Pause menu

The pause screen in *Java Edition* in singleplayer.

The pause menu is one of Minecraft's multiple menu screens. Activated during gameplay, it provides a portal to configure game options, quit out of a world, and more. This menu can be accessed anytime (when not in a GUI) by pausing the game with the Esc key by default.

The game completely freezes when the pause menu is opened in singleplayer. In Bedrock Edition, a setting to disable pausing in singleplayer is available, and enabled by default.^[1]

Buttons

Java Edition

Option	Description
Back to Game	Closes the pause menu and allows the player to continue playing Minecraft.
Advancements	Shows all of the advancements the player has and hasn't completed.
Statistics	Shows the player's statistics.
Give Feedback	Provides a link to the feedback site.
Report Bugs	Provides a link to the Java Edition page on bug tracker.
Server Links...	Opens the server links screen. Server links can point to the server's website, forums, bug tracker, feedback site, and more. See § Server links. If the server sends out the server links, the "Report Bugs" and "Give Feedback" buttons are moved into a sub-screen, accessible by "Feedback..." button.^[2]
Options...	Opens the options menu, which can change the difficulty, controls, settings, resource packs, music, sounds, and more.
Open to LAN	Provides an option to allow players from the local network to play in this world.
Player Reporting	Opens the Social Interactions screen. Note that it is only accessible in multiplayer games.
Disconnect	Disconnects the player from the world (leaves the world). Only accessible in multiplayer games.
Save and Quit to Title	Saves the game's progress and goes back to the menu screen.

Bedrock Edition

Option	Description
	Closes the pause menu and allows the player to continue playing Minecraft.
	Opens Realms Stories. Only available when playing in a Realm. On the top-right of this button, the amount of unread posts is shown.
	Opens the settings menu, which allows the player to configure controls, difficulty, sounds, and more.
	Opens the Marketplace.
	Saves the game's progress and goes back to the menu screen.
	Allows the player to change their skin and access the character creator.
Feedback	Opens the Minecraft Feedback site.
Screenshot	Screenshots the current in-game perspective. This feature is only available on players with Microsoft account.
	Shows the player's Minecraft profile, including their statistics, screenshots, and achievements. It also shows their profile on the Xbox network, such as their gamertag, online status, friends and followers. See Profile screen.
Player Permissions	Manages the permission level of the respective player.
Friends button	Opens the friends drawer, where all offline and online friends are shown, with their profiles, and a button to search for players. This button is only available for certain players.
	Opens a list of friends to invite to join the game.

Custom buttons

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

It is possible for servers and data packs to add a button to the pause menu. In that case, the "Report Bugs" and "Give Feedback" buttons are moved into a sub-screen, accessible by "Feedback..." button.

Dialogs

Dialogs can be added to the pause screen by adding them to the #minecraft:pause_screen_additions tag. If more than one dialog is added, a "Custom Options..." button is shown that leads to a sub-screen listing all dialogs.

Server links

Server operators can provide server links to their website, forums, bug tracker, feedback site, and more. They are shown using the minecraft:server_links dialog. This dialog is automatically added to the #minecraft:pause_screen_additions tag when that tag is empty otherwise and the server specifies server links.

Each of the server links is customizable: built-in server links have predefined labels, while custom server links allow custom labels using text component format. Operators can set custom links for their built-in and custom server links.

There are ten built-in server links that operators can use:

Option	Description
Bug Report	Provides the server's bug tracker website, where players can report a server-specific bug. This link will also be displayed on the players' connection error screen, and included as a comment in the disconnection report.
Community Guidelines	Provides the server's community guidelines for players.
Support	Provides the server's help and support page for players.
Status	Provides the server's uptime status for players to check if the server is online, or offline under specific reasons.
Feedback	Provides the server's feedback page for players to post their feedback and participate.
Community	Provides the server's community page for players to interact with the community.
Website	Provides the server's website.
Forums	Provides the server's forums.
News	Provides the server's news page.
Announcements	Provides the server's announcements, where players can read important news or events for the server.

