Is the Powerball worth it right now? No.
Not even on paper. A $2 ticket at Wednesday's $332 million jackpot is worth $1.46 if you ignore taxes, splitting and the cash option, and about $0.57 once you don't.
On paper · the naive math
No
$1.46 per $2 ticket
full jackpot, no tax, no splitting
In reality · what you'd keep
No
$0.57 per $2 ticket
cash option, 37% federal, likely split
POWERBALL · WED SEP 23 2026
$332,000,000
CASH VALUE $141,700,000
- JACKPOT COUNTED AS
- on paper: $332.0M
- in reality: $89.3M
- JACKPOT SHARE OF $2
- on paper: $1.14
- in reality: $0.30
- SMALLER PRIZES
- on paper: $0.32
- in reality: $0.27
- TICKET WORTH
- on paper: $1.46
- in reality: $0.57
- WORTH IT?
- on paper: NO
- in reality: NO
- WORTH IT ABOVE
- on paper: $491M
- in reality: $2.8B
- ODDS OF JACKPOT
- 1 : 292,201,338
* "In reality" assumes the cash option, 37% federal tax, no state tax, and a crowd no bigger than the record 250M tickets. Open "the math" for the rest.
Which Powerball ticket should you buy?
Fill in the slip. The ticket re-prints as you go.
Play slip
FILL IN YOUR TICKET
YOUR STANDARD TICKET IS WORTH
Your standard ticket is worth $1.46 on paper and $0.57 in reality.
ODDS OF ANY PRIZE 1 : 24.87
Main drawing
TAP A TIER FOR ODDS AND PRIZE
Why is that the answer?
How is this calculated?
How much is a $2 ticket really worth?
- On paper$1.46
Advertised jackpot at face value plus the fixed prizes.
- Present value$0.80
$141.7 million is what a winner takes today; the annuity is worth the same at a 5.4% return.
- After tax$0.573
37% at the top bracket. State tax is extra.
- In reality$0.567
About 12 million tickets sell at this jackpot, so a winner keeps 98.0% on average; above the $2 billion record this site assumes the record 250 million tickets.
What has to happen for it to be worth it?
On paper, a jackpot above $490.9 million. In reality, about $2.8 billion, because bigger jackpots sell more tickets and the winner shares more often.
How do the Powerball odds work?
You pick 5 of 69 white balls and 1 of 26 red balls. There are 11,238,513 ways to choose the white balls and 26 red balls, so 292,201,338 combinations. Every prize tier below is derived from those two numbers; the expected value column is the prize times its probability.
| Match | Prize | Odds | Expected value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 white + Powerball | Jackpot | 1 in 292,201,338 | $1.14 |
| 5 white | $1,000,000 | 1 in 11,688,054 | $0.09 |
| 4 white + Powerball | $50,000 | 1 in 913,129 | $0.05 |
| 4 white | $100 | 1 in 36,525 | $0.00 |
| 3 white + Powerball | $100 | 1 in 14,494 | $0.01 |
| 3 white | $7 | 1 in 579.76 | $0.01 |
| 2 white + Powerball | $7 | 1 in 701.33 | $0.01 |
| 1 white + Powerball | $4 | 1 in 91.98 | $0.04 |
| 0 white + Powerball | $4 | 1 in 38.32 | $0.10 |
Odds of winning any prize: 1 in 24.87.
Where do these numbers come from?
- The jackpot and cash value are read from powerball.com after every drawing.
- The annuity is 30 payments growing 5% a year; its present value at the calculator's rate replaces the cash option when you pick Annuity.
- Odds are computed from the game matrix (5 of 69, 1 of 26) and checked against the official prize chart.
- Federal tax is the 37% top bracket applied to prizes of $5,000 or more. Smaller prizes are treated as untaxed. State rates are top marginal income tax rates from the Tax Foundation (2025); California exempts lottery winnings.
- The one assumption: how many tickets sell at a given jackpot. This site uses the median sales of 416 drawings from 2024-01-03 to 2026-09-21, published by The Lotto Report, and interpolates between them. Jackpots above $2 billion are beyond the observed record, so ticket sales there are held at the record 250 million rather than extrapolated. Splitting is modelled as a Poisson number of other winners.
- Power Play and Double Play rules are from the official game pages. Not every state sells Double Play.
This site is not affiliated with Powerball or the Multi-State Lottery Association. Nothing here is financial advice; the math says buying a ticket loses money on average, and it is still fun.
What else do people ask?
Is Powerball ever worth playing?
On paper, yes, whenever the advertised jackpot is above $490.9 million: that is where the jackpot's share of a ticket's expected value plus the fixed prizes (about $0.32) passes the $2 price. In reality the bar is far higher, because the cash option, federal tax and the crowd of other buyers all shrink what you would keep. That bar is about $2.8 billion.
What jackpot makes a Powerball ticket worth $2?
$490.9 million. A $2 ticket's expected value is the jackpot divided by 292,201,338 plus about $0.32 from the smaller prizes. Solve for $2 and you get $490.9 million. Today's jackpot is $332 million, so a ticket is worth about $1.46.
What jackpot makes a Powerball ticket worth $2 in reality?
About $2.8 billion. The realistic value starts from the cash option, removes 37% federal tax, and then splits the jackpot with the expected number of other winners. Bigger jackpots sell more tickets, so the chance of sharing grows too; above the $2 billion record this site assumes sales stay at the record 250 million tickets rather than guessing higher.
Should you take the cash or the annuity?
The annuity is $332 million paid over 30 years, growing 5% a year. The lottery funds it by investing the $141.7 million cash option, which works out to a return of about 5.4% a year. If you could beat that rate investing on your own, the cash is worth more; if not, the annuity is. The calculator on this page lets you set your own rate.
What are the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot?
1 in 292,201,338. You pick 5 of 69 white balls and 1 of 26 red balls, so there are 11,238,513 × 26 = 292,201,338 combinations. The odds of winning any prize at all are 1 in 24.87.
Is Power Play worth the extra dollar?
Power Play adds about $0.46 of expected value for the extra $1, so it is still a loss, and at today's jackpot a worse return per dollar than the base ticket. It multiplies the non-jackpot prizes by 2 to 5 (10 when the jackpot is $150 million or less) and fixes the match-5 prize at $2 million. It never touches the jackpot.
Is Double Play worth it?
Double Play is a second drawing with the same odds and fixed prizes topping out at $10 million. It adds about $0.53 of expected value for $1, so like every lottery product it loses money on average. It is not sold in every state.
Why does the cash value matter more than the advertised jackpot?
The advertised $332 million is the total of 30 annual payments. The cash you can take today is $141.7 million, about 43% of the headline. Almost every winner takes the cash, so that is the number the "in reality" math starts from.
How much tax do you pay on a Powerball jackpot?
Federal income tax takes 37% at the top bracket, which a lump sum lands in immediately. Most states add their own income tax, from nothing in Florida or Texas to over 10% in New York. After the cash option, federal tax and the chance of splitting, today's ticket is worth about $0.57 in reality.
When is the next Powerball drawing?
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 10:59 PM Eastern. Drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. This page refreshes the jackpot after every drawing.