By default, you can only choose between a few different skins when you begin playing Minecraft. The default skin–or the way your character looks–is called “Steve.”

Steve has a very boring look and if other players in Minecraft see you playing with his skin, they’ll instantly know you are a newbie. Thankfully, Minecraft allows you to change your skins to virtually anything you want.

You can change skins in Minecraft by doing two things: using the in-game Skin Chooser, or by finding skins online and manually importing them into the game. If you look for skins online you literally have thousands upon thousands to choose from.

Let's look at how to change skins both ways. First up, using the in-game Skin Chooser.

Changing Skins In Minecraft Using The In-Game Skin Chooser

Minecraft has recently made it very easy to change skins in-game. You accomplish this through its Skin Chooser tool. Here’s how to do it.

1. One the Minecraft home screen, click the clothes hanger icon below your character.
2. This will open the Skin Chooser window. From here you can see a variety of skin packs, each with multiple skins. Skin packs range from titles such as “freaks and zombies” to “wildlife”.
3. Click on a skin to select it.
4. If you like the way the skin looks, click the confirm button and that’s what your character will look like.

There is one important thing to mention about the Skin Chooser tool. It offers dozens of skins for free, but some you need to pay for. Skins you need to pay for will have a white lock icon below them in the Skin Chooser tool.

You can unlock these skins by buying them with Minecraft Coins–the game’s virtual currency. Once you buy a skin, it will be unlocked and remain unlocked for all time. This means you can select the skin whenever you want in the future to wear it without needing to pay for it again.

Changing Skins In Minecraft Using Skins Found Online

There are hundreds of thousands–maybe millions–of Minecraft skins you can find online. Some of the biggest Minecraft skin sites include minecraftskins.com and NameMC.com. Minecraft skins you find online come in PNG format–a common image file. Here’s how to use these customs skins in your game.

1. Download the skin’s PNG file from the website you found it on. Save this PNG file to a place on your PC where you’ll remember where it is.
2. Login to minecraft.net.
3. Go to your profile page and click the Browse button. This will open up a file upload window on your PC.
4. Navigate through the file upload window until you find the skin file you previously uploaded. Select it and click Upload.
5. Now all you need to do is launch the Minecraft game. If you’re already in a game, leave and then enter it again. Once you do, you’ll see your character wearing the skin you just uploaded.