Adding up fifteens, pairs, runs and a flush in your head — fast enough to keep a real game moving — is the single hardest part of learning cribbage, and even experienced players miss points under pressure. This free cribbage calculator scores any hand for you the instant you enter the cards, shows exactly which cards earned every point, and doubles as a two-player score counter that pegs a full game to 121 or 61 with automatic skunk detection.
What is a cribbage calculator?
A cribbage calculator is a tool that scores a cribbage hand for you: enter the four cards you're holding plus the starter (cut) card, and it adds up every fifteen, pair, run, flush and nobs the combination is worth, the same way an experienced player would count it at the table. It removes the two things that make hand-counting error-prone — spotting every valid fifteen combination among five cards, and catching runs that repeat because of a duplicate rank — and gives you a single, reliable total.
This tool is actually two calculators in one, matching its name: a Hand Calculator for scoring individual hands, and a Score Counter for tracking a running game total between two players, the way a physical cribbage board tracks points with pegs. Both live in their own tab so you can use either one on its own, or both together during a real game.
How to use the cribbage hand calculator
The Hand Calculator tab is the default view when the page loads. Scoring a hand takes a few taps:
- Fill your 4 hand cards. Tap any of the four card slots under "Your 4 Cards" to open the picker, then choose the rank and suit.
- Set the starter card. Tap the slot under "Starter Card (the cut card)" and pick the card that was cut.
- Read the score. As soon as all five cards are set, the total hand score appears, calculated from your 4 cards plus the starter — exactly how a hand is scored at the table.
- Check the breakdown. Every fifteen, pair, run and flush found is listed as its own line with its point value, plus His Nobs when it applies.
- Tap a line to see it on the cards. Tapping, clicking or hovering any breakdown line highlights exactly which cards produced those points — useful for checking your own counting, or explaining a score to someone learning.
Press Clear all cards at any time to empty all five slots and start a fresh hand.
Reading the hand-vs-crib score, and His Heels
Two notes can appear under the main total, and both matter for real scoring:
- Hand vs. crib flush difference. A flush scores differently depending on whether the four cards are your hand or the crib: your hand only needs its own 4 cards to match suit (worth 4, plus 1 more if the starter matches too), while a crib needs all 5 cards — including the starter — to match, or it scores 0. If your entered cards would score differently as a crib, the calculator shows that alternate total in its own note so you don't have to recalculate by hand.
- His Heels. If the starter card itself turns out to be a Jack, the dealer scores 2 points immediately at the cut — before anyone's hand is even counted. The calculator flags this separately from the hand/crib total above it, since it's a one-time bonus tied to the cut, not part of the hand's own score.
If none of a hand's fifteens, pairs, runs, flush or nobs apply, the result area says the hand scores zero — cribbage players call this a "nineteen" hand, a running joke in the game since 19 is a score no combination of cards can actually produce.
How the Score Counter tracks a game
Switch to the Score Counter tab to track points across a full game rather than one hand at a time. Each of the two players gets an editable name (up to 16 characters), a large score readout, and a peg-track bar that fills as their score climbs toward the target — a digital version of the holes and pegs on a physical cribbage board.
To add points, tap one of the preset buttons (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 — the common cribbage scoring amounts) or type any number up to 29 into the "Other #" field and press Add or Enter. Made a mistake? Undo last removes only that player's most recent addition, one step at a time. New Game resets both scores to zero and clears the undo history for a fresh game, and the Play to selector switches the target between a standard 121-point game and a short 61-point game.
When a player reaches the target, a win banner announces the winner and every scoring button locks so the finished game can't be added to by accident. If the losing player didn't get far enough, the banner also flags a skunk: for a 121-point game, the loser is skunked below 91 points and double-skunked below 61; for a 61-point short game, the thresholds are 46 and 31. Both players' names, scores and the game length you've chosen are saved automatically in this browser, so closing the tab mid-game doesn't lose your place.
Quick cribbage scoring cheat sheet
The How It's Scored tab keeps this reference inside the tool itself, so you don't need a separate printed card at the table:
| Combination | Points | How it's counted |
|---|---|---|
| Fifteen | 2 each | Any 2, 3, 4 or 5 cards adding to 15 (face cards count as 10, Ace as 1) |
| Pair | 2 each | Two cards of the same rank; three of a kind is 3 pairs (6 pts), four of a kind is 6 pairs (12 pts) |
| Run | 1 per card | 3+ consecutive ranks in any suit; a duplicate rank inside the run multiplies the points |
| Flush | 4 or 5 | 4 in your hand match suit (5 if the starter matches too); a crib needs all 5 to match |
| His Nobs | 1 | A Jack in your hand matching the starter's suit |
| His Heels | 2 | The starter card itself is a Jack — scored by the dealer at the cut |
What can you use a cribbage calculator for?
