How do you get Sand in Minecraft?

Sand is obtained through mining, and Sand from natural world generation. There is no recipe for Sand, but 18 recipes ask for it.

What is Sand used for?

Sand is a crafting ingredient, and it goes into Black Concrete Powder, Blue Concrete Powder, Brown Concrete Powder, Cyan Concrete Powder, Gray Concrete Powder, Green Concrete Powder, Light Blue Concrete Powder, Light Gray Concrete Powder, Lime Concrete Powder, Magenta Concrete Powder, plus 8 other items that call for it.

How long does Sand take to break?

For Sand the game keeps hardness at 0.5, and it holds blast resistance 0.5. Nothing separates the two figures on Sand, so there is no explosive trick around it. The tool tag on Sand is a shovel, with no tier requirement behind it. Java 26.2 lists Sand exactly this way, which is how it is printed here.

Where do you find Sand in chests?

Sand is chest loot in one place and one only: desert pyramid chests (about 59%, 1 to 8 at a time). No other generated chest lists it, so that single structure is the whole search, and every other chest in the game will disappoint you.

How many Sand can you stack?

Sand at 64 a slot, and Black Concrete Powder takes 4 per craft, so a full slot is 16 Black Concrete Powder with nothing left over. A shulker box of Sand comes to 1,728, over 27 slots.

When was Sand added to Minecraft?

Sand was added in the early Alpha development period.

Utility Blocks

Sand

A common gravity-affected block that falls when unsupported, found in deserts, beaches and riverbeds. It is smelted into glass and used to craft sandstone, TNT and concrete powder.

Stack Size

Durability

N/A

Sand at a glance

Utility Blocks holds Sand: a block out of mining and natural world generation. Stack Sand 64 high: 576 across a hotbar, 1728 in a shulker box, and 3456 in a double chest.

Keep Sand around: 18 recipes here call for it, which makes it worth a slot in the storage room rather than something you gather per project. It has a hardness of 0.5. Mining Sand and blowing it up both run into 0.5. The tool tag on Sand is a shovel, with no tier requirement behind it. Generated chests only ever hold Sand in one place: desert pyramid chests (about 59%, 1 to 8 at a time). It sits between Respawn Anchor and Sandstone in Utility Blocks, number 274 of 340 there.

Used to craft

18 items take Sand on the crafting grid, Black Concrete Powder and Yellow Concrete Powder among them, with Utility Blocks accounting for 17. The links below go straight to the recipes that take Sand.

How to obtain

Mining
Natural generation

Notes

Mined fastest with a shovel. Falls as an entity when the block beneath it is removed.

Frequently asked questions about Sand

How do you get Sand in Minecraft?
Sand is obtained through mining, and Sand from natural world generation. There is no recipe for Sand, but 18 recipes ask for it.
What is Sand used for?
Sand is a crafting ingredient, and it goes into Black Concrete Powder, Blue Concrete Powder, Brown Concrete Powder, Cyan Concrete Powder, Gray Concrete Powder, Green Concrete Powder, Light Blue Concrete Powder, Light Gray Concrete Powder, Lime Concrete Powder, Magenta Concrete Powder, plus 8 other items that call for it.
How long does Sand take to break?
For Sand the game keeps hardness at 0.5, and it holds blast resistance 0.5. Nothing separates the two figures on Sand, so there is no explosive trick around it. The tool tag on Sand is a shovel, with no tier requirement behind it. Java 26.2 lists Sand exactly this way, which is how it is printed here.
Where do you find Sand in chests?
Sand is chest loot in one place and one only: desert pyramid chests (about 59%, 1 to 8 at a time). No other generated chest lists it, so that single structure is the whole search, and every other chest in the game will disappoint you.
How many Sand can you stack?
Sand at 64 a slot, and Black Concrete Powder takes 4 per craft, so a full slot is 16 Black Concrete Powder with nothing left over. A shulker box of Sand comes to 1,728, over 27 slots.
When was Sand added to Minecraft?
Sand was added in the early Alpha development period.

Building with it

Sand falls, which is both its defining property and its danger: mine one block from under a wall of it and the whole column drops. Smelted it becomes glass, four blocks make sandstone, and with gravel and dye it becomes concrete powder, so a desert is a building supply rather than an obstacle.

All Items Utility Blocks