The box ladder looks like a menu of better and worse bets. It is not. Run the arithmetic on any rung and a dollar comes back as roughly 48 cents: 24-way pays $200 at 1 in 417, 4-way pays $1,198 at 1 in 2,500. The pattern of your number changes how often and how much, never how much you get back over time.
The game at a glance
4 digits, 0–9 each
10,000 possible results, repeats allowed, order counts.
2 a day
Every day. Midday 1:30 p.m. ET · Evening 9:45 p.m. ET — 14 draws a week.
1 in 10,000
The same for every one of the possible results, including the one you picked.
Fixed amounts
Printed in advance and paid in full to every winner. $5,000 for a $1 straight.
$0.50 or $1 a play
Operated by the Florida Lottery.
18+
Must be 18+ to buy a Florida Lottery ticket.
Pick 4, in brief
Pick 4 adds one digit to Pick 3 and multiplies the game by ten. Four positions, each drawn from 0 through 9, give 10,000 possible results from 0000 to 9999. A straight bet on one of them is 1 in 10,000, and Florida pays $5,000 for a dollar. The figures on this page are the Florida Lottery's published chart; a dozen other states sell a game called Pick 4 with different prizes.
The extra digit changes the box maths noticeably. A three-digit number is either a 6-way or a 3-way box and that is the whole story. A four-digit number falls into one of four patterns — four different digits, one repeated pair, two repeated pairs, or three of a kind — worth 24, 12, 6 and 4 arrangements. Operators print them as a ladder, and the prize climbs as the number of ways falls.
Prizes are set amounts, not a share of a pool, which means Florida carries a real liability if a popular number lands. It manages that with a $9 million cap per four-digit number per drawing. Reach the cap and the terminal stops selling that number, along with any pair play covering its first, middle or last two digits. Tickets already sold are paid in full.
Every bet type, with the odds
| Bet type | Winning arrangements | Odds | Share of draws | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StraightAll four digits in the order you played them. One of the ten thousand outcomes. | 1 | 1 in 10,000 | $5,000 on a $1 play, $2,500 on 50¢ | |
| Box (24-way)Four different digits, any order. The most arrangements a four-digit number can have, so the shortest odds and the smallest box prize. | 24 | 1 in 417 | $200 on a $1 play, $100 on 50¢ | |
| Box (12-way)One digit repeated, two others different. Half as many arrangements as 24-way, twice the prize. | 12 | 1 in 833 | $400 on a $1 play, $200 on 50¢ | |
| Box (6-way)Two repeated pairs. Six arrangements. | 6 | 1 in 1,667 | $800 on a $1 play, $400 on 50¢ | |
| Box (4-way)Three of a kind and one odd digit. Only four arrangements, so this is the longest-odds and best-paying box on the ladder. | 4 | 1 in 2,500 | $1,198 on a $1 play, $599 on 50¢ | |
| Straight/Box (24-way)A dollar split between a 50¢ straight and a 50¢ box. Any order collects the box half; the exact order collects both. | 24 | 1 in 417 | $2,600 in exact order (1 in 10,000), $100 in any other order | |
| Straight/Box (12-way)The split wager on a number with one repeated digit. | 12 | 1 in 833 | $2,700 in exact order (1 in 10,000), $200 in any other order | |
| Straight/Box (6-way)The split wager on two repeated pairs. | 6 | 1 in 1,667 | $2,900 in exact order (1 in 10,000), $400 in any other order | |
| Straight/Box (4-way)The split wager on three of a kind. | 4 | 1 in 2,500 | $3,099 in exact order (1 in 10,000), $599 in any other order | |
| Combo (24-way)All 24 straight arrangements bought as separate bets on one ticket. Full straight prize in any order, 24 times the stake. | 24 | 1 in 417 | $5,000 on a $24 play, $2,500 on $12 | |
| Combo (12-way)Twelve straight bets covering a number with one repeated digit. | 12 | 1 in 833 | $5,000 on a $12 play, $2,500 on $6 | |
| Combo (6-way)Six straight bets covering two repeated pairs. | 6 | 1 in 1,667 | $5,000 on a $6 play, $2,500 on $3 | |
| Combo (4-way)Four straight bets covering three of a kind. The cheapest combo on the board. | 4 | 1 in 2,500 | $5,000 on a $4 play, $2,500 on $2 | |
| Front PairThe first two digits in order. The last two are free, which leaves a hundred winning outcomes. | 100 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ | |
| Mid PairThe middle two digits in order — a play a three-digit game has no room for. | 100 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ | |
| Back PairThe last two digits in order, with the first two free. | 100 | 1 in 100 | $50 on a $1 play, $25 on 50¢ |
The FIREBALL add-on
One extra digit drawn after the four winning ones, which may stand in for any of them. It costs an extra $1, doubling the ticket, and pays on its own shorter-odds, smaller-prize chart.
