Understanding the 9 Prize Tiers

Powerball and Mega Millions both split prizes into nine tiers, from the jackpot down to matching just the Powerball or Mega Ball. Knowing these tiers shows what each configuration is really worth — and why two tickets matching four numbers can pay $100 or $50,000.

The fixed amounts

In Powerball, tier 2 (5 white balls without the Powerball) pays $1,000,000, tier 3 (4 balls + Powerball) $50,000, then tiers 4 and 5 pay $100, tiers 6 and 7 pay $7, and the last two pay $4.

In Mega Millions, tier 2 pays $1,000,000, tier 3 $10,000, tier 4 $500, tier 5 $200, tiers 6 and 7 $10, tier 8 $4 and tier 9 $2 — the only lottery that refunds your ticket with no matching number at all.

Tier 9: winning without a number

Matching only the Mega Ball wins $2. It is the most frequent tier: 1 in 37. In Powerball, the equivalent (0 white balls + Powerball) pays $4, at 1 in 38.

Combined odds

The chance of winning any prize is about 1 in 25 in Powerball and 1 in 24 in Mega Millions. In other words, roughly one ticket in twenty-five returns something — most often $2, $4 or $7.

Our generator and statistics pages show these exact odds, computed from the official matrices.