Mega Millions Odds Calculator
A Slightly Different Pool, a Meaningfully Different Number
Mega Millions uses five white balls drawn from a pool of 70 — one more than Powerball's 69 — plus one Mega Ball drawn from a pool of 25, one fewer than Powerball's 26. Those two small differences don't cancel out: they combine into jackpot odds that are worse than Powerball's, despite looking almost identical on paper. This calculator runs the exact combinations math for Mega Millions' fixed format.
The Formula
Total Combinations = C(70, 5) × 25
Odds (with T tickets) = Total Combinations ÷ T
Odds (with T tickets) = Total Combinations ÷ T
C(70, 5) counts the ways to choose 5 white balls from 70, which comes to 12,103,014. Multiplying by the 25 possible Mega Ball numbers gives the full jackpot combination count: 302,575,350.
Where This Matters
- Understanding the published jackpot odds — the commonly cited "1 in 302.6 million" Mega Millions jackpot odds figure comes directly from this calculation.
- Comparing against Powerball — Mega Millions' larger white-ball pool (70 vs. 69) outweighs its smaller Mega Ball pool (25 vs. 26), making its jackpot odds slightly worse than Powerball's overall.
- Scaling odds with ticket count — buying multiple tickets improves odds linearly, useful for understanding exactly how much a group purchase moves the needle.
| Tickets purchased | Odds |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 in 302,575,350 |
| 10 | 1 in 30,257,535.00 |
| 100 | 1 in 3,025,753.50 |
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the tickets purchased (defaults to 1).
- Select Calculate for the resulting jackpot odds and probability.
Note: Lottery tickets are entertainment, not an investment strategy. These are jackpot-only odds; overall odds of winning any prize tier are considerably better but the prizes are correspondingly smaller.
Related Calculations
Compare against the Powerball Odds Calculator, or run a custom pool through the Lottery Odds Calculator.