Where Pick 4 came from
Three digits were not enough
The four-digit daily game exists because the three-digit one worked. Once a state had a terminal network taking bets on 000 to 999 twice a day, a second game on the same slip with a longer number and a bigger headline prize cost almost nothing to add. It ran alongside rather than replacing, and most states that sell one sell both.
The same bets, ten times the pool
Every play type carried straight over. Straight, box, straight/box, combo and the pair plays all mean what they meant on the three-digit game. Only the box ladder had to grow, from two rungs to four, because a four-digit number has four possible repeat patterns instead of two.
Where the odd prize figures come from
Florida's 4-way box pays $599 rather than $600, and its 4-way straight/box pays $3,099. That is not arithmetic, it is paperwork: prizes of $600 and over are reported differently and cannot always be cashed at a retail counter. Several states shave a dollar off for exactly that reason.
The pair plays kept a middle
A three-digit number has a front pair and a back pair. A four-digit number also has a middle two, so Florida sells a Mid Pair. All three cover ten times as many outcomes as they would on Pick 3, which is why they still come out at 1 in 100 rather than 1 in 1,000.
Playing digits, honestly
A combo is not a discount on a box. It is 24 tickets sold as one, and it costs 24 times as much. The reason to prefer it is that it pays the full straight prize whatever the order; the reason to think twice is that you are staking $24 to do it.
Repeated digits are not rarer than they look. Of the 10,000 outcomes, 5,040 have four different digits, so almost half of all draws contain a repeat. A player who only ever writes four distinct digits is ignoring 4,960 of the possible results.
No arrangement of digits is overdue, hot, or cold. Ten thousand outcomes, one drawn, no memory between draws.
Pick 4 — frequently asked
A straight bet is 1 in 10,000. A box depends entirely on the pattern of your number: four different digits gives 24 arrangements and 1 in 417, three of a kind gives four arrangements and 1 in 2,500. Any pair play is 1 in 100.
A box on a number whose four digits are all different, so there are 24 distinct orders it could come out in. The count is the multinomial 4! ÷ (1!×1!×1!×1!) = 24, and 24 winning outcomes out of 10,000 is 1 in 417. Repeat a digit and the count drops: 12-way, 6-way or 4-way.
Because it wins six times less often. Four arrangements instead of 24 is 1 in 2,500 instead of 1 in 417, and Florida's prize moves the other way to match: $1,198 against $200. Multiply either pair together and you land in the same place.
Yes, and it publishes the rule. Fixed prizes mean a heavily backed number is a real liability, so Florida caps exposure at $9 million per four-digit number per drawing. Once a number reaches it, sales of that number and of any pair covering part of it stop for that draw. Tickets bought before the cutoff are paid in full.
The 10,000 outcomes are. Everything else is local. This page uses the Florida Lottery's rules, prizes and draw times; other states run different wager sizes, sometimes different bet types, and in a few cases pari-mutuel prizes instead of fixed ones.