Cribbage score calculator: count your hand instantly
This calculator counts a Cribbage hand for you. Enter your 4 hand cards plus the starter card, and it returns an instant point breakdown by category, fifteens, pairs, runs, flush, and nobs, so you can settle a count without doing the arithmetic yourself.
How Cribbage hand-counting works
Every Cribbage hand gets counted the same way: your 4 cards plus the shared starter card, treated as one 5-card group. Five separate things can score points inside that group.
| Combination | Points |
|---|---|
| Fifteens | 2 points for every distinct combination of 2 or more cards that add up to 15 |
| Pairs | 2 points per matching pair; 3 of a kind counts as 3 pairs (6 points), 4 of a kind as 6 pairs (12 points) |
| Runs | 1 point per card in a run of 3 or more consecutive ranks, suit doesn't matter |
| Flush | 4 points if all 4 hand cards share a suit, 5 if the starter matches too. A crib flush only counts if all 5 cards, including the starter, share a suit |
| Nobs | 1 point for holding the jack matching the starter card's suit |
This table is a working reference on its own, even without touching the calculator below. For the full rules, including the play phase and pegging, see the main Cribbage rules and counting table guide.
How to use the calculator
Pick your 4 hand cards from the card selector, then pick the starter card separately, it plays a slightly different role than your hand cards for scoring purposes, so the tool keeps it as its own input. If you're counting a crib rather than a regular hand, toggle "count as crib hand" first, since the flush rule changes: a crib flush needs all 5 cards, hand and starter together, to share a suit, while a regular hand can score a 4-card flush even if the starter doesn't match.
Once your 5 cards are selected, the calculator runs through every combination automatically and returns a breakdown: how many points came from fifteens, how many from pairs, how many from runs, and so on, each one tagged to the specific cards that earned it, with a running total at the bottom. If you'd rather print the result than read it on screen, the print view formats the same breakdown for a phone-free table.
Worked example
Here's a full hand counted by hand, the same way the calculator does it automatically. Say your 4 hand cards are 3♦, 4♠, 4♥, and 8♣, and the starter turns out to be 5♠.
First, runs: the combined set has 3, 4, 4, 5, which forms two overlapping runs of 3-4-5, one using each of the two 4s. That's a "double run," worth 3 points per run, 6 points total.
Next, the pair: the two 4s also count on their own as a pair, worth 2 points, on top of the runs they're part of.
Then fifteens: 3+4+8 adds up to 15, and since there are two different 4s, that combination happens twice, once with each 4, for 2 points each, 4 points total.
There's no flush, since the suits are mixed, and no jack, so no nobs. Add it up: 6 points from the double run, 2 from the pair, and 4 from the fifteens, for a hand worth 12 points.
FAQ
What's the highest possible Cribbage hand score?
The maximum is 29 points, from a hand of three 5s plus a jack, where the starter card turns out to be the fourth 5 and matches the jack's suit. That combination scores 16 points from fifteens (four 5-plus-jack combinations and four 5-5-5 combinations), 12 points from pairing up the four 5s every possible way, and 1 point for nobs, since the jack matches the starter's suit.
How do you count a flush in Cribbage?
A regular hand scores a 4-point flush if all 4 of your hand cards share one suit, and 5 points if the starter card happens to match that suit too. A crib flush works differently: it only counts at all if every one of the 5 cards, your discards plus the starter, share the same suit. A crib with 4 matching cards and a non-matching starter scores 0 for flush, unlike a regular hand in the same situation.
Where can I find the full Cribbage rules?
The complete rules, covering the deal, the crib, the pegging phase, and this same counting table in context, are on the main Cribbage rules guide, linked above.