Circle generator for Minecraft

How to use it

1. Choose Circle or Oval and enter the size in blocks.
2. Pick a thin line, a thick line or a filled disc.
3. Check the block count and the stacks you need.
4. Follow the row by row guide, or download the PNG and keep it open next to the game.

How the circle is calculated

A Minecraft world is a grid of cubes, so a round shape has to be approximated with squares. The generator uses the simplest honest rule. It lays the grid over an ideal circle and places a block wherever the centre of the square falls inside the circle. For a circle with diameter d the centre of the block in column i and row j sits at (i + 0.5 - d/2, j + 0.5 - d/2) and the block is placed when x² + y² ≤ (d/2)². An oval uses the same test with two different radii.

The outline is then taken from the filled shape. A block belongs to the thin line when at least one of its four side neighbours is empty. It belongs to the thick line when any of its eight neighbours, corners included, is empty. That is why the thick version needs more blocks but never leaves a diagonal gap.

A worked example: a round tower base

Say you want a tower with a round wall 20 blocks wide and 10 blocks high. The thin outline of a 20 block circle has 56 blocks. Ten layers of that is 560 blocks, which is 8 stacks and 48 more blocks. If you want the wall without diagonal gaps, the thick outline is 76 blocks, so 760 blocks or 11 stacks and 56. If you also want a solid floor, add the filled disc of 316 blocks.

The first rows of that circle read: skip 7, place 6. Then skip 5, place 2, skip 6, place 2. Then skip 3, place 2, skip 10, place 2. The second half is a mirror image, so you only need to work out the top half and flip it.

Minecraft circle chart: block counts for common sizes

These numbers come straight from the generator above. They are the same every time, so you can plan a build before you open the game.

Notice how the outline grows slowly while the filled disc grows fast. Doubling the diameter roughly doubles the outline but multiplies the filled area by four. If a build only needs the edge, a thin line saves a lot of mining.

Circle size guides

Each size has its own page with the full row list, the stacks for walls of different heights and notes for that size.

• 5 blocks
• 7 blocks
• 9 blocks
• 10 blocks
• 11 blocks
• 12 blocks
• 13 blocks
• 15 blocks
• 16 blocks
• 20 blocks
• 25 blocks
• 30 blocks
• 32 blocks
• 40 blocks
• 50 blocks
• 64 blocks
• 100 blocks

Oval and ellipse builds

An oval is a circle with two different diameters, one for the width and one for the height. A 30 by 20 oval uses 72 blocks as a thin line, 96 as a thick line and 476 as a filled shape. Ovals are handy for ponds, arenas, airship hulls and the footprint of a long hall. They look best when the two sizes have the same parity, so both odd or both even. That keeps the middle of the shape symmetrical on both axes.

Common mistakes

• Starting from the wrong row. The guide counts rows from the top of the picture. Pick a corner of your building area and keep it as row 1 column 1.
• Mixing up diameter and radius. The size you type is the full width in blocks, not the distance from the centre.
• Using a thin line when you wanted a continuous wall. In a thin line some blocks join only at the corners. Use the thick line when every block should touch the next along a side.
• Forgetting the centre. If you need a block in the exact middle, use an odd diameter.
• Eyeballing the counts. Row 5 and row 6 often differ by one block. Count twice or use two different block colours for the quarter marks.

Tips for building faster

Place the four extreme blocks first: the top, bottom, left and right. They fix the size and tell you at once if you started in the wrong place. Then fill each quarter from the guide. On a big circle, mark every tenth row with a torch or a differently coloured block so you do not lose count. When the circle is the base of something taller, build one layer, then copy it upwards with a column of scaffolding or by placing the next layer directly on top.

To build in survival with fewer trips, look at the stack count under the picture and craft or mine that amount first. The stack calculator turns any block count into chests and shulker boxes. For round buildings in three dimensions, use the sphere, dome and cylinder generators.

Sources and notes

The block grid and the 64 block stack size follow the standard rules of the game, described on the Minecraft Wiki, checked on 25 October 2026. The shapes are calculated by the tool itself and do not depend on the game version. BlockShapes is not affiliated with Mojang or Microsoft.