Minecraft just got a brand-new, top-tier Realms subscription. Realms Pro is a Bedrock Edition offer priced at $29.99 a month (with a promotional $1 for the first 14 days) that lets you set up a server for up to 50 players on a dedicated virtual machine with 4 CPU cores and 16 GB of RAM. Mojang describes the new service as "our most powerful Minecraft server" and is aiming it at communities who previously had to choose between the limited Realms Plus and running their own dedicated Bedrock server.

What exactly do you get for $29.99

The current Realms Plus costs $7.99 a month and supports up to 10 players at once, while the basic Realms tier at $3.99 is even more modest. Realms Pro is a leap of an order of magnitude: the player limit can be configured up to 50 people at once, and the server runs on dedicated resources, meaning no "neighbors" eating up CPU power during peak hours. On top of that, there's 25 GB of space for manual world saves, so large building maps or RPG servers with sprawling structures don't need to worry about hitting a data cap.

The new tier also integrates with the Minecraft Editor, the no-code tool for building maps and experiences, making it easier for creators to put together their own projects on a larger scale. Realms Pro admins can monitor CPU usage, memory, player count online, and server tick time in real time directly on Minecraft.net, something that was previously mostly available on paid third-party hosting, not in Mojang's native service.

Marketplace Pass included

The Realms Pro subscription also includes a Marketplace Pass, giving access to free Marketplace packs updated every month. This feature is already familiar from Realms Plus, but it makes even more sense in Pro: since the server is meant to be larger and more community-focused, extra maps, textures, and add-ons from the Marketplace help keep players engaged without needing separate purchases. Anyone invited to join a player's Realm doesn't need to pay to join, they just need a copy of Minecraft Bedrock Edition.

Who is this for

Realms Pro clearly targets a different group than the classic Realms tier: people running community servers, schools, companies organizing in-game events, or YouTubers running collaborative building projects with a larger audience. Until now, that scale required switching to a Bedrock Dedicated Server, free software that you have to host yourself on Windows or Linux, or paying for commercial hosting.

  • Realms (basic): $3.99/month, 2 players
  • Realms Plus: $7.99/month, 10 players, over 150 Marketplace packs
  • Realms Pro: $29.99/month, up to 50 players, 4 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, 25 GB of saves

It's worth remembering that playing on Realms servers with a Switch or PlayStation still differs from using a dedicated Bedrock server, since only Realms offers native cross-play with console players. For Polish communities who want to skip the complicated setup of Bedrock Edition on their own hardware, Realms Pro could be a more convenient compromise than running a dedicated server.

No equivalent for Java Edition

For now, Realms Pro is exclusive to Bedrock Edition. Realms for Java Edition stays with the current model: $7.99 a month for up to 10 players, maps, minigames, and world templates, with no option to scale up to 50 people or get dedicated CPU resources. That means owners of larger Java Edition servers still have to look beyond Mojang's official service if they need similar performance and player slots.

Mojang hasn't said yet whether a similar tier will ever come to Java, but the growing popularity of large community servers and building projects like Build The Earth suggests demand for more powerful official hosting will keep growing on both sides of the game.

Sources