Mega Millions Odds and Prizes

Mega Millions puts up incredible jackpots every Tuesday and Friday night, and has created many of the biggest winners in New York Lottery history. There’s lots of other ways to win too, even if you don’t match all the numbers, and the multiplier feature can help to produce much larger payouts.

The jackpot starts at $50 million. If nobody wins, it will roll over and an even larger amount will be offered in the following draw. There is no jackpot cap in place, so it will keep rolling over to subsequent draws until someone wins it.

To win the jackpot, you must match all five main numbers plus the Mega Ball. This means that your five main numbers must be the same as the five main numbers that are drawn, and the Mega Ball on your ticket must be the same as the Mega Ball that is drawn. The order of the main numbers does not matter, but the Mega Ball is not interchangeable with any of the first five.

There are also eight other prize tiers, starting at $10 for matching just the Mega Ball. This is the minimum prize if the multiplier on your ticket is 2x. The multiplier is determined at random at the time of purchase and is shown on your ticket as either 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x.

The chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 290,472,336, while the overall odds of landing a prize are 1 in 23. The following table shows the prizes on offer and the odds of winning in each tier.

*The prizes shown above are the base amounts and are provided for reference only. All non-jackpot payouts are actually increased by the value of the multiplier printed on your ticket.

Mega Millions Multiplier Odds

Since the Mega Millions rule change in April 2025, every ticket is now assigned a prize multiplier, boosting prizes by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 times. This change replaced the optional Megaplier game add-on, where players could pay extra to have the multiplier included on their ticket. Although these two systems are very similar, the name 'Megaplier' seems to have been dropped in the latest revision of the game.

Cash or Annuity

If you win the jackpot, there are two payment options – cash or annuity. The annuity represents the advertised amount and is paid out as 30 installments over the course of 29 years. The one-time lump sum payment is a lower figure, equal to the estimated cash required to purchase the annuity.

Both options are subject to tax. You have to pay federal and state taxes on any prize over $5,000, and there are additional local withholdings if you live in certain locations – specifically New York City or Yonkers.

How to Claim

You can only claim Mega Millions prizes from the state in which you bought your lottery ticket.

If you bought your Mega Millions ticket in New York, you can claim prizes up to and including $600 from any licensed lottery retailer in the state. For larger awards, you will need to visit one of the New York Lottery’s Customer Service Centers. You can also claim your prize by mailing the signed winning ticket along with a completed claim form to the New York Lottery headquarters at PO Box 7533, Schenectady, NY 12301-7533.

You have one year from the date of the draw to claim any prizes.

New York Mega Millions Winners

Players in New York have enjoyed considerable success in Mega Millions. Chief among them is Johnnie Taylor, a man from Howard Beach in Queens who won $476 million in the draw on April 14th, 2023. A group of co-workers had also won $437 million on January 1st, 2019, and claimed the prize under a trust called New Life 2019, LLC. Another famous winner was Harold Diamond, an 80-year-old retired school principal from Wurtsboro in Sullivan County who won $326 million after his wife made him stop to buy tickets during a drive to Middletown on Election Day.

The following table shows the five biggest Mega Millions jackpots awarded by the New York Lottery: