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How to OP Yourself on a Minecraft Server in 2026

By FreeGameHost Team  •  Updated May 2026  •  5 min read

Operator (OP) status gives you full admin access to your Minecraft server — from changing the time and weather to banning players and running any command you need. This guide shows you exactly how to OP yourself and others on a FreeGameHost server in under a minute, covering both Java and Bedrock editions.

<60sTime to OP
4OP levels
Java& Bedrock
FreeNo plugins needed

Contents

  1. How to OP yourself via the console (recommended)
  2. How to OP someone from in-game
  3. OP permission levels explained
  4. OPing multiple players
  5. How to remove OP (deop)
  6. Java vs Bedrock differences
  7. FAQ

How to OP yourself via the console (recommended)

The console in your hosting panel is the safest and most reliable way to OP yourself. It runs commands directly as the server — no in-game access needed, and it works even if you're not currently logged in to the game.

1

Log in to your panel

Go to panel.freegamehost.xyz and open your server. Make sure the server status shows Running (green) before continuing.

~10 seconds
2

Open the Console tab

Click the Console tab in the left sidebar. You'll see the live server log scrolling — this is where you'll type your command.

~5 seconds
3

Type the op command

Click the command input at the bottom of the console and type:

op YourMinecraftUsername

Press Enter. You should see a response like Made YourMinecraftUsername a server operator in the console output.

~5 seconds
No slash in the console. When running commands through the panel console, do not add a leading slash. Type op YourUsername, not /op YourUsername. Slashes are only used in-game.
4

Confirm in-game

Log in to your server. You'll see a system message: "You are now an operator." Your name in the player list (Tab) will show a crown icon. You can now use all admin commands with a slash in-game.

Instant

How to OP someone from in-game

Once you're already an OP, you can grant operator status to other players directly from the game chat — no need to go back to the panel.

/op FriendUsername
# Type this in chat. You must already be OP level 3 or above.

The player will receive the "You are now an operator" message as soon as you run it. They don't need to relog.

OPing someone who isn't online. You can OP offline players using the console. Just type op TheirUsername in the panel console — the permission is saved to ops.json on the server and takes effect the next time they join.

OP permission levels explained

Minecraft has four OP permission levels. By default, op grants level 4 (full access), but you can set a lower level in server.properties by changing op-permission-level. Here's what each level unlocks:

Level What they can do Typical use
1 Bypass spawn protection; use /me Trusted players who need spawn access
2 All game commands: /gamemode, /tp, /give, /effect, /enchant, /summon, /setblock, /gamerule, /difficulty Moderators and helper staff
3 Level 2, plus /ban, /kick, /pardon, /op, /deop, /whitelist Admins who manage players
4 All of the above, plus /stop and /execute in any context. Full server control. Server owners only
Best practice: Give most friends level 2 (gameplay commands only) rather than level 4. Reserve level 3–4 for people you fully trust to manage the server, since they can add/remove OPs and stop the server.

Setting a specific OP level

To OP someone at a specific level rather than the default, edit ops.json in your File Manager directly. It looks like this:

[
  {
    "uuid": "player-uuid-here",
    "name": "FriendUsername",
    "level": 2,
    "bypassesPlayerLimit": false
  }
]

Change the level value to 1, 2, 3, or 4, save the file, and restart the server for the change to take effect.

OPing multiple players

If you want to OP several people at once, run one command per player in the console. There's no batch command, but it only takes a few seconds:

op Steve
op Alex
op Notch
# One per line, one per Enter press
Managing a larger team? If you have many staff members with different permission needs, consider installing LuckPerms instead. It lets you create custom rank groups (Admin, Mod, Helper) and assign precise per-command permissions — far more flexible than OP levels alone.

How to remove OP (deop)

To revoke operator status from a player, use deop. This works in both the panel console and in-game:

deop FriendUsername
# In the panel console — no slash
/deop FriendUsername
# In-game — requires you to be OP level 3 or above

The player will see a message saying they are no longer an operator. Their permissions are removed immediately — they don't need to relog.

You can't deop yourself from in-game. If you need to remove your own OP status, use the panel console. Running /deop YourUsername in-game won't work — you can only deop others.

Java vs Bedrock differences

The OP system works the same way on Bedrock servers, with one key difference: Bedrock uses Xbox gamertags instead of Java usernames. Make sure you type the gamertag exactly as it appears, including capital letters.

op XboxGamertag
# Bedrock: use the player's full Xbox gamertag

Bedrock also supports the /permission and /permissions commands (on some server types like PocketMine-MP), which give more granular control. For most Bedrock servers hosted on FreeGameHost, the standard op command works fine.

Frequently asked questions

I ran the op command but it says "That player does not exist"

Double-check the spelling of the username — it's case-sensitive in some configurations. If the player has never joined the server before, try having them join first, then running the op command. Alternatively, add them directly to ops.json in the File Manager with their UUID (which you can look up at mcuuid.net).

Can I OP someone on a Paper or Spigot server?

Yes — the op command works identically on Paper, Spigot, Vanilla, and Fabric servers. Forge servers also support it. The only exception is some heavily customised server types (like BungeeCord proxy servers) that handle permissions differently at the network level.

Will OP override plugin permissions (LuckPerms, etc.)?

Yes. Operators bypass almost all plugin permission checks by default. If you're using LuckPerms and want OP not to override it, add luckperms.weight.0 to the op's user data, or configure apply-wildcard-node to false in LuckPerms' config.

My server is using BungeeCord — how do I OP on a network?

On BungeeCord, OP individual backend servers via their own consoles — there's no network-wide OP command. If you're using a permissions plugin like LuckPerms across your BungeeCord network, manage permissions from there instead of relying on OP.

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