Ping Pong Rules — Serving, Scoring and Doubles

Everyone can play ping pong; the arguments start at the serve. This page gives the game in ten lines, then the serve, the scoring and the doubles rules the way the ITTF actually writes them, and shows where the official rules, the old 21-point game and the basement part company.

Ping pong in ten lines

Games to 11, win by 2. Best of five or seven games makes a match.
Serve from an open palm. Toss the ball at least 6 inches straight up from behind the end line and hit it on the way down; it must bounce on your side, then theirs.
Serve changes every two points, and every point once the score is 10–10.
A net serve that lands in is a let. Replay it. A net serve that misses is the receiver’s point.
Let it bounce once, then return it over or around the net so it lands on their side. No volleys.
The edge is in, the side is out. A ball clipping the top edge counts; one hitting the vertical side does not.
You lose the point if it bounces twice, you hit it twice, you volley it, you touch the table with your free hand, or you touch the net.
Doubles serve diagonally from your right half to their right half, and partners must alternate hits.
Change ends after each game, and at 5 points in the deciding game.
Deuce has no cap. From 10–10 play on, alternating serve, until someone leads by two.

Official rules, the 21-point game and the basement

Same table, three rulebooks. Most disagreements at a party come from two people who learned different columns.

Rulebook	Game	Serve changes	The serve	Net serve	Doubles	Volleys
ITTF / USATT (official since 2001)	11 points, win by 2; matches best of 5 or 7	Alternates every 2 points (every point from 10–10)	Ball rests on an open palm behind the end line, tossed at least 16 cm (6 in) near-vertically, struck on the way down; bounce on your side, then theirs	Replayed, no limit	Serve from your right half to their right half; partners must alternate hits	Hitting the ball before it bounces on your side loses the point (unless it was going to miss the table)
The 21-point game (official before 2001)	21 points, win by 2; best of 3 or 5	Alternates every 5 points	Same open-palm toss (introduced earlier); many recreational players skipped it	Replayed	Same diagonal serve and alternating hits	Loses the point
Typical basement / bar rules	Usually 11 or 21; win by 2 almost always kept	Every 2 or every 5, whichever the house learned	Serve from the hand, anywhere behind the table; hidden serves common	Often replayed only a fixed number of times, or counts	Diagonal serve often kept; alternating hits often dropped	Argued about -- agree before play

The serve, properly

The serve is the only shot with rules about how you hit it, and all of them exist to stop the server hiding spin. The ball starts resting on the open palm of your free hand, above the level of the table and behind your end line, where the receiver can see it. You throw it up at least 16 cm — about 6 inches — nearly vertically, without spinning it, and strike it as it falls. It must bounce first on your own half and then on the receiver’s; in doubles, on the right half of each. Your free arm has to come out of the way the moment the ball is thrown so nothing is between the ball and the receiver. Break any of those and the umpire calls a fault, which is simply the receiver’s point; at home, agree beforehand whether you are playing the toss rule, because it is the single biggest gap between club rules and kitchen rules.

Scoring, serve order and ends

Every rally scores a point for someone — there is no serving-to-score as in old volleyball. Games are to 11, win by two, and the serve passes across every two points so that at 10–10 it is passing every point. Ends change after each game and when the first player reaches 5 in the last game, so neither player spends the decider looking into the light. Matches are best of five (first to three games) in most leagues and best of seven in major events. The expedite system — a shot clock that comes in after ten minutes if a game is still going and fewer than 18 points have been played — is the one rule you will never need at home.

Doubles

Doubles adds two rules and a rhythm. The serve must go diagonally, right half to right half, which is the entire purpose of the centre line. After the serve the partners on each side must alternate strokes — A serves, X returns, B plays the third ball, Y the fourth — and a side that lets the same player hit twice in a row loses the point. The serving order rotates so that each player serves two points in turn and each pair of players faces each other for one game; after every game the receiving side chooses who receives first.

The table itself

Ping pong table dimensions, sizes and room needed

The 9 × 5 ft table measured, midsize and mini tables, the room formula, a score sheet and a round-robin sheet.

Open

Keeping score?

Printable ping pong score sheet (PDF)

Three matches to a page, seven games each, with the serve-change rule printed along the bottom.

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What is a winning score in ping pong?

Eleven points, and you must win by two — so a game can run 12–10, 15–13 and beyond. Matches are the best of five or seven games (first to three or four). Before 2001 games went to 21, which is why so many families still play that way; both are fine at home, but 11 is what every club, league and the Olympics use.

What are the serving rules in ping pong?

Hold the ball on an open, flat palm above the table and behind your end line, toss it at least 6 inches (16 cm) nearly straight up, and hit it on the way down so it bounces once on your side and then on your opponent's. The ball must be visible to the receiver the whole time — no hiding it behind your body or free arm. In singles you may serve to anywhere on the table; in doubles the serve goes from your right half to the receiver's right half.

How often does the serve change?

Every two points, regardless of who won them. Once the score reaches 10–10 (deuce) the serve changes every point until someone leads by two. In the old 21-point game the serve changed every five points. Players also swap ends after each game, and in the deciding game when the first player reaches 5.

What happens if the serve hits the net?

If it touches the net and still lands legally on the receiver's side it is a let and is replayed, as many times as it happens; there is no limit in the official rules. If it touches the net and lands anywhere else, the server loses the point. A let is the only case in which a serve is replayed — a fault serve is simply the receiver's point.

What are the doubles rules?

The serve must go diagonally from the server's right half-court to the receiver's right half-court, which is what the centre line is for. After the serve, partners must alternate hits — if the same player strikes the ball twice in a row their side loses the point. Serve changes every two points and rotates through all four players in a fixed order; after each game the receiving pair chooses who receives first.

Can you hit the ball before it bounces?

No — a volley loses the point. The ball must bounce once on your side before you return it, and it must be your opponent's shot that sends it there. The exception is a ball that has already passed the end line or side line without touching your side: if it was never going to land, you may catch or hit it and win the point.

What counts as in, and what is a point?

A ball that touches the top edge of the table is in; one that hits the side of the table is out. You lose the point if you fail to make a legal serve or return, let the ball bounce twice, volley it, hit it twice, touch the table with your free hand, move the table, or touch the net or its posts during a rally. Your opponent scores whenever you do any of those.

Where do these rules come from?

The International Table Tennis Federation's Laws of Table Tennis, which USA Table Tennis and every national body adopt unchanged, and which the Olympics use. The 21-point column on this page is the version of those laws in force until September 2001; the basement column is what most people actually play.

Based on the ITTF Laws of Table Tennis as adopted by USA Table Tennis. Updated through September 2026.