Xaero’s Minimap Mod Download for Minecraft 26.3 Forge: Never Lose Your Base Again
Quick answer: Xaero’s Minimap is a free map mod that puts a live, round minimap in the corner of your screen, with waypoints, death points, and entity dots. The latest release is Xaero’s Minimap 26.6.2 for Minecraft 26.3, and the download below is the Forge build, verified on Modrinth today. Press B to set a waypoint, press Y to open the waypoint menu, and never lose your base again. It is client-side, so it works on any server, and it needs Forge for Minecraft 26.3. No other mod is required.
Every Minecraft player has a story about getting lost. You walk two thousand blocks to find a village, night falls, and the way home is a guess. Vanilla Minecraft gives you a paper map that covers one small area and a compass that points at your spawn point, and neither one helps when your base is nowhere near spawn. Xaero’s Minimap fixes this with a small map that is always on screen, showing the terrain around you, the way you came, and the places you marked.
The mod comes from developer xaero96 and has passed 122 million downloads on Modrinth. It is one of the most installed map mods in the game, and it pairs with the same author’s Xaero’s World Map, which adds a full-screen map on top of the minimap. The minimap works on its own, though, and many players run it alone because the corner map is all they need.
Minecraft 26.3 · Forge · v26.6.2 · Official download
What Xaero’s Minimap actually does
Once installed, a round map appears in the top right corner of the screen. It shows the terrain around you as you move: grass, water, sand, trees, and buildings, drawn from the chunks your game has loaded. Your position sits in the middle, and the map turns as you turn, so the direction you face is always up. You can zoom in and out with the minimap keys, and you can switch the map between a round shape and a square one from the settings menu.
The part players rely on most is waypoints. Press B anywhere and the game asks you to name the spot, pick a color, and save it. From then on, that waypoint shows on the minimap and as a beam in the world, with its distance in blocks. Mark your base, your mine entrance, a village, and a nether portal, and you can walk back to any of them without memorizing coordinates. Press Y to open the full waypoint list, where you can edit, delete, share, or teleport to a waypoint in singleplayer or on a server that allows it.
Death points are the other lifesaver. When you die, the mod drops a waypoint at the spot automatically, so you can walk straight back to your dropped items instead of searching a dark cave from memory. The death point stays until you pick your items up or delete it by hand. Anyone who has lost a full set of enchanted gear to a lava fall knows what that one feature is worth.
Entity dots, cave mode, and the fair-play version
By default, the minimap also shows nearby entities as dots: white for passive mobs, yellow for hostile mobs, red for hostile mobs that are targeting you, and purple for other players. This makes it easy to spot a creeper behind a hill or a skeleton in the dark before it spots you. On servers, this is the feature that causes arguments, because some servers consider entity radar an unfair advantage. Xaero’s Minimap answers that with a fair-play edition, a separate build that hides entity dots and cave maps. If a server requires fair-play, install that build instead of the standard one. The download on this page is the standard build, so check your server’s rules before you join with it.
Cave mode is a second view that shows the underground layout beneath you, useful when you are mining and want to see where a cave system runs. It is toggled from the minimap settings, and like entity dots, it is disabled in the fair-play build. The minimap settings menu itself is opened with the Y key or from the mod’s settings screen, and it covers map size, map shape, zoom levels, waypoint display, and which entity types get dots.
Compatibility
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Latest version | 26.6.2 |
| Minecraft version | 26.3 |
| Loader in this download | Forge |
| Other loaders | Fabric, Quilt, and NeoForge builds exist on Modrinth for the same version |
| Needs anything else? | No. Works on its own |
| Pairs with | Xaero’s World Map, for a full-screen map alongside the minimap |
| Client, server, or both | Client-side. Works on any server, with no server mod needed |
Because it is client-side, you can install Xaero’s Minimap on your computer and join a vanilla server, a modded server, or a friend’s world without anyone else needing it. Your waypoints are stored on your own computer, per world and per server, so a waypoint you set on one server never leaks into another world. If you play on a server that bans minimaps, respect that rule and leave the mod out, since the server cannot always detect it and the ban exists for a reason.
