Premium Bonds Prize Checker: How to See If You've Won and When Results Land
- 🔑 You check Premium Bonds prizes with your holder’s number, using NS&I’s online prize checker, its Premium Bonds prize checker app or its Alexa skill. NS&I says a holder’s number has 9 or 10 digits, or 8 digits followed by a letter, and appears on your bond record or online account.
- NS&I announces the two £1 million winners on the first working day of the month and lets everyone check other prizes the day after. For October 2026 that meant Thursday 1 October and Friday 2 October. NS&I’s own countdown, read on 3 October 2026, shows the next results available on 3 November.
- For the October 2026 draw NS&I reported 6,546,849 prizes worth £498,378,775, a prize fund rate of 4.35% and stated odds of 21,000 to 1 per £1 Bond. These are NS&I’s published figures as of 3 October 2026, they are variable, and they are not betting odds.
- New Bonds usually have to be held for a whole month before they enter the draw. NS&I’s customer agreement, in the version dated 30 June 2025, gives the example that Bonds bought at any time in November are in the January draw, and reinvested prizes join the following month’s draw.
- NS&I pays prizes to a bank account, reinvests them or posts a cheque-style warrant. Bank payments are due by the seventh working day of the month. NS&I says unclaimed prizes have no time limit, and on 1 October 2026 it listed 2,869,527 of them worth £128,345,775.
- NS&I says it will never send a link in a text or email that goes directly to its log-in page or ask you to enter online banking details. By phone, it says it will never ask you to move money to a safe account or confirm a two-factor code.
You can see whether you have won a Premium Bonds prize by entering your holder’s number into NS&I’s online prize checker, its app or its Alexa skill. This guide is pinned to the October 2026 draw, as of Saturday 3 October 2026, and every figure comes from NS&I’s own pages. NS&I’s prize checker shows the next results as available on 3 November.
How do I check if I’ve won a Premium Bonds prize?
Use one of NS&I’s three official tools: the online prize checker, the Premium Bonds prize checker app, or the NS&I skill for Amazon Alexa.
- Website: open the prize checker page on nsandi.com and enter your holder’s number.
- App: listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It accepts a holder’s number or an NS&I number, can check for several family members, shows unclaimed prizes and lets you set a PIN. NS&I says it shows the current month’s prizes plus anything you won in the previous six draws.
- Alexa: enable the skill in the Alexa app and follow the steps. NS&I says it reports whether you won, how much, when the next draw is and any unclaimed prizes. You can add up to 10 numbers, and a child needs their own holder’s number.
What is a holder’s number, and where do I find it?
A holder’s number is the number NS&I uses to identify you as a Bond holder, and it is the one the website checker asks for. Every £1 Bond has its own unique number, but you do not need those to check. NS&I says a holder’s number has 9 or 10 digits, or 8 digits followed by a letter, and appears on your bond record or in your online account after you log in.
| Number | Looks like | Works in |
|---|---|---|
| Holder’s number | 9 or 10 digits, or 8 digits and a letter | Website, app, Alexa |
| NS&I number | 11 digits, starting 11, 21, 31 or 41 | App, Alexa |
When do the Premium Bonds results come out?
NS&I announces the two £1 million winners on the first working day of the month, and every other prize can be checked from the day after. For October 2026 that meant Thursday 1 October and Friday 2 October, according to NS&I’s 1 October press release.
| Draw | Jackpots | Other prizes |
|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | Thu 1 Oct | Fri 2 Oct |
| November 2026 | Mon 2 Nov | Tue 3 Nov |
1 November 2026 is a Sunday, so the first working day is Monday 2 November. The November row is our reading of NS&I’s rule; it matches the 3 November countdown on NS&I’s prize checker page, which is the date to follow.
Do new Bonds go straight into the draw?
No. In most cases NS&I says new Bonds must be held for a whole month before they are eligible for the prize draw. Its customer agreement (version dated 30 June 2025) gives an example: Bonds bought at any time in November are in the January draw. Reinvested prizes join the following month’s draw, and an eligible Bond stays in as long as you still hold it on the first day of the month.
What did NS&I report for the October 2026 draw?
NS&I reported 6,546,849 prizes worth £498,378,775 for the October 2026 draw, from 137,483,797,618 eligible Bonds at a prize fund rate of 4.35%. Premium Bonds pay no interest, and because prizes are awarded randomly, NS&I says a holder’s return can be more or less than that rate. A holder can win nothing in a given month.
NS&I’s stated odds are 21,000 to 1 for every £1 Bond in the monthly draw. That is NS&I’s own published figure for the draw, not a betting price, and NS&I labels it variable.
