pair, and the pair is still cheap when it goes on the item.
- Put the pricier book on the left when you combine two books. Only the right one is charged.
- Do not use one item for everything. If your item already has 4 or 5 anvil uses, starting over with a fresh one is often the only way past Too Expensive.
- Leave repairs for last. With Mending you never need the anvil for repairs, so the final penalty matters less. Without Mending, use Lowest prior work to keep the item repairable for longer.
XP levels vs XP points
The anvil charges levels, but levels get more expensive the higher you are. Going from level 0 to 10 takes 160 XP points; going from 0 to 30 takes 1,395. That is why the calculator also shows XP points: the experience you need if you earn the levels for each step just before it, starting from level 0. If you save up first shows the points needed to hold all the levels at once, which is much more. The default setting, Fewest XP points, prefers several cheap steps over one big one. Cheapest biggest step keeps the largest step as small as possible, which helps when you are short on levels.
Best enchantments for each item
All combinations below are allowed together in Java Edition 26.3. Items marked "or" have mutually exclusive choices.
| Item | Best enchantments |
|---|---|
| Sword | Sharpness V, Looting III, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III, Unbreaking III, Mending (Knockback II optional; Smite V instead of Sharpness for undead) |
| Spear | Sharpness V, Lunge III, Looting III, Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III, Mending (Knockback II optional) |
| Mace | Density V or Breach IV, Wind Burst III, Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Pickaxe, shovel, hoe | Efficiency V, Fortune III or Silk Touch, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Axe | Efficiency V, Sharpness V, Fortune III or Silk Touch, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Helmet | Protection IV, Respiration III, Aqua Affinity, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Chestplate | Protection IV, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Leggings | Protection IV, Swift Sneak III, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Boots | Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Depth Strider III or Frost Walker II, Soul Speed III, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Bow | Power V, Punch II, Flame, Unbreaking III, Infinity or Mending |
| Crossbow | Quick Charge III, Multishot or Piercing IV, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Trident | Impaling V, Loyalty III and Channeling, or Riptide III, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Fishing rod | Luck of the Sea III, Lure III, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Elytra, shield, shears, brush | Unbreaking III, Mending (shears can also take Efficiency V) |
Thorns III can go on any armor piece but is one of the most expensive books. Mending, Frost Walker, Soul Speed, Swift Sneak and Wind Burst are treasure enchantments: you cannot get them from an enchanting table. Librarians can sell Mending and Frost Walker, but not the other three. Find the cheapest librarian books with the villager trades list.
Bedrock Edition note
This calculator follows Java Edition rules. Bedrock Edition works slightly differently: it charges for the levels an enchantment gains instead of its final level, Impaling has a lower multiplier, and some items accept different enchantments. Bedrock totals can therefore differ from the numbers shown here.