How to check a lottery ticket
Three mistakes make people throw away winning tickets. You can avoid all three in about thirty seconds.
Order never matters
Lottery numbers are a set, not a sequence. A ticket played as 25-10-05-20-15 against a drawing of 05-10-15-20-25 is a five-number match, not a one-number match.
People check position by position, see two that line up, and throw away a winner. An earlier version of this site made the same mistake, so this one is tested against all 120 orderings of a winning ticket.
The bonus ball is a separate pool
The Powerball, Mega Ball, Star Ball and their equivalents come out of their own set of balls. A 7 among your main numbers doesn't match a 7 drawn as the bonus ball. They're different balls that happen to share a number.
That cuts in your favor too. In most lotteries the bonus ball on its own is a winning ticket, with no main numbers at all, and plenty of people never think to check.
Small prizes are where the losses are
Nobody forgets to check after a billion-dollar roll. The tickets that expire are the four-dollar ones, bought on a Tuesday and left in a coat pocket.
Depending on the state, you have between 90 days and a year to claim. Hundreds of millions of dollars go back to the states every year because that window closed.
Then check it properly
Enter your numbers in any order. Tell us where you bought the ticket, because California works out its prizes differently from everywhere else. Tell us whether you paid for the multiplier, because that changes what you're owed.
We'll tell you what matched and what it's worth. If the amount is something nobody can know yet, we'll say that instead of guessing.
Then take the ticket to a retailer and have it validated. Whatever any website tells you, the paper is the only thing you can claim with.
Or let the camera read it
Typing six numbers takes thirty seconds and costs nothing. If you've got a pile of tickets, or one with five lines on it, a photo does the typing for you.
Check a ticket now
Common questions
- Is it free?
- Yes and no. Checking your numbers is free and unlimited, with no account. A free account does more. You can save up to ten tickets, get an email when one wins, and read five from a photo. MilliCheck+ is the paid plan that lifts those limits. Most people never need it.
- Do you store my numbers?
- Only when you save them. If you just check numbers, we compare them and forget them. Nothing is written to our database or our logs. If you save a ticket to an account, we keep it, because we need it to check every drawing for you and to hold your past tickets.
- Will you tell me if I win?
- If you saved the ticket, yes. We check it after every drawing it is in and email you if it wins. Email can bounce and claim windows close, so treat your wallet here as the record to trust.
- Can I take a picture of my ticket instead of typing it?
- Yes, with a free account. It comes with five reads. You will see the numbers we read and can fix any before you save. Typing is free and gives you the same answer.
- Where do the results come from?
- From the lottery operators and state open data. We match your numbers against what they publish. Your paper ticket is still the only thing you can claim a prize with.
- How long do I have to claim a prize?
- Between 90 days and a year. It depends on the state that sold the ticket, not the game. We list the deadline for every state we cover, with the source and the date we checked it.
- What time do ticket sales stop before a drawing?
- It depends on your state and game. Michigan closes Powerball at 9:58pm and Mega Millions at 10:45pm, one minute apart. Pick your state on the home page and we will tell you.