Padel scoring, in full
Padel scoring rules, explained
Last updated 18 August 2026
Padel borrows its numbers from tennis and then changes the endings. This is every rule that decides a padel score: the ladder to 40, what happens at 40–40, when a set turns into a tiebreak, and how a deciding set is settled.
The short version. A game runs 15, 30, 40, game. At 40–40 most padel is decided by a single golden point rather than by advantage. A set is the first to six games by a margin of two, with a tiebreak to seven at 6–6. A match is one set or the best of three, and a deciding set is often replaced by a super tiebreak to ten.
Points in a game
Padel inherited the tennis ladder whole. The first point a pair wins takes them to 15, the second to 30, the third to 40, and the fourth wins the game — provided the ending below agrees. Zero is called love, and the serving pair's score is always said first, so 30–15 means the servers are ahead.
| Points won | Called |
|---|---|
| 0 | Love |
| 1 | 15 |
| 2 | 30 |
| 3 | 40 |
| 4 | Game — if the ending allows it |
The ladder is the part everyone already knows and the part nobody argues about. Every argument on a padel court is about what happens at the end of it.
What happens at 40–40
This is the one decision that changes how a padel match feels, and it belongs before the first serve rather than in an argument at the net. Three endings are in use.
Advantage
The tennis ending. From 40–40 a pair has to win two points in a row: the first takes them to advantage, the second takes the game. Lose the next point and the score falls back to 40–40, as many times as it takes. It rewards the stronger pair, and it makes the length of a match impossible to predict.
Golden point
Punto de oro. From 40–40 the very next point takes the game outright — no advantage, no second chance. One point, one game. It is standard in most amateur padel and on the professional tour, because it holds a match to a predictable length, and because a whole game riding on a single rally is the best moment the sport has.
Star point
Punto estrella. Scored exactly like a golden point: the next point takes the game. What differs is the ceremony around it, not the arithmetic, which is why a scoreboard treats the two the same way.
Padelmatic asks which of the three you want before the match starts and then applies it every time a game reaches 40–40, so the question is settled once instead of every other game.
Games in a set
A set goes to six games, won by a margin of two. At 5–5 the set carries on: a pair now has to reach 7–5. At 6–6 the set is decided by a tiebreak instead.
The tiebreak is played to seven points, again by a margin of two — so 7–5 takes it, while 6–6 runs on until a pair leads by two. Whoever wins the tiebreak wins the set 7–6.
Sets in a match
A padel match is one set, or the best of three. Best of three means the first pair to win two sets, so a match ends 2–0 or 2–1.
When a best-of-three match reaches one set all, the deciding set can be played out in full or replaced by a super tiebreak — first to ten points, still by a margin of two. The super tiebreak is the reason an amateur match can be booked into a ninety-minute court slot with any confidence.
Who serves, and when
Serving order matters to the score itself, because a padel score is always read from the serving pair's side.
- The serve alternates between the pairs one game at a time. Win or lose, the pair that served this game receives in the next.
- Within a pair, one player serves the whole game and their partner serves the pair's next service game — so each player serves every fourth game.
- The pairs change ends after the first game and then after every second game, which is to say whenever the total number of games played is odd.
- In a tiebreak the first server serves one point only. After that the serve changes every two points, and the pairs change ends every six points.
Padel scoring versus tennis scoring
If you already keep score in tennis, you are most of the way there. These are the differences that actually come up on court.
| Rule | Padel | Tennis |
|---|---|---|
| Points in a game | 15, 30, 40, game | 15, 30, 40, game |
| At 40–40 | Usually a golden point; advantage is an option | Advantage, apart from formats that drop it |
| Games in a set | First to 6, by two | First to 6, by two |
| Deciding set | Often a super tiebreak to 10 | Usually a full set; varies by tournament |
| The serve | Underarm, after a bounce | Overarm, struck out of the air |
Americano, and other social formats
Not every session is a match between two fixed pairs. In an Americano the partners rotate: you play short rounds alongside a different partner each time, and every point you win is added to your own running total rather than to a pair's. There are no games and no sets. A round ends when a pair reaches an agreed number of points, and the player with the highest total at the end of the session wins.
Padelmatic scores Americano as a mode of its own, with the point target and how often the serve changes both chosen before you start.
Keeping score without arguing about it
Every rule above is arithmetic, and arithmetic is exactly what four people in the middle of a long rally are worst at. A change of ends, a golden point nobody agreed on, one player certain it was 30–15 — and the score becomes a negotiation instead of a fact.