Premium Bonds Calculator: What You Will Actually Win
NS&I advertises a prize fund rate that is an average, lifted by the rare million-pound prizes. See what a holding your size typically wins, and whether a taxed savings account would beat it.
| Premium Bonds, typical year | £146 |
|---|---|
| Savings account interest | £175 |
| Covered by your Personal Savings Allowance | £175 |
| Tax on the rest | - |
| Savings account, after tax | £175 |
| Difference | −£29 |
The savings account wins by £29 this year. The savings account pays £175 of interest, and your allowances cover all of it, so the tax-free wrapper on Premium Bonds is worth nothing to you here.
- What you typically win
- NS&I headline average
- Savings account, after tax
NS&I's headline rate is 3.80%, an average across all holders. A holding of £5,000 typically wins £146 a year, and it takes about £1,271 before a holder has an even chance of winning anything at all in a year. Premium Bonds start to beat the savings account at about £44,250.
| Holding | Typical win | Headline average | Savings after tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| £500 | £0 | £19 | £18 |
| £1,000 | £0 | £38 | £35 |
| £1,500 | £25 | £57 | £53 |
| £2,000 | £40 | £76 | £70 |
| £2,500 | £50 | £95 | £88 |
| £3,000 | £74 | £114 | £105 |
| £3,500 | £98 | £133 | £123 |
| £4,000 | £117 | £152 | £140 |
| £4,500 | £133 | £171 | £158 |
| £5,000 | £146 | £190 | £175 |
| £5,500 | £158 | £209 | £193 |
| £6,000 | £168 | £228 | £210 |
| £6,500 | £181 | £247 | £228 |
| £7,000 | £197 | £266 | £245 |
| £7,500 | £213 | £285 | £263 |
| £8,000 | £229 | £304 | £280 |
| £8,500 | £248 | £323 | £298 |
| £9,000 | £267 | £342 | £315 |
| £9,500 | £286 | £361 | £333 |
| £10,000 | £305 | £380 | £350 |
| £10,500 | £324 | £399 | £368 |
| £11,000 | £341 | £418 | £385 |
| £11,500 | £358 | £437 | £403 |
| £12,000 | £375 | £456 | £420 |
| £12,500 | £392 | £475 | £438 |
| £13,000 | £409 | £494 | £455 |
| £13,500 | £426 | £513 | £473 |
| £14,000 | £443 | £532 | £490 |
| £14,500 | £459 | £551 | £508 |
| £15,000 | £475 | £570 | £525 |
| £15,500 | £491 | £589 | £543 |
| £16,000 | £507 | £608 | £560 |
| £16,500 | £523 | £627 | £578 |
| £17,000 | £538 | £646 | £595 |
| £17,500 | £554 | £665 | £613 |
| £18,000 | £570 | £684 | £630 |
| £18,500 | £586 | £703 | £648 |
| £19,000 | £602 | £722 | £665 |
| £19,500 | £618 | £741 | £683 |
| £20,000 | £633 | £760 | £700 |
| £20,500 | £649 | £779 | £718 |
| £21,000 | £665 | £798 | £735 |
| £21,500 | £681 | £817 | £753 |
| £22,000 | £697 | £836 | £770 |
| £22,500 | £713 | £855 | £788 |
| £23,000 | £728 | £874 | £805 |
| £23,500 | £744 | £893 | £823 |
| £24,000 | £760 | £912 | £840 |
| £24,500 | £776 | £931 | £858 |
| £25,000 | £792 | £950 | £875 |
| £25,500 | £808 | £969 | £893 |
| £26,000 | £825 | £988 | £910 |
| £26,500 | £841 | £1,007 | £928 |
| £27,000 | £858 | £1,026 | £945 |
| £27,500 | £875 | £1,045 | £963 |
| £28,000 | £892 | £1,064 | £980 |
| £28,500 | £909 | £1,083 | £998 |
| £29,000 | £925 | £1,102 | £1,012 |
| £29,500 | £942 | £1,121 | £1,026 |
| £30,000 | £959 | £1,140 | £1,040 |
| £30,500 | £976 | £1,159 | £1,054 |
| £31,000 | £992 | £1,178 | £1,068 |
