Lottery results: where to check the official numbers
We don't copy winning numbers onto this page. A copy can be late or wrong, and the only numbers that pay are the lottery's own. Here's where to read them, and what to do once you have.
The two big games
Powerball publishes its numbers on its own previous results page, each drawing with its winning numbers and the Power Play multiplier, newest first. Mega Millions does the same on its winning numbers page, with a link from there to its previous drawings.
I'd bookmark those two and nothing else for these games. Plenty of sites repeat the numbers, and most get them right, but you'd be trusting a copy when the original is one click away.
When two sources disagree
The lottery's own record wins. Powerball says it plainly: "Official winning numbers are those selected in the respective drawings and recorded under the observation of an independent accounting firm," and "In the event of a discrepancy, the official drawing results shall prevail" (Powerball). A typo on a news site, a screenshot in a group chat or a number read out wrong on air doesn't change what you won. I'd check the official page twice before I celebrated, and once more before I threw a ticket away.
The prize amounts are the same kind of question. Mega Millions notes that prizes in California are paid on a pari-mutuel basis and differ from the fixed amounts it shows, so the prize you're owed is whatever your own lottery says it is.
Your state's own games
Pick 3, Pick 4, state lotto games and scratch tickets are run by each state lottery, and their results are on that lottery's own site. Our US lotteries page links each one. The same lottery is where you claim: Powerball says that all winning tickets must be redeemed in the state or jurisdiction where they were sold.
If the numbers match
Sign the ticket and put it somewhere safe before you tell anyone. Then read how a jackpot is claimed and what to do if you win. And if a message tells you that you've won a lottery you don't remember playing, it's not a result, it's a scam. I'd delete it without replying.