Checking lottery results the right way
Check winning numbers at the official Powerball or Mega Millions site, or your state lottery's own site or app, not a third-party site or a forwarded message. Then verify the physical ticket at an authorized retailer or the state lottery's system before assuming a prize is valid, since only that system confirms a ticket.
Where the official results actually are
Two links, not a search engine and not a social media post, are the actual source for winning numbers.
| Game | Official results page |
|---|---|
| Powerball | powerball.com/check-your-numbers |
| Mega Millions | megamillions.com/winning-numbers.aspx |
Both official game sites publish results within a short time of the drawing, and every state lottery that sells these games republishes the same numbers on its own site or app. Any of those official sources is a valid place to check, and they should all agree with each other, because they are all drawing from the same official result.
When results actually appear
| Game | Draw days | Draw time |
|---|---|---|
| Powerball | Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. | 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time. |
| Mega Millions | Tuesday and Friday. | 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. |
Results cannot be posted before a drawing happens, so it helps to know the schedule. Powerball draws monday, wednesday, and saturday. at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time., and Mega Millions draws tuesday and friday. at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time.. Powerball (Multi-State Lottery Association), 2026 Mega Millions Consortium, 2026 Checking a site before the drawing has actually happened will simply show the previous result, which is another reason to confirm the draw date on the official site matches the draw date on the ticket, rather than assuming the newest number shown is the one that matters.
Why not just check a third-party site or a social post
It is not that other sites are always wrong. It is that only one kind of source can actually confirm a ticket, and it is not any of these.
The official game sites and each state lottery's own site or app are the authoritative sources for winning numbers. Standard guidance repeated across state lotteries is: do not rely solely on a third-party site to confirm a win — scan or verify the physical ticket at an authorized retailer's terminal, or through your state lottery's official app/site, before assuming a prize is valid, since only the state lottery's system can confirm a ticket actually matches an official drawing and has not already been claimed or voided. Powerball (Multi-State Lottery Association), 2026
A third-party site can misquote a number, publish stale results after a mistake, or simply be wrong, and none of that is caught until someone acts on it. A number in a text message, a forwarded screenshot or a social media post has passed through even more hands, with even more chances for a typo, an old draw date, or an outright scam to slip in.
None of this requires assuming bad faith on the part of every site that republishes lottery numbers. Plenty of them are simply copying the official result correctly, most of the time. The problem is that a reader checking their own ticket has no way to know, from the outside, whether a given copy is one of the correct ones or the one that got a digit wrong, was cached from an earlier draw, or was never updated after a correction. The official source does not have that ambiguity, because it is the source everyone else is copying from.
Two different checks, not one
Confirm the numbers
Match your ticket against the official game site or your state lottery's own site or app for the specific draw date on the ticket. This tells you what was drawn, but it does not by itself confirm your ticket is valid or unclaimed.
Verify the physical ticket
Scan or run the ticket at an authorized retailer's terminal, or through your state lottery's official app or site if it supports ticket verification. Only that system can confirm the ticket matches an official drawing and has not already been claimed or voided.
This two-step habit, confirm the draw first, then verify the physical ticket, catches the two different things that can go wrong: a wrong number somewhere in the chain, and a ticket that looks right but is not actually valid, whether because it was already claimed, voided, or never actually matched a real drawing.
Why this step cannot be skipped
A winning-looking set of numbers next to a ticket is not the same thing as a confirmed prize. The state lottery's own system is the only place that knows whether a specific ticket was actually sold, matches an actual drawing, and has not already been claimed, voided or reported lost by someone else. No third-party site has access to that, no matter how confident it sounds.
What official sources are for, beyond your own ticket
Beyond checking your own ticket, the same official sources are where to look for prize structures, past winning numbers, and general game information. Treat anything you read elsewhere, including on this site, as a starting point for understanding the games, not as a substitute for checking an actual ticket against the actual official source.
If a message, call or email tells you that you have already won and asks you to act quickly, that is a separate warning sign entirely, covered in full on the scams page. Checking your own ticket at the official source is never something a stranger needs to do for you, or needs payment to help with.
The same habit is worth applying to odds and prize information, not just results. This site publishes the current odds and prize tiers for both games, sourced from the same official game sites and dated on every page, but a reader is always free to cross-check any figure directly against the source rather than take it on trust from us or from anyone else.
Checking results is not the same as claiming
Claim deadlines are set state-by-state, not by Powerball or Mega Millions nationally, and often vary further by prize size within a state. A commonly cited typical range is 90 days at the short end up to 1 year at the long end, with some states differentiating by prize tier (e.g. a shorter window for smaller prizes, a full year for jackpots); some states also impose a separate, shorter deadline (as little as 60 days) just to choose between the cash and annuity option even within a longer overall claim window. Jackpot.com, 2026
The exact deadline for a given ticket must be confirmed with that state's own lottery. Confirming a result quickly is good practice, but the deadline clock is about claiming the prize, which is a separate step covered in full on claiming a prize.
Checking results officially: common questions
Where can I officially check Powerball numbers?
https://www.powerball.com/check-your-numbers, the official Powerball results page, or your state lottery's own site or app.
Where can I officially check Mega Millions numbers?
https://www.megamillions.com/winning-numbers.aspx, the official Mega Millions results page, or your state lottery's own site or app.
Can I trust a lottery number checker app or website that isn't the official one?
Treat it the same as any third-party source: useful as a convenience, but not a substitute for confirming against the official game site or your state lottery before assuming a prize is real.
Is checking the numbers the same as verifying a winning ticket?
No. Checking the drawn numbers tells you what was drawn. Verifying the physical ticket, by scanning it at a retailer or through your state lottery's system, is the only way to confirm that specific ticket is valid and unclaimed.
Why shouldn't I just trust a number someone sent me?
A forwarded number has passed through more hands and more chances for error than the official source, and it is also the exact pattern used in fake-prize scams. Confirm at the official source directly.
Does checking results start the claim deadline clock?
No, the prize itself does. Claim deadlines vary by state and are covered separately on claiming a prize; checking a result is a different step from claiming a prize.
What if the numbers I see disagree between two sites?
Treat the official game site or your state lottery's own site as the tiebreaker. Any other source that disagrees with those is the one that is wrong.
Is there one national site for all state lotteries?
No. The official game sites for Powerball and Mega Millions are the shared source, and each state lottery also republishes the same official results on its own site or app.
Keep reading
The odds do not move, so check them yourself
Powerball is 1 in 292,201,338 and Mega Millions is 1 in 290,472,336 for one play. Every figure on this site is dated, sourced and shown with its arithmetic, and we sell nothing that could change any of it.