| £31,500 | £1,009 | £1,197 | £1,082 |
| £32,000 | £1,026 | £1,216 | £1,096 |
| £32,500 | £1,043 | £1,235 | £1,110 |
| £33,000 | £1,059 | £1,254 | £1,124 |
| £33,500 | £1,076 | £1,273 | £1,138 |
| £34,000 | £1,093 | £1,292 | £1,152 |
| £34,500 | £1,110 | £1,311 | £1,166 |
| £35,000 | £1,127 | £1,330 | £1,180 |
| £35,500 | £1,144 | £1,349 | £1,194 |
| £36,000 | £1,160 | £1,368 | £1,208 |
| £36,500 | £1,177 | £1,387 | £1,222 |
| £37,000 | £1,194 | £1,406 | £1,236 |
| £37,500 | £1,211 | £1,425 | £1,250 |
| £38,000 | £1,228 | £1,444 | £1,264 |
| £38,500 | £1,245 | £1,463 | £1,278 |
| £39,000 | £1,262 | £1,482 | £1,292 |
| £39,500 | £1,279 | £1,501 | £1,306 |
| £40,000 | £1,296 | £1,520 | £1,320 |
| £40,500 | £1,312 | £1,539 | £1,334 |
| £41,000 | £1,329 | £1,558 | £1,348 |
| £41,500 | £1,346 | £1,577 | £1,362 |
| £42,000 | £1,363 | £1,596 | £1,376 |
| £42,500 | £1,380 | £1,615 | £1,390 |
| £43,000 | £1,397 | £1,634 | £1,404 |
| £43,500 | £1,414 | £1,653 | £1,418 |
| £44,000 | £1,431 | £1,672 | £1,432 |
| £44,500 | £1,448 | £1,691 | £1,446 |
| £45,000 | £1,464 | £1,710 | £1,460 |
| £45,500 | £1,481 | £1,729 | £1,474 |
| £46,000 | £1,498 | £1,748 | £1,488 |
| £46,500 | £1,516 | £1,767 | £1,502 |
| £47,000 | £1,533 | £1,786 | £1,516 |
| £47,500 | £1,551 | £1,805 | £1,530 |
| £48,000 | £1,568 | £1,824 | £1,544 |
| £48,500 | £1,586 | £1,843 | £1,558 |
| £49,000 | £1,603 | £1,862 | £1,572 |
| £49,500 | £1,621 | £1,881 | £1,586 |
| £50,000 | £1,638 | £1,900 | £1,600 |
Information
What the headline rate actually means. NS&I publishes a prize fund rate, currently 3.8%. It is a genuine figure, but it is an average across every holder, and Premium Bonds pay out very unevenly. In the July 2026 draw there were two prizes of £1,000,000 and 83 of £100,000, alongside 2,290,430 prizes of £25. Those few enormous prizes are what pull the average up. Almost nobody wins them, so almost nobody gets the average.
What a holding your size typically wins. This calculator works out the median instead: the middle of the range, where half of holders your size do better in a year and half do worse. It is calculated from NS&I's own published prize table, prize tier by prize tier, rather than by taking a guess at a discount to the headline. The answer depends heavily on how much you hold. Below about £1,271 the median is zero: most years you win nothing at all. At the £50,000 maximum the median is about 3.28%, close to the headline but still below it, and it never quite catches up.
Why tax decides whether they are worth it. Premium Bonds prizes are completely tax free. That sounds decisive and often is not, because a normal savings account gets a tax break too: the Personal Savings Allowance covers the first £1,000 of interest for a basic rate taxpayer and £500 for a higher rate taxpayer, and people with low other income get up to £5,000 more through the starting rate for savings. If your interest already fits inside your allowance, the Premium Bonds tax break is worth nothing at all to you, and you are simply comparing your typical rate against your savings rate. It is when your allowance runs out that Premium Bonds start to win.
