Updated October 26, 2026.
The figure on a jackpot sign is an annuity estimate. Unpaid jackpot money and new ticket sales supply the cash, and an interest rate turns that cash into 30 payments. This page is how Powerball and Mega Millions fund the estimate, beside the Powerball results and the Mega Millions results. It is general information, not a forecast and not a suggestion to buy a ticket. A count on a Powerball number page or a Mega Millions number page leaves the next drawing where the matrix put it. Statistics and generated picks do not guarantee a win, and this site is not responsible for any win or loss.
The annuity and the cash
Both games publish two numbers, both before taxes. The annuity is the sum of 30 payments. The cash option is the money in the jackpot pool, and it is the smaller number. Powerball’s FAQ calls the cash value the amount that must be in the pool on drawing day to fund the estimated annuity. Mega Millions calls it the cash in the prize pool, based on actual sales. Reporting and federal withholding are on the lump-sum and annuity page. The record prizes are on the largest jackpots page.
Powerball’s FAQ pays the annuity as one immediate payment plus 29 annual payments that rise 5 percent each year. The MUSL Powerball rules, posted by the Connecticut Lottery, describe those 30 graduated payments and leave the yearly step to the Product Group. A comment records the step set on May 22, 2015, effective with the October 7, 2015 drawing: 5 percent a year. Mega Millions uses the same 30 payments, and its FAQ makes each later payment 5 percent larger than the one before it. Prices and matrices are on the Powerball and Mega Millions pages, and side by side on Powerball vs Mega Millions.
What share of a ticket reaches the jackpot
The price of a play is larger than the jackpot’s share of it. Powerball’s MUSL rules put 50 percent of each drawing period’s sales into the prize pool for every category, reserves included, on the Group’s $2 price. In Idaho and Montana the counter price is $3 because Power Play is included, and that extra dollar has its own prize pool.
The maximum for the Grand Prize Pool is 68.0131 percent of the prize pool, or 34.0066 percent of sales: $0.680132 on a $2 play, about 68 cents. The amount that reaches the live jackpot can be lower. Up to 5 percent of a party lottery’s sales can move from that contribution into reserve accounts while the balances are below target, and up to 20 percent of sales can move into the Grand Prize Carry Forward Pool, which funds a starting minimum annuity when sales fall short. Colorado prints the same allocation.
| Allocation | Powerball | Mega Millions |
|---|---|---|
| Price the rules use | $2 a play | $5 a play, multiplier included |
| Prize pool | 50 percent of sales, including reserves | Up to 55 percent of sales. The payout table totals 50 percent. |
| Jackpot line | 34.0066 percent of sales, a maximum | 27.6305 percent of sales |
| Share of the payout table | 68.0131 percent of the prize pool | 55.2610 percent of the payout |
Powerball’s FAQ states a separate program average: 35 percent of every $2 ticket stays in the jurisdiction that sold it, and the game has generated an estimated $38 billion for those programs over 34 years.
Mega Millions’ rules for the April 8, 2025 drawing price a play at $5 with the multiplier included. The jackpot contribution is 27.6305 percent of sales, which is $1.381525, about $1.38, on one play. The prize pool is up to 55 percent of sales and may run higher or lower with the winners and with a guaranteed annuity. Up to 5 percent of sales can be added for reserves while a reserve is below target, which is why that ceiling sits above the payout table’s 50 percent total. The FAQ says 50 percent of sales are paid back in prizes.
Unused set-prize money stays in the set-prize account. Power Play and the Mega Millions multiplier apply to non-jackpot prizes only, and Grand Prize Pool money may not fund a Power Play prize. Double Play pays its own $10 million prize. From sales scheduled for July 21, 2026, each UK play contributes the same fixed U.S. dollar amount to the shared jackpot as a U.S. play, and the odds stay the same. The Power Play table is on the Powerball guide.
