How to OP Yourself In Minecraft

Last modified on May 13, 2025 in Control Panel

By Nathan Young

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Overview

After purchasing a Minecraft server, you may want to enable cheats and have fun with friends. Alternatively, you might want to have access to extra features to better manage your players. Regardless of your reasoning, it’s entirely possible to do this on your server. The process may be unknown to some owners, especially if they’re newcomers to the scene. Fortunately, our easy-to-use panel provides you with a quick way to get complete access to everything. This is known as becoming a server operator, granting the player several commands, abilities, and other features depending on your setup. Although, there are several levels to this that limit what players can do in-game. If you want someone to have restricted access, then you can manually configure that for them. We’ll show you how to become a Minecraft server operator and its many levels to get you started in this guide.

Becoming a Server Operator

A Minecraft server operator is commonly referred to as OP, which reflects the command to become one. This cannot be executed in-game unless you already have the correct permissions, so using the console is required. Once your account has OP privileges, you can use lots of abilities in the server. This is amplified if you have plugins or mods installed too, as they come with commands and other features. Essentially, any owner or administrator should become an operator and possibly different levels of them depending on your desired goal(s). These instructions show you how to become OP, so follow along below when you’re ready.

1. Head towards your Apex server panel and startup the server if it’s not already online.
2. Continue to press the Console button near the top left corner of your screen.
   
3. On this page, type op [username] in the text box and press Enter on your keyboard.
   
4. Check for the return “Made [username] a server operator” message, as its confirmation.
5. If successful, join the server with your account to begin enjoying operator privileges.
   Note: Execute deop [username] to remove these permissions from the account.

Operator Levels

As mentioned throughout this guide, there are several levels of an operator in Minecraft. There’s only four of them, with all unique properties that help you give players extra features. Whether you only want a user to bypass spawn protection or have cheating commands, these levels help you achieve that. Before you try this out for yourself, review the table below to understand them.

Making Default Levels

If you’re wanting to make a friend or another player have a specific OP level, then the instructions below guides you through the process. Keep in mind that doing this will make it the default setting when giving operator to other users. This plays an important role in managing your Minecraft server, as everyone shouldn’t be the max level. Although, the majority of owners use LuckPerms or another plugin to grant other players specific commands and abilities. This is a bit more involved process than using OP levels, so it’s completely up to you. Besides this, continue to review the steps below to begin changing operator permissions.

1. Navigate to your server panel, then click Config Files near the top left corner.
   
2. Enter the Server Settings category, then locate the OP Permission Level option.
   
3. Once found, click the drop down menu to the right and select your desired level.
   
4. Afterward, scroll down and press Save and continue to click Restart Now in the prompt.

Changing Existing Levels

If you’ve already given OP to a player and want to change their permissions, then the instructions below will help with this goal. Essentially, you’ll need to manually change the level in the operators list from our panel. This is considered the best way to change operator permissions for accounts, as it’s readily available for you to edit. Alternatively, you could try revoking OP and redoing the main command after configuring the default permission from the above section. This effectively removes their operator status from the previous level, then granting them the new one. Besides this, we’ll show you the best way to change existing operators in the steps below.

1. Inside of the Config Files area of your main panel, click the Operators category.
   
2. In the editor, find the level setting for the account and change its value accordingly.
   

   Note: Do not remove the comma or other required characters in the editor.

3. Afterward, press Save at the top and click Restart Now when prompted.
   
4. If successful, the account will now be that OP level and have access to its features.

Common Issues

In some cases, you cannot give OP to players for several reasons. This mainly happens when the server is offline and hasn’t started yet. Make sure to keep this online while trying to give operator permissions to players. If the situation persists, then this could be caused if you’re running a crossplay server. Remember, Bedrock players have a prefix for their username due to its design. Be sure to include this while running op [username] in the console so everything works out. For example, a Bedrock player named “.Player1” can be an operator with the op .Player1 command. Occasionally, quotation marks may be required for their account’s name depending on if it has spaces. Besides this, another possible issue could be entering the command incorrectly. Make sure that all arguments are valid without mistakes or errors. If you’re using an offline server for Minecraft, then this could be interfering with the OP list due to UUIDs being different than normal.

After becoming OP on your Minecraft server and you’re unable to use all commands, then this means the level isn’t set up correctly to have complete access. Navigate towards the Server Settings from Config Files in the main panel, then double check the OP Permission Level field to see the currently selected option. If it’s not set at Use /stop, then it’s not set to max. Change this accordingly, then click Save at the bottom and Restart the server. After doing this, run the deop [username] command and execute op [username] to see if that helps. If this doesn’t work out, then consider manually changing the level setting in the Operators category from the panel. Keep in mind that the file format is important, meaning you cannot remove commas or other required characters while making changes. Once you’re finished, save and reboot the server to see if that helped.

Oddly enough, some Minecraft servers won’t remove a player from the operator list until everything saves in-game. This can be manually done by running the save-all command in the Console area of your panel after running deop [username] to revoke access. If this doesn’t work properly, then you’ll need to Stop the server and manually remove their account from the OP list. Remember, this is achieved by navigating to the Operators category in the Config Files. Bear in mind that you must keep the file’s format perfect, so it’s advisable to contact our Support if you’re unable to resolve this problem.

Useful Links

How to Enable Cheats in Minecraft
Joining a Minecraft Server on PC
How to Install and Use LuckPerms
Vanilla Minecraft Commands