NS&I has announced the jackpot winners of April’s Premium Bonds prize draw, with the two lucky savers scooping £1 million each.
More than £376 million was distributed among almost six million Premium Bonds holders this morning, with payouts ranging from £25 to £1 million.
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Both of these lucky winners will have been paid a visit by ‘Agent Million’ – an elusive NS&I employee who travels across the country to inform jackpot winners of their newfound wealth.
How many people won in the April 2026 Premium Bonds prize draw?
Just under six million people won between £25 and £1 million in April’s prize draw, with the vast majority bagging the lowest £25 prize.
In total, 5,951,866 prizes were distributed this month, worth a collective £376,455,425. There were 130,705,305,671 bonds eligible for the draw.
A breakdown of the prizes by their value can be found below:
|
Value of prize |
Number of prizes |
|---|---|
|
£1,000,000 |
2 |
|
£100,000 |
71 |
|
£50,000 |
143 |
|
£25,000 |
285 |
|
£10,000 |
714 |
|
£5,000 |
1,426 |
|
£1,000 |
15,058 |
|
£500 |
45,174 |
|
£100 |
1,539,406 |
|
£50 |
1,539,406 |
|
£25 |
2,810,181 |
|
Total value of prizes £376,455,425 |
Total number of prizes 5,951,866 |
Source: NS&I
April marked the first prize draw since NS&I’s new, lower, odds of winning came into effect. The odds of winning stand at 23,000 to one for each £1 held in the savings vehicle. It had previously been 22,000 to one.
It is also the first with the new, lower prize fund rate of 3.3%. NS&I says this metric represents the rate of return for a bondholder with “average luck”. The rate had previously been 3.6%.
How to check if you won in April’s prize draw
The £1 million jackpot winners in each month’s draw are told they won by receiving a visit from Agent Million.
All other winners can check if they won other prizes ranging from £25 to £100,000 the day after the first working day of each month via the Premium Bonds prize checker app or by visiting the NS&I website.
Make sure you’ve got your Bond or NS&I number to hand so you can access your account.
As Premium Bonds do not expire, it may be worth checking if you have any prizes waiting for you even if you bought them years ago.
NS&I says over 99% of prizes have been paid to winners since draws began in 1957, but there are still millions of unclaimed Premium Bonds prizes.
We look at the alternatives to Premium Bonds in a separate piece.
Are Premium Bonds right for you?
Premium Bonds are one of the UK’s most popular savings vehicles, but some question whether they are right for everyone.
Premium Bonds do not earn an interest rate. Instead, there is the possibility that you could win a prize in the monthly draw – although there are no guarantees.
It means that if you do not win, your money stays static.
In 2025, first-time Premium Bonds winners had money invested in them for over three years on average before seeing any return, new data obtained by Quilter found.
Furthermore, as the monthly prize draws give you one entry for each £1 you have saved in Premium Bonds, those with more money in them are more likely to win.
The average holding for savers who won at least one prize in any of 2025’s 12 Premium Bonds prize draws was £39,500, Quilter found.
Meanwhile, separate data from AJ Bell found that around two thirds of all Premium Bonds holders have never won a single prize.
That is not to say that there are no merits to Premium Bonds. Prizes are all tax-free, meaning that what you win is what you get.
This makes keeping money in Premium Bonds particularly useful for those who have already used up their annual £20,000 ISA allowance but still want to save some cash tax-free.