Practical guide 3 min read
How to make printable bingo cards
Numbers or words, how many words a card needs, printing four to a page, and checking any card by its number with a set code.
What you need
Decide two things before you start: what goes in the squares, and how many players you'll have.
- Numbers make classic 75-ball cards. Every card follows the same layout: B is 1 to 15, I is 16 to 30, N is 31 to 45, G is 46 to 60 and O is 61 to 75, with a free space in the middle.
- Words make cards from any list: holiday words, a spelling list, gifts people bring to a shower, phrases you hear in every meeting.
You need one card per player, plus a few spares for late arrivals.
How many words you need
A card needs one word per square, and no word appears twice on the same card.
| Grid | With a free space | Without |
|---|---|---|
| 3 × 3 | 8 words | 9 words |
| 4 × 4 | 16 words (no middle square) | 16 words |
| 5 × 5 | 24 words | 25 words |
That's the minimum. With exactly 24 words on a 5×5 card, every card holds the same words in a different order, so everyone fills up at about the same pace and you get lots of Bingos at once. Aim for 35 to 45 words. Then each card shows a different selection and games spread out.
With the 45-word Christmas list and 28 cards, the first Bingo usually comes after 11 to 15 calls. That's long enough to build some suspense and short enough to play several rounds.
Make the cards
- Open the Bingo Card Generator.
- Choose Numbers 1–75 or Words. For words, type one per line or pick a ready-made list (Christmas, Holiday, Thanksgiving, baby shower, bridal shower, sight words, road trip, meeting or New Year's Eve) and change anything you like.
- Pick the grid size and whether to keep the free space.
- Set the number of cards (up to 100) and a title, like "Smith Family Bingo".
- Choose one, two or four cards to a page, Letter or A4 paper, and an ink colour. Black saves colour ink.
The preview shows the first page exactly as it will print.
Print or save a PDF
Press Print cards. In the print window, pick your printer, or choose Save as PDF to email the cards or print them somewhere else. Set the scale to 100% or "Actual size" so the cards aren't shrunk.
Four to a page is the most paper-friendly: 28 cards fit on 7 sheets. Leave Add a caller's checklist page on to get one extra page listing every number or word with a box to tick as it's called.
Every card is different, and checkable
Each set has a set code, printed at the bottom of every card next to the card's number. The code decides how the squares are shuffled, and no two cards in a set are the same.
The code also lets you check a winner without seeing their card. Press Call this set and the cards open in our bingo game as the host. When someone shouts Bingo, type their card number under Check a card. It rebuilds that card from the set code and shows which squares have been called and whether the line is real.
If you want the same cards again next year, press Copy link to this set and keep the link. Shuffle again makes a fresh set with a new code.
Tips
- Read the list before printing. It's easy to leave in a word that only half the room will understand.
- Short words read best. Phrases of one to three words fit the squares in large type. Long phrases are shrunk to fit, so they're harder to read from across a table.
- Dabbers, chips or pens. Bingo dabbers are fun but bleed through thin paper. For a classroom, coloured counters let you reuse the cards.