Spades Score Calculator
Spades scoring is where most table arguments start. Contracts pay 10 points per bid trick, overtricks quietly bank bags, nil bonuses flip sign on a single mistake, and the tenth bag detonates a 100-point fine that half the table forgot was coming. This calculator applies all of it hand by hand: enter each player's bid and tricks, and it scores both partnerships, carries bags between hands, and runs the totals until one side reaches 500.
Score the next hand
Record each player's bid and tricks. The four trick counts must total 13. Contract points, nil results, bags, and the 10-bag penalty are applied automatically.
Choose a bid (1–13, nil, or blind nil) for all four players.
Contract Scoring, Step by Step
Each hand begins with four bids, and each partnership's two bids combine into one team contract. When the partnership's combined tricks meet or beat that contract, the team scores 10 points per bid trick plus one point for each overtrick. When the tricks fall short, the team is set and loses 10 points per bid trick — no partial credit for the tricks it did win. A made bid of six with one overtrick is worth 61; a failed bid of six is worth −60, a 121-point difference riding on a single trick.
Because all 13 tricks are distributed every hand, the calculator insists the four trick counts sum to 13 before it will score anything. That single check catches nearly every scorekeeping mistake a live table makes.
Bags and the 10-Bag Penalty
Every overtrick beyond a made contract is a bag. Each one adds a token point to the hand score, but bags also accumulate across hands, and the moment a partnership's stored bags reach ten, it is fined 100 points and ten bags are cleared from its count. The calculator shows each side's carried bags above the inputs and flags the hand where a penalty lands, so nobody gets ambushed at bag nine.
This is why deliberately winning extra tricks is usually a losing habit. Three bags a hand feels harmless until the fourth hand wipes out more than a made four-bid. Strong pairs treat overtricks the way our Spades strategy guide recommends: as a cost to be managed, not a bonus to be chased.
Nil and Blind Nil
A nil bid is a promise to win zero tricks. Deliver it and the partnership collects a 100-point bonus on top of whatever the partner's contract earns; let one trick stick and the bonus becomes a 100-point penalty instead. The nil bidder's accidental tricks still count toward the partnership total, which occasionally softens the blow by helping the partner's bid — the calculator handles that interaction the same way our online game does.
Blind nil doubles the stakes to plus or minus 200 for a nil declared before looking at the hand. Our online table offers standard nil only, but house and tournament games use blind nil often enough that the calculator supports it as a bid option. Desperate partnerships trailing by 200 or more reach for it because it is the fastest legal way back into a match — and the fastest way out of one.
The Race to 500
Hand scores accumulate until a partnership crosses 500 points, and if both sides cross in the same hand, the higher total takes the match. There is a floor as well: a partnership that collapses to −200 loses outright, a mercy rule that ends games buried under consecutive sets and blown nils. The running-total row tracks both thresholds and declares the winner the moment the race is decided.
Knowing the score changes correct play. A side at 460 should bid conservatively and refuse every bag; a side at 320 facing 470 needs aggressive contracts or a nil to have any chance. For the full scoring rules with worked examples, see the how-to-play guide, and check the variations page if your table plays Whiz, Suicide, or jokers-high.
Want the scoring handled for you?
Our free online Spades game scores contracts, nil bids, and bags automatically while you and your AI partner race the opposing pair to 500.