How to install Xaero’s Minimap
- Install the Forge loader for Minecraft 26.3 from the official Forge site, if you do not have it yet. In your launcher, pick the Forge 26.3 profile.
- Download Xaero’s Minimap 26.6.2 using the button above. The file is called xaerominimap-forge-26.3-26.6.2.jar and is about 2.2 MB.
- Open your Minecraft folder. On Windows, press Win + R, type %appdata%\.minecraft and press Enter. On macOS, open Finder, press Cmd + Shift + G, and type ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft.
- Open the mods folder inside it. If there is no mods folder, create one with exactly that name.
- Move the xaerominimap-forge-26.3-26.6.2.jar file into the mods folder. Do not unzip it.
- Launch the game with the Forge 26.3 profile. The minimap appears in the top right corner as soon as you enter a world. Press B to set your first waypoint at your base.
Useful keys to learn first: B sets a waypoint, Y opens the waypoint menu and settings, and the minimap zoom keys step the map in and out. If a key conflicts with another mod, change it in Options, then Controls, then Key Binds, where Xaero’s entries are listed under their own heading.
Troubleshooting
The minimap does not appear. Check that you launched the Forge profile and that the file is in the mods folder of that profile’s Minecraft folder. If you use a third-party launcher, check its instance folder, which may differ from the default .minecraft path.
The game crashes on startup. The usual cause is a loader mismatch: a Fabric file in a Forge mods folder, or a file for a different Minecraft version. Check the file name contains “forge” and “26.3”, and check the launcher profile matches.
Waypoints from one world show in another. Waypoints are stored per world, but a renamed world or a copied world folder can confuse the match. Open the waypoint menu with Y, delete the stray waypoints, and set them again in the correct world.
A server kicked me for the minimap. Some servers block entity radar or minimaps in general. Switch to the fair-play build, or remove the mod before joining that server. The fair-play build is on the same Modrinth project page, listed separately from the standard build.
The minimap is too big or too small. Open the minimap settings and change the map size. The setting takes effect at once, so you can resize it while standing in a world and see the result live.
Is Xaero’s Minimap safe to download?
Yes, when you get it from Modrinth, where the developer publishes it. The file on this page comes straight from Modrinth’s CDN, and the version number and file name match the developer’s release. Avoid repost sites that bundle mods with installers or ask you to run an extra program. A real Minecraft mod is a single .jar file that you drop into the mods folder. Never enter a password or personal detail into any site that claims to offer a mod download.
Frequently asked questions
Does Xaero’s Minimap work on servers?
Yes. It is client-side and works on any server, vanilla or modded, with no server mod needed. Check the server’s rules first, since some servers require the fair-play build.
Do I need Xaero’s World Map as well?
No. The minimap works on its own. World Map adds a full-screen map and shares waypoints with the minimap, so the pair is handy, but neither one needs the other.
Can other players see my waypoints?
No, unless you share them. Waypoints are stored on your computer. You can share a waypoint with other players on a server through the waypoint menu, but sharing is your choice each time.
Does the minimap show ores or hidden caves?
The standard build has a cave mode that shows underground layout, and entity dots that show nearby mobs. The fair-play build removes both. It does not have an ore-finding mode, and any mod that claims to add one to Xaero’s Minimap is not from the developer.
Which loader build should I pick?
Pick the build that matches your loader and your Minecraft version. This page offers the Forge build for 26.3. Fabric, Quilt, and NeoForge builds for the same version are on the same Modrinth project page.
Will my waypoints survive a mod update?
Yes, in normal use. Waypoints live in your Minecraft folder, not inside the mod file, so updating the .jar leaves them alone. Back up the xaero folder inside .minecraft before a big update anyway, since it costs nothing and saves a lot of marking.
Verdict
Xaero’s Minimap is one of those mods that, once installed, feels like part of the game. Waypoints and death points remove the worst frustration in Minecraft, which is losing your place in a world you spent hours building, and the corner map itself is clear, fast, and easy to read at a glance. It is free, it is stable, and it works on any server. If you explore at all, install it. If your server requires fair-play, install that build instead, and you keep the waypoints while giving up the radar.
