# Is the Powerball Worth It Right Now? > On paper a $2 ticket is worth $1.46 at the $332 million jackpot; in reality about $0.57. Not worth it. Updated after every drawing. Canonical page: https://isthepowerballworthitrightnow.com/ Jackpot data updated: 2026-09-21T23:10:04Z (source: https://www.powerball.com/) Next drawing: 2026-09-23 ## Answer 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: No, $1.46 per ticket (full jackpot, no tax, no splitting). In reality: No, $0.57 per ticket (cash option, 37% federal, likely split). ## Method On paper: expected value = advertised jackpot / 292,201,338 + about $0.32 from fixed prizes, compared with the $2 ticket price. In reality: start from the cash option (or the annuity discounted at a chosen rate), remove 37% federal tax on prizes of $5,000 or more, and multiply the jackpot by the expected share after splitting with other winners. Expected ticket sales are interpolated from 2024-2026 drawings and held at the record 250 million above $2 billion. Realistic break-even jackpot: $2.8 billion. Implied annuity return: 5.4%. ## 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.