# Cheapest Way to Get Enchanted Books

_Published October 9, 2026_

Comparing villager trades, anvil combining, and fishing/loot for enchanted books, and how AnvilCalc's unlimited-supply inventory entries factor into real cost.

There are three real ways to get an enchanted book in Minecraft — a librarian villager, an anvil, or raw luck from fishing and loot — and "cheapest" means something different for each one. None of them cost XP levels to *acquire* the book; the levels only start adding up once you're combining books together or applying one to an item.

## Villager trades — cheapest in emeralds, not XP

A librarian (an unemployed villager given an unclaimed lectern as a workstation) offers enchanted books starting at its very first trade tier — you don't need to level the villager up to Master to see them. Each offer is a random enchantment (anything except Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, and Wind Burst, which never appear this way) at a random level, priced in emeralds somewhere in the range `2 + 3×level` to `6 + 13×level` — doubled for treasure enchantments like Mending or Frost Walker. That means a level I book might cost as little as 5 emeralds, while a level V treasure enchantment can run well over 50.

This is genuinely the cheapest *plentiful* source once you have a librarian set up, because a villager restocks its trades up to twice per game day as long as it can reach its workstation — so a small library of two or three librarians, each re-rolling their offers daily, gives you a steady, repeatable supply without ever touching an enchanting table. The catch is you can't choose which enchantment shows up; you're trading emeralds for a chance at what you want, not a guarantee.

## Curing a zombie villager: the real "cheapest" trick

Base librarian pricing above is the *most* you'll ever pay — a **cured zombie villager** trades far below it. Converting a zombie villager back to a normal villager (Weakness potion, then a golden apple) grants a permanent **major positive reputation** worth 100 reputation points with that specific villager, which the game's price formula subtracts directly from every trade price. In practice this drops most librarian trades — including expensive treasure-enchantment books — down near their price floor, often just 1-3 emeralds instead of 20, 40, or more. Two things worth knowing before you build a strategy around it: the discount is **per-player and per-villager** (it only applies to you, trading with that exact villager — not a blanket discount for everyone, and not shared with other villagers), and since Java Edition 1.20.2 a villager only grants this major discount **the first time** it's cured — zombifying and re-curing the same villager repeatedly no longer stacks further discounts.

If you're optimizing for emeralds rather than XP, a zombie-villager farm feeding you a steady supply of curable zombie villagers (then curing each one near your librarian setup) is the actual "cheapest" path for anyone trading in bulk — not just picking a librarian at random. See [How to Cure a Zombie Villager](/guides/curing-zombie-villagers) for the full how-to.

## Anvil-combining two books — cheapest in raw material, costly in levels

If you already have two copies of the same enchantment at a lower level (two Sharpness II books, say), combining them on an anvil produces one Sharpness III book — cheaper in emeralds/trading effort than hoping a villager or table hands you the higher level directly, but it does cost real XP levels, following the same prior-work-penalty and level-cost rules as any other anvil combine (see [Enchanting Strategy](/guides/enchanting-strategy) for the full formula). This only gets you *higher levels* of an enchantment you already have some of — it doesn't conjure a new enchantment from nothing, so it's a complement to the other two sources, not a replacement for either.

## Fishing and loot — free, but unreliable

Fishing with a plain rod has a small chance of landing an enchanted book as "treasure" catch, and enchanted books also turn up as loot in shipwrecks, buried treasure, dungeons, woodland mansions, and ancient city chests. Both are free in the sense that they cost no emeralds and no XP, but the enchantment and level are entirely random and the drop rate is low — this is a "take what the game gives you" source, not something to plan a specific build around.

## Why "cheapest" depends on what you actually need

If you need a *specific* enchantment and level reliably, villager trading beats fishing/loot by a wide margin — you're paying a predictable emerald cost for repeatable rerolls instead of hoping RNG hands you the right book eventually. If you just want *some* useful enchanted books with no target in mind, fishing and loot chests are free upside while you're doing other things anyway. Anvil-combining only enters the picture once you're trying to push an enchantment you already have up a level, which is a cost question AnvilCalc's calculator already handles for you.

## How this factors into AnvilCalc's own planning

AnvilCalc's [inventory system](/guides/using-your-inventory) is built specifically around this reality: a villager trade isn't a one-time item, it's a source you can repeat indefinitely as long as you're willing to spend the emeralds and wait for a restock. That's exactly what marking an inventory entry **"Available on demand"** represents — an unlimited-supply source rather than a fixed count — so when the calculator searches for the cheapest combine order, it can assume you can always get another copy of that book from your librarian instead of treating it as a one-shot resource you'll run out of. A one-off fishing catch or loot find, by contrast, is better entered with a specific quantity, since you can't just go get another one on demand.

[Open the calculator →](https://anvilcalc.com/)

For the order to buy librarian books in and how to cycle a librarian for the one you want, see [Minecraft Librarian Trades](/guides/minecraft-librarian-trades).

## Frequently asked questions

**What's the cheapest way to get a specific enchanted book?**

A librarian villager, if you're patient. Trades are priced in emeralds (roughly 2 + 3×level to 6 + 13×level, doubled for treasure enchantments) rather than XP, and a villager restocks its offers up to twice a day, so running a small library of librarians gives you repeated chances at any enchantment without spending XP levels at all.

**Does curing a zombie villager actually make its trades cheaper?**

Yes, substantially — curing grants a permanent 100-point reputation bonus with that specific villager, which the game subtracts directly from trade prices. Most trades, including expensive treasure-enchantment books, end up near their price floor afterward. It only applies to you and to that one villager, and (since Java 1.20.2) only triggers once per villager — re-curing the same one again doesn't stack further.

**Do librarian villagers only sell enchanted books at Master level?**

No — enchanted books can appear starting at a librarian's very first trade tier. You don't need to level a villager up through trades to see book offers; you just need to keep trading with them (and letting them restock) to cycle through different random enchantments and levels.

**Can you buy a specific enchantment from a villager, or is it random?**

It's random — you can't request a specific enchantment. Each librarian offers a randomly chosen enchantment at a randomly chosen level per trade slot, which re-rolls when the villager restocks. Keeping several librarians increases your odds of one of them offering what you want on any given day.