Server links can only be specified through custom server-sent packets to the client. The vanilla server software does not provide any settings nor utilities for this, and thus cannot be configured without modifications to the software or third-party utilities. The server.properties also provides no settings for server links.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	None	UI	When a menu button is clicked	`ui.button.click`	`None`	0.25	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Sound	When a menu button is clicked	`random.click`	0.2	1.0

History

This page would benefit from the addition of more images.

Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Comparison of button texture scaling before and after 23w31a.

Java Edition Classic
0.0.13a							Added the pause menu, which, like today, could be opened by pressing `ESC`.
0.0.13a_03							Added "Game menu" title.
0.0.14a							Changed "Generate new level" to "Generate new level..." button.
?							The "Generate new level...", "Save level.." and "Load level.." buttons are unclickable and a different color on a server.
0.0.23a							Added "Options..." button.
0.0.23a							Menu buttons now have a stone like texture.
Java Edition Indev
0.31			20100206-1437				Pause menu now stops the game.
Java Edition Infdev
20100327							Added "Change world..." and "Quit game" buttons.
20100327							Removed "Generate new level...", "Save level..", and "Load level.." buttons.
20100608							Changed background overlay.
20100624							Changed "Quit game" to "Save and quit to title.." button and background overlay.
20100624							Removed "Change world..." button.
20100629							Moved buttons closer to center and swapped "Back to game" and "Options..." buttons.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.9							The background overlay has now been darker.
v1.0.12							Changed "Save and quit to title.." to "Save and quit to title".
Java Edition Beta
1.5							Added "Achievements" and "Statistics" buttons.
Java Edition
1.1			11w49a				Changed "Back to game" to "Back to Game" and "Save and quit to title" to "Save and Quit to Title" buttons.
1.3.1			12w18a				The "Saving level..." text no longer appears in the pause menu among several other features broken by this version.
1.3.1			12w25a				Added "Open to LAN" button.
1.11			16w38a				Capitalized "Game menu" to "Game Menu" title.
1.12			17w13a				Changed "Achievements" to "Advancements" button.
1.14			18w43a				Added the "Give Feedback" and "Report Bugs" buttons.
1.19.1			22w24a				Added a "Player Reporting" button, which is only visible while on a server.
1.19.3			22w43a				Moved down title and buttons.
1.19.3			pre1				Reverted 22w43a changes.
1.20.2			23w31a				Buttons now use a proper nine-slice system. The appearance of the buttons has now slightly changed.^[3]
1.20.5			24w09a				The overlaid background is now less dark and is handled as a texture file that can be configured via resource packs.
			24w09a				A configurable box blur effect is now applied to the game while paused.
			24w11a				A linear blur is now applied to the game while paused.
1.21			24w21a				Added server links button and menu.
1.21.6			25w20a				Music now plays when the game is paused.
			25w20a				Data packs can request some of the available dialogs to be accessible from Pause screen. This feature replaces the "Server Links" button and is placed on Pause screen according to the same rules.
			pre3				The button clicking sound is now controlled by the "UI" source.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0							Added the pause menu
v0.1.2							The pause menu now allows users to switch to third person view and disable sound.
v0.7.0							The pause menu has been redesigned.
							Switching to third person view and changing sound volume is now done via the Options menu.
							Removed ability to change server visibility.
v0.7.2							Added list of players to the pause menu.
v0.15.0			build 1				Added Achievements button to pause menu.
v0.16.0			build 1				The pause menu has been redesigned.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0			beta 1.2.0.2				Player permissions are configurable in the pause menu.
1.9.0			beta 1.9.0.2				Added "Feedback" button to the pause menu.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.15				Replaced the hanger button with a "Profile" button.
1.17.30			beta 1.17.30.20				The feedback button now appears at the down left as an icon.
			beta 1.17.30.20				The options, achievements, or invite button now appear beside the feedback button.
			beta 1.17.30.22				The "Profile" button menu to Character Creator has been renamed to "Dressing Room".
1.21.30			Preview 1.21.30.23				Added a button to the pause menu that takes a screenshot.
1.21.60			Preview 1.21.60.21				The game now completely freezes when the pause menu is opened in single player. This feature can be turned on/off from the settings in the general section. This feature, however, is only available in betas and previews.^[1]
1.21.70							The game now completely freezes when the pause menu is opened in single player. No longer exclusive to betas and previews.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added the pause menu.