Furnaces are one of the first things every new Minecraft world needs. They provide warmth, light, and the ability to turn ore into valuable crafting materials. But to do this, they need fuel. "What's the best fuel in Minecraft?" isn’t as simple a question to answer as you might expect. Sure, the lava bucket lasts the longest, but it isn’t stackable.

Are there even ten different things you can use to fuel a furnace? Yes. There are tons of different fuel sources to choose from. Here, you can find some of the most common fuel resources ranked by efficiency.

Updated February 22, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Finding the right fuel is essential in any Minecraft world. We've updated this list with even more fuel sources to choose from, ranking them in order from worst to best.

16 Beehives

Ever found the monotony of smelting to be a bit too... moral? Why not take one of the cutest creatures in the game and commit concentrated arson on them for your next iron ingot? That's right, you can use bee hives as a fuel source. Only possible in Bedrock Edition, you can place either a bee hive or a bee nest in a furnace, and it will burn for 15 seconds, enough for one and a half smeltings.

Aside from building tools from the ashes of a cute critter's home, it's also tremendously inefficient. It burns longer than wooden tools, sure, but at the cost of more wood and more emotional bee damage. Save the bees, don't do this.

15 Bookshelf

Minecraft is great because it's a game that lets you do anything. So, if you want to make an Orwellian totalitarian state, you can. What better way to roleplay a dictator or brainwashed member of the proletariat than by using bookshelves as a primary fuel source?

Sure, they take a lot of resources to build, but that’s the point of a book burning - to undermine the effort to intellectualize people. That being said, this is the worst fuel source in the game, don't use it. It takes too long to build, and you need a stack of 42.66 to cook 64 steaks.

14 Banners/Wool/Carpets

This is another case of, "Why would you ever smelt this?". Sure, banners aren't the worst thing to smelt in terms of efficiency, but all three of these items aren't worth the wasted materials. Prior to setting up a wool farm, you probably won't have too much. Why waste it to smelt some iron?

To smelt one thing, you will need nearly three carpets. If you are looking to smelt a full stack of something, that's about 191 carpets! Overall, you better be prepared to waste a lot of wool if you want to smelt with these materials.

13 Sticks And Saplings

While sticks and saplings don't last as long as other resources, they are quite plentiful. It's incredibly easy to gather a large amount of sticks and saplings if you are going on a wood-gathering adventure.

While this isn't a great primary fuel source, it does work in a pinch if you are out exploring and need to quickly smelt some meat to avoid death.

12 Note Blocks And Jukeboxes

Do you hate music? If so, then smelting note blocks and jukeboxes is perfect for you. With this as a fuel source, you can also burn those valuable diamonds. If you weren't aware, the jukebox requires eight planks and one diamond to make.

This means that if you like to burn jukeboxes, you are essentially burning money. For 1.5 smelts per item, you can quickly eat through your diamond storage. Of course, if you want to drain your diamond funds, then this is perfect.

11 Job Blocks

Job blocks are an okay source of fuel, but who crafts these blocks just to burn them? For the most part, you will probably craft these in order to set up a villager trading hall, as well as keep a few for your own crafting needs.

While they can serve as fuel in a pinch, you are better off using sticks or bamboo, which don't require any crafting. If you want the job system to burn though, then feel free to burn a smithing table or two.

10 Wooden Tools

The ability to burn wooden tools is an example of Minecraft making a weird amount of real-world sense. Intuitively, anything made of wood should be able to burn. You may also be wondering what to do with your first bits of wooden kit once you've upgraded to stone.

You could place it in a memorabilia chest like the soppy hoarder you are deep down, throw it on the ground and wait for it to despawn, or give that trusty pickaxe a glorious Viking-esque funeral and use 64 of them to cook 64 steaks. That's right, it's a one-to-one ratio, but the novelty is worth the inefficiency.

9 Bamboo

While bamboo burns very quickly, it's also very easy to build AFK farms for it. These turn one of the worst fuel sources into one of the best as it will allow you to stockpile stacks of the stuff. The main issue is that you'll need to learn how to use some Redstone.

For those of you who are builders rather than Redstone players, plenty of YouTube tutorials give step-by-step instructions on how to create these farms. It takes 256 pieces to cook up 64 steaks, so if you have to go out and farm this manually, it'll take a lot of time and likely kill off the entire panda population too.

