How to send colored chat messages in Minecraft

Type /tellraw @a {"text":"Server restarting in 5 minutes","color":"red"} in chat as an operator to send everyone a red message.

tellraw

Sends a formatted chat message, written as a text component, with colors, hover text and click actions.

/tellraw <targets> <message>

Examples

/tellraw @a {"text":"Server restarting in 5 minutes","color":"red"}

A red warning in chat.

/tellraw @a {"text":"Join our Discord","color":"aqua","click_event":{"action":"open_url","url":"https://example.com"}}

A clickable link.

Arguments

targetsRequired: Players who see the message.
messageRequired: Text component, such as {"text":"Hi","color":"gold"}.

What it does

The message is a text component rather than plain text, so you can set colors, bold, translations, scores and clickable links. Since 1.21.5 text components are written as SNBT, and click actions use snake_case keys such as click_event with a url field; older guides that show clickEvent are out of date.

Good to know

Needs operator permission level 2.

Run it on your server

On a SLASHPLAY server, type it in the Console tab without the leading slash; in game, operators type it in chat with the slash. New to this? Start a Minecraft server first.

Your own
Minecraft server.

Start a Minecraft server All commands

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