Pick 4 Explained: Odds, Box Types and Payouts

Pick 4 works like Pick 3 with one more digit: choose a four-digit number from 0000 to 9999, and win if it matches the one the lottery draws. That extra digit makes it ten times harder to hit straight, and the prizes are ten times bigger. It’s called Win 4 in New York, Daily 4 in Texas, California and Michigan, and Cash 4 in Georgia and Tennessee.

The odds

There are 10,000 possible numbers, so a straight play (exact order) has odds of 1 in 10,000. A box play wins in any order, and with four digits there are four kinds of box, depending on how many of your digits repeat:

Your number	Box type	Orders it covers	Odds
1234 (all different)	24-way	24	1 in 417
1123 (one pair)	12-way	12	1 in 833
1122 (two pairs)	6-way	6	1 in 1,667
1112 (three alike)	4-way	4	1 in 2,500
1111 (all alike)	straight only	1	1 in 10,000

What it pays

Each state publishes its own chart. North Carolina’s is typical. For a $1 play:

Play	Prize for $1
Straight	$5,000
4-way box	$1,200
6-way box	$800
12-way box	$400
24-way box	$200

The more orders a box covers, the more likely it wins and the less it pays. Either way, the prizes pay back less than the odds suggest, so treat Pick 4 as entertainment.

Draws

Most states draw Pick 4 twice a day, at midday and in the evening. Texas draws Daily 4 four times a day, Monday to Saturday. Our daily draws page lists every state’s draw times.

Try it

The Pick calculator tells you which box any four-digit number is, and its exact odds.