Set Time to Day in Minecraft (2022)

We will first cover the time cycle mechanics in Minecraft. If you are already familiar with them, use the table below to skip ahead and learn about the time command and its syntax.

How Does Time Work in Minecraft?

Time in Minecraft is measured in ticks. A single tick lasts for 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) and finishes an in-game logical loop in that time. This loop does a variety of things in the game, including mob spawning, block updates, Redstone mechanics, and more. You can use our dedicated guide to Minecraft ticks and learn everything about it.
Furthermore, the same ticks make up a Minecraft day. One complete day-night cycle lasts for 24000 ticks or 20 minutes in the real world. And you can use the time command to skip parts of the day by adding a few ticks to the time that has passed in the game.

How Does Time Command Affect the Game?

The time command in Minecraft only affects the daylight cycle and the overall world time. This command can’t be used to speed up the world or its processes. Though, you can use it to avoid nighttime, thus, not allowing hostile mobs to spawn. But if you want to speed up or slow down your world, then changing the random tick speed is the only option.

How to Change the Tick Speed in Minecraft?

With every tick, Minecraft updates a random set of blocks. In the Java edition, three blocks are updated, whereas only one block is updated with each tick in the Bedrock edition. You can use the “gamerule” command to change this random tick speed and speed up the updation of blocks, and thus, your world.
We already have a dedicated guide that covers how to change random tick speed in Minecraft. You can use this guide to change the speed of most entities and block updates in your game.

Uses of Time Command in Minecraft

The most command way to use the time command is to change the time of your day and set it to noon, day, or night in Minecraft. But you can also use it to check and modify the time of your day. It has three keywords:

Add: Allows you to add time to the age of your Minecraft worldQuery: Shows the detail of elapsed time Set: Allows you to set your day-night cycle to a specific time

How to Use Time Command in Minecraft

Just like all the other useful commands in Minecraft, you can only use the time command in Minecraft in a cheats-enabled world. So, you’ll first need to enable cheats in your game. For that, you have to toggle the “Allow Cheats” option in the LAN settings that are available in the pause menu on the Java edition. Meanwhile, the same can be turned on in the world settings on the Bedrock edition.
Once you have enabled cheats, you need to enter the time command in the chat section (accessible using the T key or right button on your D-Pad) of Minecraft to set the time to day or night. Let’s go over the different syntaxes and keywords to make the most out of it.

Add Time Command

To add time to your Minecraft world, you have to use the following syntax of the time command:
/time add X Here, “X” is the numerical value by which you want to increase the time. It has to be followed by “d” for days, “s” for seconds, and “t” for ticks. For example, /time add 22d adds twenty-two days to the world’s age.

Time Command: Query

The “query” keyword of the time command is the simplest one and shows the amount of time that has passed in your world. The syntax for this command is as under:
/time query Y In this syntax, the “Y” can be replaced with “day”, “daytime”, and “gametime”. Each of them displays a different value:

Day: Number of days that have passed in your worldDaytime: Current time of your day in terms of ticks. It resets after every day-night cycle and can’t be more than 24,000.Gametime: Number of ticks that have passed since the creation of your world

Set Time Command

  1. The last keyword for the time command is “set”, and it’s the most powerful one. You can use the following format to change the time in the day-night cycle:
    /time set A Here, “A” can be replaced by “day”, “noon”, “night” and “midnight”. Then, the game will set your day’s time to the time relative to that keyword in Minecraft. For example, you can use the command – /time set midnight to enjoy the moonlit skies and mob fights in Minecraft.
  2. Alternatively, you can also use the time command to reset your Minecraft world’s time. To do so, use the following syntax: /time set B Here, “B” needs to be replaced by a numerical value. You need to add “s” for seconds, “d” for days, or “t” for ticks to the numerical value. This will set your world’s time to a specific time. For example, “/set time 0t” will restart the clock for your world.

Examples: How Time Command Works in Minecraft

To understand the time command better, let’s go over some examples and test them in the game. Feel free to follow along and match your in-game results with our screenshots. In the command below, I’m adding 12000 ticks to my current time of the day in Minecraft, hence, it is set to 17726 ticks to switch to nighttime. Also, as you can see, I’m using a command block for this process.
/time add 12000 In the next command, as explained above, we will be using the query keyword along with gametime to see the exact time that has passed in your Minecraft world since you created it. Here’s how it works: /time query gametime

How to Set Time to Day in Minecraft

Now that you are familiar with the time command in Minecraft, it’s time to use it to control the day. Use this command to set the time to day in Minecraft:
/time set day OR /time set 1000 Both of the above-mentioned commands will turn your game’s time to early morning. But we suggest you use the “set day” keyword, as it doesn’t affect the number of days that have passed. However, “set 1000” will set your in-game days to zero.
Alternatively, you can also set the day’s time to noon using the command below. The “noon” keyword sets your world time to the middle of the day. It is the time with maximum natural light and brightness in Minecraft. /time set noon OR /time set 6000

How to Set Time to Night in Minecraft

To set your world’s time to night time in Minecraft, you can use the command below:
/time set night OR /time set 13000 This command sets the time of your world to early in the night. As soon as you use it, hostile mobs will start spawning in your world. Not to forget, we suggest you use the “set night” keyword instead of “set 13000” to make sure the number of days in your world doesn’t become zero.
Moreover, if you want to skip further into the night, you can use the following command: /time set midnight OR /time set 18000 As you might guess from the keyword term, this command sets your world’s time to midnight. With that, you can expect yourself to be surrounded by darkness and hostile Minecraft mobs in no time. Now, you know how to easily set the time to day or night in Minecraft.

How Long Is an In-Game Day in Minecraft?

In terms of in-game ticks, a complete Minecraft day can be broken down into four parts: Time of the DayTicksSunrise1Noon6000Night/Sunset13000Midnight18000Next Day24000 You can use these values with the “time set” command to change your Minecraft world’s setting as you desire. Similarly, these ticks can also be converted into real-world time. Use the table below to make the best use of your Minecraft farms in the context of real-world time. TicksMinecraft TimeReal World Time24,0001 Day20 Minutes1,0001 Hour50 Seconds168,0001 Week~2.3 Hours192,0001 Lunar (Moon) Cycle~2.6 Hours12,00012 Hours10 Minutes How do you set the time of day to night in Minecraft? You can use “/time set 13000″ or “/time set night” to change your world’s time to night time, right after sunset.
How do you set time to morning in Minecraft? You can use the “/time set 24000“ command to set the world’s time to sunrise. This gives you the ability to skip a day, keep controlling your villagers, or the painstaking task of fighting mobs at night.
How do you stop the daylight cycle in Minecraft? To stop the daylight cycle, you can use the “/gamerule doDaylightCycle false” command in the chat in Minecraft.

Use Time Command to Change Day or Night in Minecraft

With that, you now have the power to control and twist the time in Minecraft. You can now easily tune the aesthetics of a day, age out your world, and even skip day or night altogether. And if you wish to make these commands even more effective, we suggest you get a command block in Minecraft. This powerful block can fit into any Redstone circuit and give you powers equivalent to various Minecraft mods. Having said that, which time of the day do you prefer in Minecraft? Day or night? Let’s pour in the votes in the comments below!