Lottery Combinations Calculator

Enter the pool size and how many numbers are drawn.

How it is calculated

total is the size of the pool of numbers and pick is how many are drawn. Order does not matter and no number repeats, so the count is the binomial coefficient:

C(total, pick) = total! ÷ (pick! × (total − pick)!)

The tool does not compute the factorials. It multiplies and divides step by step, result = result × (total − r + i) ÷ i for i = 1 to r, where r is the smaller of pick and total − pick, in exact whole-number arithmetic. The odds are shown as 1 : C. Both inputs must be whole numbers of at least 1, and pick cannot exceed total. The count is printed with every digit or not at all: results up to about 9.2 × 10¹⁸ are exact (33 from 66 gives 7,219,428,434,016,265,740), and anything larger, such as 34 from 67, shows no result instead of rounded digits. Only the main-draw jackpot is covered: bonus balls, star numbers and lower prize tiers are not included.

Worked example

A game draws 6 numbers from a pool of 59. The smaller of 6 and 53 is 6, so six steps are needed: 54/1 × 55/2 × 56/3 × 57/4 × 58/5 × 59/6, which equals (59 × 58 × 57 × 56 × 55 × 54) ÷ 720. That gives 45,057,474 possible draws. The jackpot odds are therefore 1 : 45,057,474, so one ticket has about a 0.0000022 % chance of matching all six.

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Common mistakes

  • Counting orderings. A draw of 3, 14, 22, 30, 41, 55 is the same ticket as 55, 41, 30, 22, 14, 3; the tool does not multiply by the number of orderings.
  • Using the tool for games that draw from two pools, such as five main numbers plus two stars. Enter each pool separately and multiply the two counts yourself.
  • Reading 1 : 45,057,474 as meaning you will win once in that many tickets. It is the chance per ticket, and each draw is independent.
  • Entering the bonus ball as part of the pick count. If a game draws 6 plus a bonus ball, the jackpot odds here use only the 6.
  • Entering a pick larger than the pool (6 from 5), or a fractional number. Both show no result, as does a very large pool and pick such as 20 from 100 whose count is past the exact limit.

About this calculator

The number of ways a lottery draw can turn out is a combination, not a permutation, because the order the balls are drawn in does not matter — matching all six numbers wins regardless of which one came out first. The count of possible draws is given by the combination formula, n choose k, written C(n, k) = n! / (k! × (n − k)!), where n is the size of the number pool and k is how many numbers are drawn.

This is why lottery odds sound so extreme: a typical 6-from-49 lottery has C(49, 6) = 13,983,816 possible combinations, meaning a single ticket has roughly a 1-in-14-million chance of matching every number for the jackpot. Lottery operators publish these odds precisely because they follow directly from this combinatorics formula, and players use a calculator like this to compare the odds across different lottery formats or to understand just how the jackpot probability changes when a pool adds or drops a single number.

Enter the size of the number pool and how many numbers are drawn, and the calculator returns the total combinations and the jackpot odds.

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