Rollovers
If nobody hits the Powerball jackpot, MUSL rule 30.6 adds that drawing’s Grand Prize allocation to the next Grand Prize Pool. Florida’s and Iowa’s Mega Millions rules add an unwon jackpot allocation to the next jackpot pool. Sales for the new drawing contribute on top.
A larger pool lifts the estimate, and that day’s annuity factor can move it too. The Product Group may announce a minimum increase and may later change or waive it. The rules name no single dollar amount added after every miss, and the published figure stays an estimate until sales close.
A run of misses rolls the allocation forward while sales continue. It leaves each number’s chance where the matrix set it. The odds guide and the hot, cold, and overdue guide cover that limit, and the drawings are on the results pages. Winning plays split the cash into equal shares. Cash pays the share once. The annuity is the 30-payment stream bought with the same share. Where to file, and the deadline for choosing, is the claim guide. The drawing after a win starts a new jackpot, at the amount on the rules pages.
Interest rates and the 30 payments
Sales set the dollars in the pool. Interest rates set the annuity those dollars are estimated to buy.
Powerball converts a winner’s share of the Grand Prize Pool by a process the MUSL Board approves. For a guaranteed advertised prize, the rules call the multiplier the MUSL Annuity Factor. The FAQ describes that factor as the cost of funding the annuity from interest rates on securities bought to pay the later checks, and it says MUSL takes bids on the securities. Both published numbers stay estimates until sales are final and the bids are in.
Payments may be rounded down to the nearest $1,000, with the leftover on the first check, and a share under $250,000 may be paid as cash. The selling lottery pays the first installment. The other 29 follow on the drawing’s anniversary, or the next business day. Higher interest rates, the FAQ says, mean a higher advertised Grand Prize: the same cash supports a larger sum of 30 rising payments, and a lower rate supports a smaller sum.
Mega Millions prices its 30 payments from the cash in its jackpot pool. Tuesday and Friday meetings turn sales forecasts into an estimated cash value, and the annuity uses that day’s 30-year U.S. Treasury rate, which often differs between the estimate and the drawing. Florida buys bonds at a federal auction for the deferred payments. For a guaranteed jackpot, Iowa divides the advertised annuity by the quoted annuity factor to get the cash. The 5 percent illustrations, including a $50 million annuity, are on the payout page.
As much as 70 percent of Mega Millions sales typically arrive on drawing day, so a morning forecast can miss a very large pool. Finished jackpots have come in above, below, and level with the estimate in roughly similar proportions, and the prize is paid from actual sales. The cash share of the annuity is that day’s factor. This site does not publish one.
What a larger sign leaves unchanged
A higher annuity adds no combinations. Jackpot odds stay 1 in 292,201,338 for Powerball and 1 in 290,472,336 for Mega Millions, which the odds guide counts. California’s pari-mutuel lower prizes can differ from the national chart. A gap on a number page counts drawings already held.
LotteryMigo sells no tickets and holds neither pool. The lottery that sold a ticket is the place to ask whether it won. A fee demanded before a jackpot can be released matches the pattern in the scam guide.
Sources
- Powerball FAQ — the 5 percent annuity, the cash in the pool, interest rates, the 35 percent share, the estimated $38 billion, and UK sales.
- MUSL Powerball Group Rules, posted by the Connecticut Lottery — the 50 percent prize pool, the 34.0066 percent maximum, reserves, rollover, and the 2015 step of 5 percent.
- Colorado 1 CCR 206-1-14.A — the same Powerball allocation table.
- Mega Millions FAQ — the 5 percent annuity, the 30-year Treasury rate, drawing-day sales, and the 50 percent prize return.
- Mega Millions cash and annuity — 30 payments, each 5 percent larger.
- MUSL Mega Millions rules, amended January 9, 2025 — prize pool up to 55 percent of sales and a 27.6305 percent jackpot contribution.
- Florida Mega Millions rules — rollover and bond funding for the annuity.
- Iowa Mega Millions rules — the quoted annuity factor and the jackpot rollover.