Minecraft Education Edition is a version of Minecraft built for the classroom. It is based on Bedrock but adds teaching tools that the standard game does not have.
Where Java and Bedrock are sold to players, Education Edition is sold to institutions and shaped around the needs of a teacher managing a class: a way to see and control where every student is, tools that turn the world into a maths, science or coding instrument, and a means of capturing what students made for assessment. It keeps the familiar block-building that makes Minecraft engaging and layers classroom infrastructure on top, which is why a lesson can stay genuinely fun while still producing evidence of learning.
How it differs from Java and Bedrock
Java Edition: the original PC version, best for mods and technical play. Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and has the largest modding community, but no classroom management tools.
Bedrock Edition: the cross-platform version for console, mobile and Windows, built for play across devices with friends. It shares a code base with Education Edition but not the teaching features.
Education Edition: based on Bedrock, and adds the things a teacher needs: Classroom Mode for managing a group, Code Builder for programming, the Chemistry Resource Pack, a camera and portfolio, non-player characters that can carry information and links, the programmable agent, a chalkboard for in-world instructions, and the Immersive Reader accessibility tool.
The teaching tools in detail
Classroom Mode is a companion app that gives the teacher a top-down map of every student, the ability to teleport them, control world permissions such as whether students can build or use commands, send messages, and manage the session without being physically beside each child.
Code Builder, opened in game by pressing C, launches a MakeCode block editor connected to the world. Students drag blocks to program the agent, and can flip the same program to a JavaScript or Python text view. See the Code Builder lesson.
The Chemistry Resource Pack adds an Element Constructor, Compound Creator, Lab Table and Material Reducer for building atoms and compounds. See the chemistry lesson.
Camera and portfolio let students photograph their work in world and assemble it into a portfolio that can be exported, which is the main route to assessing a build.
Non-player characters and the chalkboard let a teacher embed instructions, prompts and even clickable web links directly into the world so a lesson can guide itself.
School access and pricing
Education Edition is licensed per user, usually through a school or district Microsoft 365 Education account, and a signed-in account needs an assigned licence to launch the full version. Pricing, eligibility and any trial or demo allowance are set by Microsoft and vary by country and institution type, so check with your school IT department or the official Microsoft Education store for current terms rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere. Some regions and programmes include Education Edition with an existing Microsoft 365 Education subscription.
Installing
Confirm your school has Education Edition licences on your Microsoft 365 Education tenant, and that your account is assigned one.
Download the app for Windows, macOS, iPad or Chromebook from the official source.
Sign in with the school Microsoft account that holds a licence.
For coding lessons, no extra install is needed; Code Builder and the agent are built in. For chemistry, enable the feature when creating the world or open a chemistry-ready template.
Which version should a class use?
If your school has Education Edition licences, use it: the classroom management alone saves time, and the coding and chemistry tools unlock lessons that are impossible elsewhere. If you do not have licences, ordinary Java or Bedrock in Creative mode still covers a lot of ground, particularly maths, geometry and building-based history projects, because those mainly need unlimited blocks and space. Each of our lesson plans states the version it requires so you can match the activity to what you have.