As past fact, NS&I announced on 18 August 2026 that the rate would rise from 3.80% to 4.35% and the stated odds would shorten from 22,000 to 1 to 21,000 to 1, from the September 2026 draw. We do not forecast any later change. NS&I says the two £1 million prizes went to holders in Somerset and East Sussex; we have not published Bond numbers or other personal details.
How are prizes paid, and what if mine has not arrived?
NS&I pays prizes into your nominated bank account (or NS&I Direct Saver), reinvests them in more Bonds, or posts a warrant, which works like a cheque, to your home address. For bank payment or reinvestment, NS&I says it tells you about wins by email or text message. Bank payments are due by the seventh working day of the month; if yours has not arrived, NS&I says to contact it. Posted cheques can take until the end of the month and expire after 3 months, with replacements on request. NS&I says it may check with you first for prizes of £5,000 or more.
How do I check and claim unclaimed prizes?
NS&I says there is no time limit to claim an unclaimed prize, and you can find them in the app, the online prize checker or your online account. As of its 1 October 2026 press release, NS&I listed 2,869,527 unclaimed prizes worth £128,345,775, a running total that changes monthly.
If you are registered online, call NS&I to claim. Otherwise register online or write to NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB, with your holder’s number, current and previous names and addresses, and your signature. NS&I says unclaimed prizes are sent as a warrant to your home address, not paid into a bank account.
How do I spot a fake Premium Bonds message?
NS&I says it will never send a link in a text or email that goes directly to its log-in page, and will never ask you to enter your online banking details. Because NS&I does text or email winners, our own habit is to check results by opening the app or typing the NS&I address into a browser, not by tapping a link in a message.
NS&I says its texts use the sender ID NSandI and end with the sign-off NS&I. On calls, it says it will never ask you to move money into a “safe account”, give your full password or confirm a two-factor authentication code. If in doubt, hang up and call NS&I back on 08085 007 007 or a number from your paperwork. Forward scam texts free to 7726, and send suspect emails to phishing@nsandi.com .
What are the basic Premium Bonds rules?
You can buy Premium Bonds from £25 and hold up to £50,000 per person, and NS&I says all prizes are free of UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. Anyone aged 16 or over can buy, and children under 16 can hold Bonds managed by a parent or guardian. Bond numbers over the £50,000 limit are not eligible to win.
These figures are NS&I’s as of 3 October 2026 (October draw) and are replaced when NS&I announces the November results. This is information, not financial advice.
How we verified this
✅ Every NS&I fact was read on NS&I’s own pages on 3 October 2026. That covers the prize checker page, the Premium Bonds product page, the help pages on prizes and unclaimed prizes, the Alexa page, the security pages on text, email and phone scams, the press-release index, the 18 August and 1 October 2026 press releases, and the Premium Bonds key features and customer agreement (version dated 30 June 2025), which we read as the PDF itself. The app details come from the Apple App Store listing, published by NS&I. The holder’s number format, payment timing and scam wording were each read on at least two separate fetches.
✅ The October draw totals were cross-checked. The 6,546,849 prizes and £498,378,775 appear in NS&I’s 1 October press release and, independently, in a consumer-money publication’s report of the same date. The eleven prize bands in NS&I’s list also add up to that total (our arithmetic). The 4.35% rate, the odds, the eligible Bonds figure and the unclaimed-prize total come from NS&I alone.
⚠️ Rate history is stated only as NS&I’s 18 August 2026 announcement: the prize fund rate rose from 3.80% to 4.35% and the stated odds shortened from 22,000 to 1 to 21,000 to 1, from the September 2026 draw. We do not state when the earlier 3.80% rate took effect because published sources disagree on it, and we make no forecast of future rate or odds changes.
⚠️ “21,000 to 1” is NS&I’s own stated figure per £1 Bond per monthly draw, presented as the issuer’s published number, with no tips and no chance calculations. No betting odds, spreads, or win-probability models appear anywhere on this page; the only odds figure is NS&I’s own, labelled as such.
⚠️ New-Bond eligibility follows NS&I’s customer agreement, not a third-party summary. NS&I says Bonds must usually be held for a whole month and gives a November-to-January example. A third-party summary we read worded this differently, so we followed NS&I.
⚠️ The next-results date is partly our calculation. NS&I’s checker countdown shows 3 November. The Monday 2 November jackpot date applies NS&I’s first-working-day rule to the calendar, since 1 November 2026 is a Sunday.
⚠️ We did not print an Alexa voice command, because NS&I’s Alexa page does not show an activation phrase. Winners’ Bond numbers are deliberately left out; counties only.
⚠️ Time-sensitive figures: the draw totals, the unclaimed-prize total (as of NS&I’s 1 October 2026 release) and the 3 November countdown all change when NS&I announces November’s results. Nothing about the October draw was unresolved at write time.
🔴 This is information, not financial advice. It describes published NS&I rules and does not recommend buying or holding Premium Bonds.