Gray Banner is one of sixteen banner colors in Minecraft, and the recipe follows the same sign-shaped pattern for every color: six gray wool across the top two crafting rows plus one stick below the middle yields exactly one Gray Banner. The gray base color is fixed at crafting time and can never be re-dyed. Any tool or bare hands break Gray Banner, an axe works fastest, and a wall-mounted Gray Banner drops itself as an item when the block behind the banner is moved, removed, or destroyed. Woodland mansions generate plain Gray Banners in the mansion's banner room, a free source with no crafting required. Gray Banner stacks to 16, counts as renewable (an endlessly obtainable resource), and has existed since Java Edition 1.8 and Bedrock Edition 1.2.0.

A loom turns Gray Banner into a custom flag: up to six pattern layers stack on one banner, every pattern requires one of the 16 dyes, and optional banner pattern items are not consumed by the loom. A cauldron filled with water washes off the top pattern layer when the patterned Gray Banner is used on the cauldron. Combining Gray Banner with a shield in a crafting grid copies the pattern onto the shield, consumes the banner, and requires a shield without preexisting patterns. Java Edition maps gain a marker in the banner's base color when a map is used on a placed Gray Banner, and a banner renamed on an anvil displays the name under the marker. Gray Banner stands on the ground facing 16 directions or hangs on a wall, lets players and mobs pass through without collision, cannot be moved by pistons, and smelts 1.5 items per banner as furnace fuel.