Minecraft tick speed means two different settings, and most searches mix them up. The game tick rate is how often the whole game updates: 20 ticks per second, one tick every 50 milliseconds, and it is changed with the Java-only /tick command. The random tick speed is a game rule that sets how many random blocks get a random tick in each 16x16x16 section per game tick: the default is 3 on Java and 1 on Bedrock (where the number is a relative speed, not an exact count).
So "is the default 3 or 20?" has a two-part answer: 20 is the tick rate, 3 is the random tick speed. To change crop and sapling growth speed you want the random tick speed: /gamerule random_tick_speed <speed> on current Java (26.3 as of this writing). Everything below is Java Edition and vanilla behaviour, sourced from the Minecraft Wiki.
Defaults at a glance
| Setting | Default | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Game tick rate | 20 ticks per second (50 ms per tick) | /tick rate <rate> (Java only) |
| Random tick speed, Java | 3 | /gamerule random_tick_speed <speed> |
| Random tick speed, Bedrock | 1 | /gamerule randomtickspeed <speed> |
What a tick is
A tick is one cycle of the game loop. At the normal rate, one tick is 0.05 seconds, 20 ticks are one second, and an in-game day is exactly 24,000 ticks (20 minutes). If your machine or server can't finish a tick in 50 ms, the tick rate (TPS) drops below 20 and everything timed by tick count takes longer in real time. The time the server actually spends on a tick is called MSPT; TPS stays at 20 only while MSPT is 50 or lower. So yes, 20 TPS is the healthy, normal value, and anything lower means lag.
What random ticks do
Each chunk is split into 16x16x16 sections of 4,096 blocks. Every game tick, the game picks random blocks from each section. On Java, the number picked per section equals the random tick speed, and the same block can be picked twice in one tick. At the default of 3, the wiki gives a median of 47.30 seconds (about 946 game ticks) between random ticks for any one block, with an average of 68.27 seconds. Since 1.21.5, every fully loaded chunk gets random ticks, whether or not a player is within 8 chunks; in practice that means chunks inside simulation distance.
Things random ticks drive on Java
As of the Minecraft Wiki's 29 September 2026 list (it grows with new blocks):
- Crops, saplings, mushrooms, vines, cactus, sugar cane, kelp, bamboo, chorus flowers, mangrove propagules, sweet berry bushes, cocoa pods and nether wart growing or spreading.
- Leaf decay, ice and snow melting, and farmland hydration.
- Grass and mycelium spreading or decaying.
- Copper blocks advancing one oxidation stage.
- Turtle eggs cracking, budding amethyst growing buds, and pointed dripstone growing.
- Lava setting nearby fires, and a Nether portal block occasionally spawning a zombified piglin.
Per the wiki, the rule does not affect coral death, or frogspawn and sniffer egg hatching.
What they don't drive
- Fire on Java. Fire spread and burnout run on scheduled ticks, not random ticks, so the rule doesn't change them. Fire using random ticks is a Bedrock difference.
- Mob spawning. The wiki lists natural spawning as its own step of the chunk tick, separate from random block ticks, and the rule only covers the random block step. The one link is the Nether portal above, so portal piglins spawn faster at high values. For the real spawning rules, see our mob farm guide.
- Baby mob growth, furnaces, redstone circuits and mob spawners. None are on the wiki's list of things random ticks drive. (The wiki doesn't state outright that they're unaffected, so treat this as "not on the list".) Spawner blocks are controlled by the
spawner_blocks_workgame rule.
How to change random tick speed
- Make sure you can run
/gamerule. On Java it needs permission level 2 (an operator, on a server). - Check the current value:
/gamerule random_tick_speed - Set a new one:
/gamerule random_tick_speed 10 - Set it back:
/gamerule random_tick_speed 3
Java arguments are case sensitive. The rule was called randomTickSpeed up to Java 1.21.10; since 1.21.11 all Java game rules use snake_case names, so guides that give the camelCase name are out of date for current versions. Bedrock uses randomtickspeed. On Java 26.1 and later you can also use the in-game game rules screen via World Options in the pause menu, which has a search bar. A value of 0 disables random ticks.
On a server
Run the command as an operator or from the server console; if you're still setting the server up, start with our guide to making a Minecraft server. The default Java 26.3 server.properties has no game rule keys, so there is no line to edit there; our server.properties guide covers what is in it. Game rules are stored per world. This page covers vanilla only; plugin servers such as those in our Paper, Spigot and Purpur comparison may behave differently, and we haven't verified how.
How to change the tick rate with /tick
Added in Java 1.20.3 (snapshot 23w43a), /tick needs permission level 3 and can't be run from a command block.
/tick queryshows the current status, target rate, and average tick times./tick rate <rate>sets the target rate, from 1.0 to 10000.0. The default is 20.0. This changes relative game speed./tick freezeand/tick unfreezestop and restart gameplay ticking. Players and the entity they ride keep ticking./tick step [time]runs for the given time (default 1 tick) and re-freezes. It only works while frozen./tick sprint [time]runs as fast as it can for the given ticks plus one, ignoring the target rate, then resumes.
Time units: t for ticks (default), s for 20 ticks, d for 24,000 ticks. Since 26.3 Snapshot 1, /tick step, /tick step stop and /tick sprint stop report an error rather than a message when they can't act. The two are separate settings: /tick rate doesn't change the random_tick_speed value, and the game rule doesn't change the tick rate.
What happens at high values
The wiki says a random tick speed set too high can raise MSPT, and lists it among the common causes of server lag, alongside hoppers, redstone and large mob counts. It gives no numeric threshold, and we won't invent one. Values over 4096 make plant growth and leaf decay instantaneous.
What is the best random tick speed?
There is no official recommendation. The default is 3. Our opinion, not a sourced figure: on a server, leave it alone unless you have a reason, because you're trading lag headroom for faster growth. In a singleplayer farm world, try a modest bump and watch MSPT: on Java, F3 shows it as "ms ticks", and F3+2 shows the TPS graph. If MSPT stays under 50, you're fine at that value.
FAQ
How fast is 1 tick?
0.05 seconds (50 milliseconds) at the normal rate.
How fast are 20 ticks?
One second.
Is 20 TPS good?
Yes. It is the full normal speed. Below 20 means the game is lagging.
What is the best tick speed?
For the tick rate, 20: it's the default and the game's full normal speed. For random tick speed there's no official recommendation; the default is 3, and our opinion and how to test a higher value are above.
Is the default tick speed 3 or 20?
Both, for different settings: 20 ticks per second is the tick rate; 3 is the Java random tick speed.
Does random tick speed change mob spawners or furnaces?
Neither is on the wiki's list of things random ticks drive.