Pickleball bracket generator
Updated 30 October 2026
A pickleball bracket generator for single elimination (knockout) and double elimination. Enter the teams and the app seeds them, spreads the byes so no team plays a bye-holder twice, and builds each round as soon as the last one is decided. Here is how the brackets work.
Bracket size, byes and games
| Teams | Bracket | Byes | Rounds (knockout) | Games (knockout) | Games (double elim) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 or 7 |
| 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 or 9 |
| 6 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 or 11 |
| 7 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 12 or 13 |
| 8 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 14 or 15 |
| 10 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 18 or 19 |
| 12 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 22 or 23 |
| 16 | 16 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 30 or 31 |
| 20 | 32 | 12 | 5 | 19 | 38 or 39 |
| 24 | 32 | 8 | 5 | 23 | 46 or 47 |
| 32 | 32 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 62 or 63 |
A bracket has to be a power of two (4, 8, 16, 32), so the gap is filled with byes in round 1. Byes go to the top seeds. A knockout always has one game fewer than the number of teams; a double elimination has twice that, plus one more if the bracket reset is needed.
Knockout or double elimination?
Knockout is fastest: lose once and you are out. It suits a final day or a short evening, but half the field plays only one game. Double elimination gives every team at least two games: a first loss drops a team into the losers' bracket, and only a second loss ends their day. The losers' bracket winner meets the winners' bracket winner in the grand final, and if the losers' side wins that, a deciding bracket reset is played, because only then has the other team lost twice. Read the double elimination guide for the full flow.
When a bracket is the wrong choice
If everyone should play the same number of games, use a round robin (small fields) or a Swiss (big fields). Many clubs run a round robin first and seed a bracket from it.
Questions
How many games are in a double elimination bracket?
Twice the number of teams minus 2, or minus 1 if the grand final needs a bracket reset. 8 teams play 14 or 15 games.
Who gets the byes?
The top seeds. Byes fill the bracket up to the next power of two, so 6 teams in an 8 bracket means 2 byes.
What is a bracket reset?
In double elimination, if the losers' bracket winner beats the unbeaten team in the grand final, both have one loss, so one more game decides it.
Run a bracket in PicklePairings
Choose Knockout or Double elimination and enter the teams. Rounds are built as soon as the last one is decided, including the bracket reset.
Open PicklePairings