Minecraft Enchantment Calculator
Pick your gear and enchantments, and get the cheapest anvil order with the exact XP cost at every step — without hitting “Too Expensive”.
How the anvil actually charges you
Two things add up in every anvil operation. First the enchantment cost: each enchantment has a multiplier, and you pay that multiplier times the level. Cheap ones like Sharpness and Efficiency cost 1 per level from a book; expensive ones like Silk Touch, Thorns, Soul Speed and Wind Burst cost 4. Second the prior work penalty, which starts at 0 and then runs 1, 3, 7, 15, 31 as an item is worked again and again. That penalty is what kills a build, not the enchantments themselves.
The trick is to keep the expensive item out of the anvil for as long as possible. Pair your books with each other first — two cheap books make one slightly pricier book — then combine those pairs, and only put the finished book onto your gear at the very end. The calculator above does that search for you and shows the exact sequence.
Planning around the 39-level wall
Survival mode blocks any single operation costing 40 levels or more. You can spend 200 levels in total across a build and be fine, as long as no individual step crosses that line. If the plan above flags a step in red, drop one expensive enchantment, or start from an item that has never been in an anvil — a fresh netherite upgrade resets nothing, so enchant before you upgrade, not after.
Browse every enchantment
Full details, max levels, conflicts and the best uses for each: see the complete Minecraft enchantment list, or jump to the recommended loadouts for a sword, pickaxe, bow or armour.
FAQ
Why does the anvil say Too Expensive?
Every anvil operation adds a prior work penalty to the item, and that penalty doubles each time: 1, 3, 7, 15, 31 levels before the enchantment cost is even added. Once a single operation would cost 40 levels or more, survival mode refuses it. Combining your books together first and applying them to the gear last keeps the penalty low.
Does the order of combining really matter?
Yes, and it is the single biggest saving available. The same set of enchantments can cost three or four times as much when applied one book at a time compared with pairing the books up first. The calculator tries every ordering and shows the cheapest.
Which enchantments cannot go together?
Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Density and Breach are one exclusive group. The four Protections are another. Silk Touch blocks Fortune, Infinity blocks Mending, Depth Strider blocks Frost Walker, Multishot blocks Piercing, and Loyalty, Riptide and Channeling exclude each other. The tool greys out anything that conflicts with what you have already picked.
Can I get treasure enchantments from an enchanting table?
No. Mending, Frost Walker, Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, Wind Burst and the two curses only come from loot chests, fishing, villager trading or piglin bartering. Turn on Include treasure enchantments to plan with them.