What this calculator does not do. It prices one year. It does not project a pot forward, and that is on purpose: the median of a ten-year total is not the same thing as ten annual medians compounded, so a growth projection here would be a number that is neither the typical outcome nor the average one. It also shows the middle of the range, not the spread, so it cannot tell you your chance of winning £1,000. Prizes are random, so any single year can land well above or well below this figure. To model a Premium Bonds holding alongside the rest of your finances over time, open the full simulator.
FAQ
- Why is your figure lower than the rate NS&I advertises?
Because the headline is the average across all holders, and the prizes are wildly uneven. A handful of million-pound and hundred-thousand-pound prizes lift that average well above what a typical holder gets. This page shows the median instead, which is the middle of the range: half of holders your size do better and half do worse. It is lower for everyone, and dramatically lower for small holdings.
- Is it true I could win nothing at all?
For a small holding it is the most likely outcome. Below roughly GBP 1,271 the median annual win is exactly £0, which means more than half of holders that size win nothing in a whole year. That figure moves with the prize fund rate: a lower rate pushes the break-even holding higher, and the calculator works out where it sits for the rate you entered. NS&I's published odds are 22,000 to 1 against any single £1 bond winning in a month.
- Are Premium Bonds better than a savings account?
It depends almost entirely on whether you have used up your Personal Savings Allowance. Below it, a savings account's interest is untaxed too, so the tax-free prizes buy you nothing and the typical Premium Bonds return simply has to beat the savings rate on its own, which at a small holding it does not. Once the allowance runs out, tax comes off the savings interest and nothing comes off the prizes, and the bonds start to win. At the GBP 50,000 maximum the typical Premium Bonds return is about 3.28%; whether that beats your account depends on your rate and your income, and the page works out which side you are on.
- Do I have to declare Premium Bonds prizes on my tax return?
No. Prizes are not income, so there is nothing to declare, no tax to pay, and they use up none of your Personal Savings Allowance. They also do not count towards adjusted net income, which is the figure behind the High Income Child Benefit Charge and the tapering of the Personal Allowance above £100,000. That is a genuine advantage the headline comparison misses.
- Do Scottish taxpayers pay a different rate on savings interest?
No. Scotland sets its own rates for earned income, but tax on savings interest is reserved, so the rest-of-UK rates apply everywhere and this page needs no Scotland setting. Premium Bonds prizes are tax-free across the whole UK.
- Can my partner and I hold double the maximum between us?
Yes. The GBP 50,000 maximum is per person, so a couple can hold GBP 50,000 each. This page prices one person's holding, so run it twice, or model both together in the full simulator.
- Are my Premium Bonds safe?
The capital is, in the sense that NS&I is backed by HM Treasury and you can cash bonds in at any time without penalty and without losing money. What is not safe is the return: it is a prize draw, so in a given year you may win nothing. And because the capital never grows by itself, inflation erodes it in real terms in every year you win less than the inflation rate.
Recent changes
-
NS&I raised the prize fund rate to 3.80% from the previous draw's 3.30%, and shortened the odds of any £1 bond winning to 22,000 to 1 from 23,000 to 1. A HISTORY entry names a DATED event, so the superseded figures beside it stay literal on purpose: they describe the draw that ended, not the one in force.
Sources
- Premium Bonds monthly prize allocation (NS&I)
- Premium Bonds (NS&I)
- Tax on savings interest (GOV.UK)
Disclaimer
Not financial advice. Premium Bonds are a prize draw, so the figures above describe the middle of a range of outcomes and not what you will personally win: in any given year you may win more, and you may win nothing. The prize fund rate and the odds change most months, and the comparison assumes the income you entered is your only other taxable income and that the selected year's tax rules apply. Check NS&I's own current figures and consult a qualified adviser before making a decision based on these numbers.