8 Crafted Wooden Blocks

Crafted wooden blocks refers to things like stairs, slabs, buttons, and various wooden components. For the most part, these just require a varying amount of planks, making them relatively easy to craft in bulk.

Still, there are better options out there. If you only had a log in hand, you could craft it into four planks to increase the smelt efficiency, but in any other situation, we recommend using a differnt fuel resource.

7 Blaze Rod

There are some farms that everyone just needs. Blaze rods can be farmed from Blazes to make for a great dual XP and fuel farm. These farms can be as simple as sealing off a Blaze spawner. You can also use pistons and other contraptions to funnel all the Blazes into a kill chamber.

The main satisfaction of using blaze rods as a fuel source, however, comes from knowing that you are warming yourself on the detritus of fallen foes. That’s a warm glow and fuzzy feeling quite unlike any other. They're actually pretty good, too, with just 5.3 cooking up a nice stack of steaks, imbued with the screams of your enemies.

6 Logs

If you live in a forest, fear going underground, or want to roleplay a rustic world, logs are the fuel source of choice. If specific biome challenges are more your speed, there are all sorts of different ones to find out if the taiga or ice spikes sound more intriguing.

As the OG human source of fire, you really can’t go wrong with logs. They have the added benefit of being a sustainable fuel source as long as you keep replanting trees that get cut down. Sure, turning them into planks would be more efficient, but where’s the fun in that? 42.6 logs cook up one stack of steaks, but that woodsmoked finish is unlike any other.

5 Dried Kelp Block

If you want to pretend your house is filled with the salty aroma of the sea, the dried kelp block is definitely the best fuel source to get. Or, maybe there's a pirate ship base in a water world, and you want a roleplay-friendly fuel source. Of course, you could always build a giant sky turtle if ships are too mainstream for you.

Dried kelp blocks are a little tricky, however, as you must first dry kelp in a furnace. This means it isn't an especially efficient fuel source option, but once you've made it, just 3.2 blocks will cook up a whole stack of steaks and give them a salty bite. Because they make you feel like a pirate stranded on a deserted island, we're putting dried kelp blocks quite high up this list. Pirates are cool.

4 Charcoal

The first time you make charcoal, you might audibly wonder, “Huh?” Accidentally creating it by misclicking and putting some wood in the furnace is a Minecraft rite of passage. You even get an achievement for using charcoal to turn logs into more charcoal.

Charcoal does everything coal does except turn into blocks. You can use it to make torches or campfires, and it burns for just as long as coal - eight pieces will cook up a stack of juicy steaks. It is an ideal fuel source if you want to stay in the forest and out of the mines, but the extra step required to burn wood first makes it unnecessarily inefficient.

3 Coal

You may think coal is the best fuel in Minecraft, but you'd be wrong. While coal is the lifeblood at the beginning of every new world, it's bested in every way by the denser, more compact, simply better in every way, coal block. Coal needs eight units to burn a stack of 64 steaks, so it's decent, but it's far better on your torches than in your furnaces.

Coal is, however, perfect for when you only need a small amount of stuff cooked to a crisp. So for more intimate meals where you only need to cook eight steaks, one piece of coal will get the job done. It's also everywhere, making it the best fuel source in Minecraft in terms of abundance.

2 Lava Bucket

The lava bucket is the best fuel in Minecraft on paper. Well, it would burn the paper, but you get the point. It burns longer than any single unit of fuel, but you can’t stack it. So while it may not make for a great travel fuel source, it can be utilized with tremendous efficiency in established bases.

Let's say you took a trip to the lava level with ten buckets and used it to collect lava for fuel. That would be enough fuel to burn for 10,000 seconds (2.8 hours). That's enough fuel to smelt a good 1,000 iron ingots. That's not bad for a two-minute trip.

1 Block Of Coal

The block of coal is hands down the best all-around fuel source in Minecraft. It burns for almost as long as the lava bucket, but you can stack 64 of them in a furnace at a time. This makes for less tedium and more time mining and crafting.

Turning all the coal collected while mining is also good for freeing up storage space. The only downside of these blocks is that you can’t farm them while AFK. But 0.8 blocks will roast an entire stack of steak. For ease of use and fuel efficiency, the coal block is crowned the best fuel source in Minecraft.