Block entity

Not to be confused with Entity.

A block entity (also known as tile entity) is extra data associated with a block, beyond the finite set of block states associated with each block.

Usage

Block entities store additional information about certain blocks, with the type of information varying by block. In some cases, this information is used to create a more complex model, such as the book on an enchanting table. In other cases, it is used to store contents of an object. Blocks with block entities can be moved by pistons in Bedrock Edition, but not in Java Edition.

List of block entities

These are the current blocks that hold block entities.

Block Entity	Usage
Beehive Bee Nest	To store bees.
Signs Hanging Signs Chalkboard‌ Poster‌ Slate‌	To store written text.
Sculk Sensor Calibrated Sculk Sensor	To store the redstone signal strength.
Sculk Catalyst	To store xp levels.
Sculk Shrieker	To store the amount of activations.
Banners	To store the patterns.
Chest Trapped Chest Dispenser Furnace Brewing Stand Hopper Dropper Shulker Box Barrel Smoker Blast Furnace Campfire Soul Campfire Lectern Chiseled Bookshelf	To store their contents. Furnaces, blast furnaces, and smokers also store the time until the current item is smelted, the time until the furnace's current fuel item is exhausted, and all of the items that have been smelted since a player emptied the output slot. Brewing stands also store the brewing time. Hoppers also store the time until the next transfer of an item. Chests, trapped chests and shulker boxes also use the block's position and rotation for the opening and closing animation. Lecterns also store the page the book is currently on. The Chiseled Bookshelf stores books.
Beacon	To store the pyramid level, active effects, and contents. Also uses the block's position for the beacon beam.
Monster Spawner	To store: the entity to be spawned. the delay until the next entity is spawned, and the min and max values for the next spawn delay. how many entities to spawn per spawn attempt. additional data about the entity to be spawned (such as position, effects, and entities stacked on top of it). Also uses the block's position to display the spinning mob inside.
Note Block‌	To store the note to be played.
Item Frame‌ Glow Item Frame‌	To store the item displayed on it.
Piston‌ Sticky Piston‌	To store the offset of block, and blocks that it should move or break.
Moving Piston	To store the offset of block‌, direction of movement‌, and ID (and data value, if applicable) of the moving block.
Jukebox	To play music discs, if any are inside.
Enchanting Table	For the floating book.
End Portal Ender Chest	For the particle field effect.
Mob Head	For the type of the head‌, rotation when placed on top of a block‌, and (if applicable) data of the player represented.
Command Block	For the command text, its output strength, and the output text.
End Gateway	For the teleport location and also whether to render the beam.
Structure Block	To store information about the structure.
Jigsaw Block	To store the structure pool and the block this jigsaw block becomes.
Nether Reactor Core‌	To store whether the reaction started and the time remaining in the reaction.
Daylight Detector	To force the daylight detector to update its output signal strength.
Flower Pot‌	To store the ID and the data value of the block displayed inside of it.
Redstone Comparator	To store its output strength.
Bed	To store color‌ and for rendering the block.
Cauldron‌	To store details about liquid content. Cauldrons containing dyed water store water color. Cauldrons containing potions store the potion's ID and a tag of whether it is a splash potion or not.
Conduit	To check its activation area for valid activation blocks and calculate its effective range. Also used for rendering the block in its active and inactive states.
Bell	For the render of the swaying animation of the bell.
Lodestone‌	To link with compass.
Suspicious Sand Suspicious Gravel	To store loot table, contents, brushability, and loot table seed.
Decorated Pot	To store sherds.
Compound Creator‌ Element Constructor‌ Lab Table‌ Material Reducer‌	To store the items in lab table and the process of lab experiment.

Render limits

Some block entities, or their effects, stop being rendered beyond a hard-coded block limit which is modeled after the radius of a sphere. This limit is not affected by the Render Distance nor the Entity Distance scale in the Video Settings.

Block entities that stop rendering beyond 64 blocks include:

• Banners
• Beds
• Chests
• Conduits
• Decorated Pots
• Ender chests
• End portals
• Hanging Signs
• Heads
• Signs
• Shulker boxes
• Trapped chests

Some effects related to block entities stop rendering beyond a number of blocks:

• The beacon and end gateway beams stop rendering beyond 256 blocks in Java Edition or 64 blocks in Bedrock Edition or when the end gateway is out of frame.
• The contents of a campfire stop rendering beyond 64 blocks.
• The book on a lectern stops rendering beyond 64 blocks.
• The mob inside a monster spawner stops spinning beyond the  RequiredPlayerRange, which is 16 blocks by default, and stops rendering beyond 64 blocks.
• The note particles emitted by a note block stop rendering beyond 32 blocks.
• Pistons stop animating beyond 64 blocks.
• The book on an enchanting table stops rendering beyond 64 blocks.
• The outlines created by a structure block stop rendering beyond 96 blocks.
• The bell part of the model of a bell, but not the frame, stops rendering beyond 64 blocks.

See also

• Chunk format § Block entity format – describes the save format for block entities
• Entities, which are all the dynamic, moving objects throughout the Minecraft world, plus several non-moving objects that resemble blocks.
• Block states, which are, like block entities, extra pieces of data that further define a block.