Overview
A hopper is the item-moving block that every automated system in Minecraft is built out of. It pulls items from any container directly above it, collects items lying on top of it, and pushes them into whatever container it points at — and it does all of that at a fixed rate of one item every 8 game ticks, which works out at 2.5 items per second. Chain them and items travel; point one into a furnace from above and it feeds the smelting slot; point one into the side of a furnace and it feeds the fuel slot; put one underneath and it collects the output. Almost every furnace array, item sorter, mob farm collection floor, brewing automation and storage system in the game is hoppers and nothing else. A redstone signal locks a hopper, stopping it moving items entirely, which is exactly how sorters and clocks control flow. The gotchas are practical: hoppers are relatively expensive in iron, they check for items constantly and so cost server performance in large numbers, and they cannot pull from the side, only from directly above.
Feeding and emptying furnaces, collecting mob farm and crop farm drops, building item sorters, and moving items between containers without a player. Nothing else in the game transports items this simply.
Hopper is a redstone block in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Hopper has a crafting recipe, so it is renewable as long as you can source its ingredients. At a hardness of 3 it takes a moment to break but never slows a build down.
It needs at least a wooden pickaxe to drop anything; a weaker tool destroys it for nothing. Mining it returns the block itself, so it is safe to relocate. It is transparent, which matters when you are managing light levels.
It stacks to 64. You make it with Iron Ingot and Chest. The one thing it makes is Minecart with Hopper.
How to get it
Craft it from 5 iron ingots and 1 chest. That iron cost is why most players build their first sorter only after finding an iron farm or a decent cave; 1 hopper is 5 ingots and a sorter needs many.
Tips
- It moves 1 item every 8 game ticks — 2.5 per second — which is the throughput limit every farm design works around.
- A redstone signal locks a hopper completely; that is how a sorter holds items back until a slot is full.
- Hoppers pull only from directly above, never from the side, so plan your layout vertically.
- Use a minecart with a hopper under a farm floor: it collects through a solid block and is far cheaper than a hopper grid.
How long it takes to break
Hopper sits at hardness 3: 15 seconds per block with your fists, 0.5 with the correct netherite tool.
You are looking at 0.75 seconds on iron and 0.6 on diamond — the iron step is where the time actually falls.
A weaker tool still breaks it, but anything under wooden returns nothing — you spend the time and lose the drop, which is how most veins get wasted.
Each Efficiency level adds level² + 1 to the tool's speed, so a level V tool clears this about 3.3 times faster than an unenchanted one.
| Tool | No enchantment | Efficiency III | Efficiency V |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hand * | 15 s | 15 s | 15 s |
| Wooden | 2.3 s | 0.4 s | 0.2 s |
| Stone | 1.2 s | 0.35 s | 0.15 s |
| Iron | 0.75 s | 0.3 s | 0.15 s |
| Diamond | 0.6 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Netherite | 0.5 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
| Golden | 0.4 s | 0.25 s | 0.15 s |
Properties
With 4.8 blast resistance Hopper usually goes down to a nearby explosion. It is transparent to light and produces no light. A single slot takes 64, the usual full stack. A pickaxe is fastest here; any other class mines it at bare-hand speed, because the bonus only applies to the class the block is tagged for.
- Transparent
- Yes
- Required tool
- Wooden Pickaxe
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Hopper
Drops
Mined with Wooden Pickaxe, Hopper drops itself.
Used to craft
Hopper is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Minecart with Hopper.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you get Hopper in Minecraft?
Hopper is crafted from Iron Ingot and Chest.
What tool do you need to break Hopper?
Wooden Pickaxe or better is required; anything weaker destroys the block without dropping it.
Is Hopper blast resistant?
Hopper has a blast resistance of 4.8, so an explosion nearby will destroy it.
How many Hopper fit in one stack?
A stack is 64, and a double chest of them comes to 3,456.
How long does Hopper take to break?
About 0.5 seconds if you bring the correct netherite tool; 15 seconds with your fists.
