Bowling Score Calculator
Type a ten-pin game the way a score sheet marks it, X for a strike and / for a spare, and get the score frame by frame under the USBC rules.
Result
Score: 168 points
A strike or spare is not added to the score until the balls that count as its bonus have been rolled.
- Running total by frame
- 20, 37, 46, 66, 96, 118, 133, 138, 155, 168
- Frames scored
- 10
- Highest score still possible
- 168
- Strikes
- 4
- Spares
- 4
https://calcgallery.com/sports/bowling-score-calculator/
Results are exact arithmetic on the numbers you enter, following the rule or formula the page names. Official records are kept by the league, federation or association concerned, and their figures and rulings control. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Bowling Score Calculator
- Type each ball as a score sheet marks it, X for a strike, / for a spare, - for a miss and F for a foul, otherwise the number of pins.
- Spaces between frames are optional, so X 9/ 81 and X9/81 are the same game. A game in progress is fine.
- Read the score, the running total for each frame and the highest score the game can still reach.
Scoring a game
USBC rule 2 defines the ten-pin game: ten frames, two balls a frame unless the first is a strike, and up to three in the tenth. Each frame’s count is:
strike 10 + the next two ballsspare 10 + the next ballopen pins knocked down by both ballsThe score is the sum of the frames. Because strikes and spares borrow from balls not yet rolled, a frame’s total can only be written once those balls are known. The page does the same, so a game in progress shows the score of its settled frames and says how many there are.
The highest score still possible
The page also works out the best final score from where the game stands, by assuming a strike on every remaining ball, or a spare where a strike is impossible. After X 9/ 81, three frames that total 47, the best possible finish is seven more frames of strikes, which reaches 257.
Writing the marks
The notation follows the rule book’s own marks: an X for a strike, a slash for a spare and a dash for a ball that knocks down nothing. A split is usually circled on a sheet, but it scores the same as any other first ball, so the page has no mark for it. Two numbers that clear the rack, such as 5 then 5, are read as a spare. Whether a ball is a strike or a spare depends on which ball it is, not on how many pins were standing: after a gutter ball or a foul all ten pins are still up, but knocking them down with the next ball is a spare. The same holds in the tenth frame, so a strike, a miss and then all ten is X-/.
With your numbers
- Frame 1 (X): 0 + 20 = 20
- Frame 2 (7 /): 20 + 17 = 37
- Frame 3 (7 2): 37 + 9 = 46
- Frame 4 (9 /): 46 + 20 = 66
- Frame 5 (X): 66 + 30 = 96
- Frame 6 (X): 96 + 22 = 118
- Frame 7 (X): 118 + 15 = 133
- Frame 8 (2 3): 133 + 5 = 138
- Frame 9 (6 /): 138 + 17 = 155
- Frame 10 (7 / 3): 155 + 13 = 168
- Score = 168
Quick reference
A strike or spare is not added to the score until the balls that count as its bonus have been rolled.
| Example | Score |
|---|---|
| X 7/ 72 9/ X X X 23 6/ 7/3 | 168 |
| Twelve strikes, a perfect game | 300 |
| A spare in every frame, 9 then 1 | 190 |
| Strike and spare alternating, the Dutch 200 | 200 |
| Open frames with a foul | 137 |
| Three frames in: X 9/ 81 | 47 |
| Twenty misses | 0 |
Common questions about the Bowling Score Calculator
- How is a strike scored?
- A strike is worth 10 plus the pins knocked down by the next two balls, whatever frames they fall in. Two strikes in a row followed by a 9 make the first frame 29. That is why a strike frame has no total on the sheet until two more balls have been rolled.
- How is a spare scored?
- A spare is worth 10 plus the pins knocked down by the next ball. A 9 then a 1 followed by an 8 makes the frame 18. A frame of 9 then 0 is an open frame and is worth 9.
- How does the tenth frame work?
- A strike or spare in the tenth frame earns the extra balls needed to score it, so the frame can have three balls. Twelve strikes in a row, including two fill balls, make a perfect 300. An open tenth frame ends the game after two balls.
- What does a foul do to the score?
- Under USBC rule 5 the delivery counts but no pins are credited for it. Type F for that ball; it scores 0 and uses up the delivery, so a foul on the first ball still leaves the second ball to throw at a full rack. Knocking all ten down with that second ball is a spare, not a strike, so type F/.
- Why does the page refuse my game?
- The sequence has something no game can have, such as more than 10 pins in a frame, a spare on the first ball, a strike on the second ball of a frame, or more balls than a game allows. The note under the result says which. A strike is only ever the first ball at a full rack, so ten pins after a miss or a foul is written -/ or F/, not -X.