Powerball is the multi-state game drawn three nights a week. This page is the plain version of the rules as they stand on October 1, 2026, taken from powerball.com, with the odds for every tier. The latest verified results are at /powerball/results/ and the current estimated jackpot, with its source and time, is at /powerball/jackpot/.
How a play works
You pick five different numbers from 1 to 69 (the white balls) and one number from 1 to 26 (the red Powerball). Or you ask for a quick pick and the terminal picks for you; the odds are identical either way. Each set of six numbers is one play, and a play costs $2.
You win by matching some or all of the numbers drawn. The Powerball can only match the Powerball; a white-ball number that happens to equal the red number does not count twice.
Draw days and time
Drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Monday drawings were added on August 23, 2021. Your state’s lottery stops selling plays for that drawing some time before, usually about an hour; check your state page or the retailer.
Our results pages publish a drawing once two official sources agree. If they disagree, the drawing shows as needing review until a person resolves it.
Power Play
For $1 more per play, Power Play multiplies any non-jackpot prize by 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10. The multiplier is drawn before the main numbers. Two rules:
- The 10X multiplier is only in play when the advertised jackpot is $150 million or less.
- The Match 5 prize with Power Play is always $2 million, whatever the multiplier.
Power Play does not change the jackpot.
Double Play
In the states that offer it, $1 more per play enters your same numbers in a second drawing held right after the main one, with its own prizes and a top prize of $10 million. Power Play does not apply to Double Play prizes. When it launched in 2021 Double Play was offered in 13 jurisdictions including Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; more have joined since. The current list is on powerball.com, and our state pages note whether the state offers it.
Prizes and odds
From the official prize chart as of October 1, 2026. Prizes are the fixed amounts for a $2 play; the Power Play columns show the multiplied values.
| Match | Prize | Odds (1 in) | 2X | 3X | 4X | 5X | 10X |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 + Powerball | Jackpot | 292,201,338 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | 11,688,053.52 | $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M | $2M |
| 4 + Powerball | $50,000 | 913,129.18 | $100,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 | $250,000 | $500,000 |
| 4 | $100 | 36,525.17 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $1,000 |
| 3 + Powerball | $100 | 14,494.11 | $200 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $1,000 |
| 3 | $7 | 579.76 | $14 | $21 | $28 | $35 | $70 |
| 2 + Powerball | $7 | 701.33 | $14 | $21 | $28 | $35 | $70 |
| 1 + Powerball | $4 | 91.98 | $8 | $12 | $16 | $20 | $40 |
| Powerball only | $4 | 38.32 | $8 | $12 | $16 | $20 | $40 |
Overall odds of winning any prize: 1 in 24.87 per play.
One exception: in California, all prize amounts including the Match 5 are pari-mutuel, meaning they depend on sales and the number of winners. That is why our checker never auto-posts a California prize; a person confirms the official amount first.
The jackpot: annuity or cash
The advertised jackpot is the annuity: one payment right away and 29 more, one a year, each 5 percent larger than the last. The cash value is the smaller amount the lottery has today. A winner chooses one; the deadline for choosing varies by state. The cash value is usually a little under half the advertised figure, and it is the number our split calculator starts from. Ten friends, one jackpot works a $500 million example to the cent.
Jackpots, and every California prize, are pari-mutuel, so our app always routes them to needs-review and a manual settlement rather than posting a number automatically.
Odds in plain words
Every play has the same chance, no matter how the numbers were chosen. Ten different plays have ten times the chance of one play, and cost ten times as much. A pool holding 50 distinct plays has 50 chances at the jackpot out of 292,201,338, and shares any prize by the members’ locked shares. No number, store, day or pattern changes those odds. Our honest odds page has the arithmetic and Lottery myths has the stories.
Claiming a prize
A Powerball prize is claimed from the lottery of the state where the ticket was sold, not from Powerball itself. Three things vary by state:
- How long you have. Powerball’s FAQ says claim periods range from 90 days to one year by jurisdiction. In Wisconsin: 180 days after the drawing (Wisconsin Lottery FAQ, checked Oct 8, 2026). In New York: One year after the drawing (9 NYCRR 5004.14, checked Oct 8, 2026).
- Where you claim. Small prizes at any retailer in that state; larger prizes at a lottery office or by mail; jackpots in person at headquarters in most states.
- Whether your name is public. It depends entirely on state law.
Each of our state pages lists these with the official source. The ticket itself is the only proof of a play: sign the back, photograph both sides and read You won. The first five things to do. before you do anything else. For a pool, how the lottery pays a group depends on the state (your state’s page says which); How a pool claims a prize explains the record and the tax paperwork.
Powerball in a pool
A pool records the official ticket; the paper ticket remains the only real play. In a ShareTheWinning pool the admin buys the plays at a retailer, photographs the ticket, and records every line before the drawing. Members confirm the photo. After the drawing we check every line against the verified result, post fixed-tier prizes automatically, split by the locked shares to the cent, and show who owes whom. Jackpots wait for a person.
The Journey starts from tonight’s Powerball result and walks through checking a play, setting up a pool, seeing what a win would mean, and making it real.
