Powerball Prizes and Odds
Powerball prizes are simple to win. When you play, you'll pick five Main Numbers from 1 to 69 and a Powerball Number from 1 to 26. Match at least two Main Numbers or the Powerball Number in your draw to win a prize. The grand prize is the jackpot, which can only be won by matching all six of your chosen numbers. Below, you can learn all about the different Powerball prizes and the odds of winning them!
Powerball has totally different prizes for the UK, so for comparison's sake, we'll display both the UK and US prize tiers further down the page.
UK Powerball Payouts
Check the table below to see what your UK Powerball matches will earn you. Bear in mind that only the Match 2 and Match 5 prizes are fixed. Excluding the jackpot, the others will be determined individually for each draw based on the UK ticket sales for that draw – the prizes shown here are estimates from an official Allwyn source.
| Prize Category | Odds of Winning | Prize Value |
|---|---|---|
| Match 5 + Powerball | 1 in 292,201,338 | Jackpot |
| Match 5 | 1 in 11,688,053 | Fixed £1 million |
| Match 4 + Powerball | 1 in 913,129 | £33,000 |
| Match 4 | 1 in 36,525 | £1,100 |
| Match 3 + Powerball | 1 in 14,494 | $500 |
| Match 3 | 1 in 579 | £52.10 |
| Match 2 + Powerball | 1 in 701 | £30.80 |
| Match 1 + Powerball | 1 in 91 | £15.30 |
| Match Powerball | 1 in 38 | £11.90 |
| Match 2 | 1 in 13.5 | Fixed £8 |
| The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 14 | ||
The Powerball Jackpot
The Powerball jackpot starts at $20 million (about £12 million) and rolls up for every draw it's not won, with no limit. As a result, it has been known to reach dizzying heights, with the record being $2.04 billion (around £1.5 billion). This jackpot was won by a single player in California in 2022. The amount it increases by between draws varies based on ticket sales. When the jackpot is below $500 million, increases of $10-30 million are typical, but when it passes that mark and the US audience begins to get excited, the rate of growth increases quickly to the $100 million per draw mark!
In the US, jackpot winners get the option to pick between taking the full advertised jackpot value as a 30-year annuity, or taking a much smaller one-time cash payment. The cash option represents the amount of money the MUSL (a bit like an American 'National Lottery') has in the pot, while the annuity option is an estimation of the returns that money could bring if safely invested. Many American Powerball winners choose the smaller cash option, in the belief that they can attain better returns by investing the money themselves.
In the UK however, only the 30-year annuity option is available for winners (so, not really an 'option' at all, but that's the established terminology in the US!). At this time, we're waiting for more details on how the Powerball jackpot value will be converted to GBP for advertising and prize payment purposes.
USA Powerball Payouts
As mentioned, the UK and USA both use different prize systems. Below, you can check the prizes available for the US version of Powerball, including a rounded currency conversion column to see how much each prize would be worth in GBP at the time of writing (15/04/2026):
| Prize Category | Odds of Winning | Prize Value ($) | Prize Value (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match 5 + Powerball | 1 in 292,201,338 | Jackpot | Jackpot |
| Match 5 | 1 in 11,688,053 | $1 million | £738,000 |
| Match 4 + Powerball | 1 in 913,129 | $50,000 | £37,000 |
| Match 4 | 1 in 36,525 | $100 | £74 |
| Match 3 + Powerball | 1 in 14,494 | $100 | £74 |
| Match 3 | 1 in 579 | $7 | £5 |
| Match 2 + Powerball | 1 in 701 | $7 | £5 |
| Match 1 + Powerball | 1 in 91 | $4 | £3 |
| Match Powerball | 1 in 38 | $4 | £3 |
| The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24 | |||
You'll notice that even once converted, the US prizes are much lower than the UK prizes! However, the American Powerball audience have access to optional extra features they can include on their tickets to boost these prizes or get an extra chance to win. If you're particularly sharp, you might also spot that the 'Match 2' prize tier present in UK Powerball is missing from the table, since it's not a prize in the US game. As a result, the UK's overall prize odds are around 1 in 14, while the US's are just 1 in 24.
Perhaps most importantly, US Powerball tickets cost just $2 per play, which works out at about £1.50, compared to the UK Powerball's £4 per play cost, so it makes sense intuitively that the UK prizes ought to be bigger.