A tool built for scoring and tracking cribbage covers a few real, recurring needs:
- Learning how cribbage scoring works — enter a few practice hands and use the tap-to-highlight breakdown to see exactly why a hand scored what it did, rather than just reading a rules page
- Settling a disputed hand at the table — when two players count the same hand differently, entering the actual cards gives a single, verifiable answer
- Tracking a full game's score — the Score Counter tab replaces a physical peg board when you don't have one on hand, or want a shared visual on a phone or laptop screen
- Teaching a new player — walking through a hand's fifteens, pairs and runs one breakdown line at a time is a faster way to explain scoring than a wall of rules text
- Double-checking a big hand — high-value hands with several overlapping fifteens and a run are exactly where hand-counting mistakes happen most; the calculator never miscounts
Cribbage calculator vs. a printed cheat sheet
A printed cribbage scoring chart or cheat sheet is a good memory aid — it reminds you that fifteens are worth 2 and runs are worth 1 per card — but it can't do the actual counting for you. You still have to spot every valid fifteen combination among five cards yourself, work out whether a run repeats because of a duplicate rank, and check whether a flush qualifies as a hand or a crib. Those are exactly the steps where hand-counting mistakes creep in, chart in hand or not.
This calculator keeps the same reference material — the How It's Scored tab is effectively that cheat sheet, always one tap away — but adds the part a static chart can't: it actually finds every fifteen, pair and run in your specific five cards and totals them correctly every time, then shows you which cards produced each score so you can verify it yourself instead of just trusting a number.
Your hand and score stay on your device
Nothing you enter here is uploaded anywhere. The cards you pick in the Hand Calculator exist only in the page while you're using it — reload the page and the slots are empty again, ready for a new hand. The Score Counter is the one part of this tool that persists: both players' names, their current scores and your chosen game length (121 or 61) are saved automatically in your browser's local storage, so a game in progress survives closing the tab, and New Game is there whenever you want to wipe it and start over.
Need to work out a different kind of running total? The Tally Counter gives you up to 15 named tallies with a running total and goal — handy for anything else you're keeping score of.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cribbage calculator?
A cribbage calculator works out the score of a cribbage hand for you — fifteens, pairs, runs, flush and nobs — once you enter the four cards in your hand and the starter (cut) card. Instead of adding the combinations up in your head, you pick the cards and the total appears instantly, with a breakdown of exactly which cards earned which points.
How do I use the cribbage hand calculator?
Tap each of the four card slots under "Your 4 Cards" and pick its rank and suit, then do the same for the starter card. The score appears as soon as all five cards are set, with a line for every fifteen, pair, run and flush found, plus nobs if it applies. Tap or hover any line in the breakdown to see exactly which cards earned those points highlighted on the cards themselves.
What's the difference between "nobs" and "knobs" in cribbage?
Nothing — they're the same thing, just two common spellings of the same term. His Nobs (or His Knobs) is the one point scored when the Jack in your hand matches the suit of the starter card. This calculator scores it as "His Nobs" whenever that Jack-and-starter-suit match occurs.
What is muggins in cribbage?
Muggins is an optional house rule where, if a player miscounts their hand and misses points they were entitled to, their opponent can claim those missed points for themselves. It isn't part of standard scoring and this calculator doesn't apply it automatically — it always shows the full, correct score for the cards you've entered, which is exactly what you'd need to check a hand for a muggins claim in the first place.
Who counts first in cribbage?
The player to the dealer's left counts and pegs their hand first, then the dealer's opponent(s) in turn, and the dealer counts their own hand and the crib last. Counting the crib last is what gives the dealer a small scoring advantage each round, which is why the dealer position rotates after every hand.
Does this track a full cribbage game, or just score one hand?
Both — they're separate tabs in the same tool. The Hand Calculator scores one hand at a time from the cards you pick. The Score Counter tab is a separate two-player running scoreboard with a peg-track display, tap-to-add point buttons, a custom-points field, per-player undo and automatic skunk detection, for tracking an entire game to 121 or a short game to 61.
What's the highest possible score for a cribbage hand?
29 points, from a famously specific combination: three 5s plus a Jack in hand, with the fourth 5 as the starter card whose suit matches the Jack's. That gives four fifteens made from pairs of 5s plus the Jack (8), one fifteen from all three 5s (2), the four 5s as six pairs (12), and 1 for nobs, for a total of 29 — the maximum any single hand can score. Enter that combination into the calculator to see the full breakdown build up to it.
Does this cribbage calculator save my scores if I close the browser?
Yes, for the Score Counter — both players' scores, names and game length are saved automatically in your browser and are still there if you close the tab and come back. The Hand Calculator doesn't save the cards you've entered between visits; use "Clear all cards" any time to start a fresh hand.