A Minecraft circle window is a hollow circle stood up in a wall: the ring is the frame and everything inside it is glass. So the questions people ask about one, how big, how many blocks, will it look round, all come down to a circle blueprint and one number, the diameter.
TL;DR: A 7-wide Minecraft circle window takes 16 frame blocks and 21 glass; an 11-wide one takes 28 and 69. Those two sizes have the cleanest frames.
Table of contents
Open Table of contents
Count the rows of wall first
A circle window is as tall as it is wide, so its diameter is the number of rows of wall it needs. A 7-wide window takes 7 rows, and on a wall 9 rows tall that leaves one row of wall above it and one below. Measure the wall before you settle on a size. A window also wants some wall left around it to read as a window and not as a hole in the top of the building, so with one spare row above and below, a 5-wide window wants a 7-row wall, a 7-wide window a 9-row wall and an 11-wide window 13 rows.
Then match the parity. An odd diameter has a single middle block, so it centres on a wall with an odd number of blocks across. An even diameter has a 2×2 middle and centres on an even wall. Get this wrong and the window sits half a block off, which on a symmetrical front is the first thing the eye finds. Turn on Highlight Center in the generator and the centre lines show which case you have; it is the same habit that keeps a big circle from drifting by a block.
The blueprint comes from the circle generator: set the diameter, choose Hollow for the frame, and read the grid as if it were the face of your wall. MC Shapes is a free, browser-based set of Minecraft shape generators (circle, oval, sphere and dome) that outputs block-by-block blueprints with exact block counts; it does not export schematic files. It draws flat circles only, so a round window on the curved wall of a round tower is not something it can plot.
Below 7 wide the glass is a square
A 3-wide circle is a ring of 8 blocks around a single block of glass. A 5-wide circle is a ring of 12 around a 3×3 square of glass: the frame has its corners clipped, but the glass does not. The glass only becomes round at 7 wide, where its rows run 3, 5, 5, 5, 3.
# is a frame block, o is glass and . is wall.
5 wide (12 frame, 9 glass)
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7 wide (16 frame, 21 glass)
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..###..That is why a 5-wide window reads as a square window in a fancy frame and a 7-wide one reads as a porthole. If the wall cannot spare 7 rows, a 5-wide window is still worth building, as long as you expect a square of glass in a round frame.
Frame and glass counts from 3 to 21
| Window | Frame blocks | Glass blocks | Hole to cut | Frame corners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 8 | 1 | 9 | — |
| 4 | 8 | 4 | 12 | — |
| 5 | 12 | 9 | 21 | clean |
| 6 | 20 | 12 | 32 | doubled |
| 7 | 16 | 21 | 37 | clean |
| 8 | 20 | 32 | 52 | clean |
| 9 | 32 | 37 | 69 | doubled |
| 10 | 28 | 52 | 80 | nearly clean |
| 11 | 28 | 69 | 97 | clean |
| 12 | 32 | 80 | 112 | clean |
| 13 | 40 | 97 | 137 | doubled |
| 14 | 44 | 112 | 156 | doubled |
| 15 | 40 | 137 | 177 | clean |
| 16 | 52 | 156 | 208 | doubled |
| 17 | 48 | 177 | 225 | nearly clean |
| 18 | 48 | 208 | 256 | clean |
| 19 | 68 | 225 | 293 | doubled |
| 20 | 60 | 256 | 316 | doubled |
| 21 | 56 | 293 | 349 | clean |
A 7-wide circle window is 16 frame blocks and 21 glass, 37 blocks of wall removed in all. An 11-wide window is 28 frame blocks and 69 glass. By 15 wide the frame is 40 blocks and the glass is 137, a little over two stacks.
These are the generator’s numbers. Frame is its Total Blocks in Hollow mode, the hole is Total Blocks in Solid mode, and the glass is the difference; I ran every diameter from 3 to 21 through the same algorithm both ways to build the table. Another circle chart may round its corners differently and give a different frame count for the same width.
One pattern saves a lookup: the glass of any window is the filled circle two sizes down. The 21 glass blocks of a 7-wide window are exactly a solid 5-wide circle, and the 69 of an 11-wide window are a solid 9.
The glass column counts grid cells, so it is the same number whether you fill them with glass blocks or with panes. I have not tested how panes join up inside every frame size, so check one in your world before you craft a stack of them.
7 and 11 give the cleanest small frames
Among the small sizes, the 7- and 11-wide frames are one block thick all the way round, and the 9- and 13-wide frames are not. At 6, 9, 13, 14, 16, 19 and 20 wide the ring steps edge to edge on its diagonals, which makes the frame two blocks thick at each shoulder. At 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 18 and 21 it steps corner to corner and stays thin.
9 wide (32 frame, 37 glass)
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..#####..
11 wide (28 frame, 69 glass)
...#####...
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...#####...It shows up in the counts. A 9-wide frame is 32 blocks, four more than the 28 of the larger 11-wide frame. It is the same quirk that makes a 7-wide arch heavier than a 9-wide one, since those arches are cut from the 9- and 11-block circles.
Depth is the other lever. In a wall two or more blocks thick you can set the glass one block behind the face of the frame, which puts the whole ring in shadow and makes a small window read from much further away. It changes none of the counts, because the glass fills the same cells one layer back.
Neither frame is wrong. A thin frame suits a window where the glass is the point, and I would pick 7 or 11 for that. A doubled frame in a contrasting block reads as a stone surround, which is a fair reason to choose 9 or 13 on purpose. What the generator will not do is soften either one: it plots full blocks only, so the trapdoor and stair tricks people use on small round windows are hand work on top of the frame it gives you.
Rose windows at 15, 17 and 21
A rose window is the same ring at a size where it can carry a pattern. A 15-wide window is 40 frame blocks around 137 glass. At 17 wide it is 48 frame blocks around 177 glass, and at 21 wide it is 56 around 293. Small round windows are portholes, or oculi if you want the architect’s word; a rose window is the large kind with tracery that sits over a cathedral door.
For a heavier stone surround, set Border Thickness to Thick. The 15-wide frame becomes 80 blocks around 97 glass, and the 21-wide frame becomes 124 around 225. Budgeting that split between frame and glass is the same problem as a glass dome, only flat.
The ring is the part the generator can give you. On an odd window Highlight Center draws the two centre lines, which are your first four spokes; the diagonals and any tracery between them are placed by hand. How many spokes a given size can carry is a judgement call I cannot reduce to a number.
A round door you can walk through
A circle entrance is a circle window without the glass, and what matters is the shape of the hole. A 7-wide ring leaves an opening 5 blocks tall at the centre and 3 blocks wide at the floor.
| Ring | Height at centre | Width at the floor | Widest point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 9 | 7 | 3 | 7 |
| 11 | 9 | 5 | 9 |
| 13 | 11 | 5 | 11 |
Sink the bottom row of the frame into the ground so the floor of the opening is level with the path outside. An odd ring has a single centre column, which is where a one-wide door or path lines up. If you want a flat floor across the full width of the opening, that is an arch rather than a circle, and the arch patterns cover it.
The wall decides the size, and the diameter decides the rest. Set the diameter your wall can take in the circle generator, once in Hollow for the frame and once in Solid for the hole. The difference between the two totals is your glass.