Lottery jackpots
The jackpot on the billboard is the total of 30 payments spread over 29 years. The money actually in the pool, the cash value, is a little under half of it at today's figures. Read the second number.
Two numbers on every jackpot
On 27 October 2026 the Powerball site showed the next jackpot as an estimated $716 million, with a cash value of $307.2 million. Both are the same prize. The first is what you would collect if you took the annuity, one payment now and 29 more over the years. The second is the money that has to be in the jackpot pool on the day of the draw to buy that annuity.
Powerball defines the cash option exactly that way, as the amount required to be in the jackpot prize pool to fund the estimated annuity. Mega Millions puts it as all the cash in the jackpot prize pool. Either way, the cash is what was raised from ticket sales, and the advertised number is what that cash grows into if it is invested and paid out over three decades.
So $307.2 million is 43 percent of $716 million. On the record jackpots the gap was a bit narrower:
| Jackpot | Advertised | Cash | Cash as % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powerball, 7 November 2022 | $2.04 billion | $997.6 million | 49% |
| Mega Millions, 8 August 2023 | $1.602 billion | $794.2 million | 50% |
| Powerball, estimate for 28 October 2026 | $716 million | $307.2 million | 43% |
The figures come from Powerball's announcement of the $2.04 billion win and the Mega Millions jackpot history. Neither is after tax. The tax comes off whichever you choose, and the lottery taxes page has that part.
Why interest rates move the jackpot
This is the part most people never hear. The advertised jackpot depends on what the cash can earn. Powerball says it plainly: "The higher the interest rates, the higher the advertised Grand Prize."
Think of it from the lottery's side. It holds a pile of cash and promises 30 payments. If money earns more, the same pile buys bigger payments, and the billboard number goes up without a single extra ticket being sold. When rates fall, the reverse happens. A jackpot "record" set when rates are high is partly a record in interest rates.
I'd compare jackpots on the cash value, across games and across years. It's the only one of the two that is money you could hold.
Why it rolls
When nobody matches all six numbers, the jackpot isn't paid, and the pool carries over to the next draw with more ticket sales added. The odds don't change, so the expected number of draws before somebody wins depends on how many combinations are covered. The bigger the jackpot, the more tickets get sold, and the more likely it is that someone wins it.
The $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot was hit on the 41st draw of its run, three months after it started. Long runs build themselves: the news covers the number, people who never play buy a ticket, sales go up and the next estimate jumps.
Mega Millions now starts at $50 million since it moved to the $5 ticket in April 2025, and says the higher price lets jackpots grow faster.
What the jackpot does to the bet
A bigger jackpot is a better bet, because the odds stay put while the prize grows. It is also a more crowded one. When the jackpot is in the news, far more tickets are sold, so the chance that another ticket matches yours goes up, and a split jackpot is a smaller one. The odds page works the sum through: at a $307.2 million cash value, the jackpot is worth about $1.05 on a $2 Powerball ticket, before tax and before sharing.
That's why I wouldn't chase the big numbers. Buying only when the billboard passes a billion feels clever, and it does improve the bet, but it never turns it into a good one, and you buy in the draws with the most people to share with.
The non-jackpot prizes
The second prize is fixed. On Powerball, matching five white balls pays $1 million, or $2 million with Power Play. On Mega Millions it pays between $2 million and $10 million depending on the multiplier on your ticket. California is the exception for Mega Millions: its lower prizes are pari-mutuel, which means the prize pool for each tier is split among that tier's winners. The multipliers page goes through them.
If you hit it
You choose cash or annuity, and Mega Millions says prize claim parameters vary from state to state, so the rules on when you decide are your state lottery's. The annuity or lump sum page is the one I'd read before buying the ticket, not after. Claim deadlines run from 90 days to a year depending on the state where the ticket was sold. And anyone who contacts you to say you won a jackpot you never entered is running one of the lottery scams.