How to make bingo cards: 5 ways, compared

You have a party or a class coming up, and you need a card for every player, not just one card. Here's how to make a bingo card five ways, and which one fits your group.

Quick answer: A bingo card is a 5×5, 4×4 or 3×3 grid of numbers, words or pictures, with a free space in the center on odd grids. For one or two cards, draw them by hand or insert a table in Word or Google Docs. For a whole group, shuffle your list in a spreadsheet or use a generator. Every player needs a different card, and shuffled cards can still share a full winning line.

BingoCard Lab makes one of the tools in this guide. Facts about other tools were checked on Oct. 11, 2026, 2026.

What every bingo card needs

A bingo card is a grid of items, one card per player, and every card in the game is different. Whatever method you pick, each card has the same four parts:

• A grid: 5×5, 4×4 or 3×3 squares.
• Items: numbers, words or pictures, one per square.
• A free space: the center square on odd grids, counted as already marked.
• A title: the occasion, so cards from two games don't get mixed up.

The grid size sets how many items each card holds. A 5×5 card needs 24 items with a free space (25 without), a 4×4 card needs 16, and a 3×3 card needs 8 (9 without).

Is bingo 4×4 or 5×5?

Both work. The standard bingo card is 5×5: 25 squares in 5 columns and 5 rows, usually with a free space in the center counted as filled. A 4×4 card has no center square, so it has no free space.

The two sizes play at a similar pace. In our simulation with 20 players, a 5×5 game took a median of 13 calls to the first bingo, and a 4×4 game took 11. Our simulation: 10,000 decks per setup, 100 games each, run on our card engine in October 2026, using 40-item lists, all-different cards and a free space on 5×5. At least 8 in 10 games ended between call 9 and 16 on 5×5, and between call 8 and 15 on 4×4. The figures describe word or picture bingo with 40 items, not 1–75 number bingo.

Grid	Items per card	Free space
3×3	8 (or 9 without free space)	Optional, in the center
4×4	16	None
5×5	24 (or 25 without free space)	Optional, in the center

We suggest 3×3 for young children and 5×5 for adults and older kids. Our Halloween picture bingo for kids is one example of a theme designed for younger players.

Number cards: the 1–75 layout

Classic number bingo uses the numbers 1 to 75, split by column under the letters B, I, N, G, O. By convention, the ranges are:

• B: 1–15
• I: 16–30
• N: 31–45
• G: 46–60
• O: 61–75

Each column holds 5 numbers from its range, except the N column, which holds only 4 because the free space sits in the middle. To skip the layout work, print random 1–75 cards.

How to play bingo using words or pictures

Replace the numbers with words or pictures from your theme. The caller reads the items in random order, players mark any matching square, and the first to complete a row, column or diagonal shouts bingo. Our guide on how to play bingo covers the full rules.

Words suit readers, while pictures suit children who can't read yet. For a class, use this week's vocabulary, as in this classroom vocabulary bingo.

Which method should you use?

Pick by how many cards you need and how much shuffling you want to do yourself:

• 1 to 3 cards: draw them by hand, or make a table in Word or Google Docs.
• A whole group, free, and you like formulas: shuffle your list in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Design comes first: use Canva.
• A whole group, with the item list written for you: use a bingo card generator.

Method	Best for	Different cards for everyone	Account	Main catch
By hand	Crafts, a few cards	You shuffle by hand	No	Slow for many cards
Word or Google Docs	One nice-looking card	No built-in shuffle	Docs needs a Google account	Each extra card is manual
Excel or Google Sheets	Many cards, free	Formula shuffle	Sheets needs a Google account	Layout by hand; shared lines possible
Canva	Design-first hosts	Through a third-party app: up to 25 free cards, per its listing	Yes, before the editor opens	Account and app limit
Generator	A group, fast	Yes	BingoCard Lab: no account	Depends on the tool; BingoCard Lab's illustrated PDF is paid

How to make a bingo card by hand

Draw a 5×5 grid on cardstock, write one item per square, and leave the center as a free space. All you need is cardstock or heavy paper, a ruler and a marker, or a printed blank bingo card to fill in.

1. Rule a grid of 5 rows and 5 columns, with squares big enough to mark.
2. Write the title at the top, or B I N G O above the columns.
3. Fill in the items in a different order on each card.
4. Write each item on a slip of paper for the caller.
5. Hand out coins, chips or crayons for marking the squares.

To set the order on each card, draw the slips from a bowl and copy them down as they come out. Be aware that randomly shuffled cards can still share a winning line, as explained further down.

By hand is the better choice when you need one to a few cards, or when children want to draw their own. Making many different cards this way is slow, and errors are easy to make.

How to make a bingo card in Word or Google Docs

Insert a 5×5 table, type one item per cell, and put FREE in the center, knowing that both apps leave the shuffling to you.

Word

Microsoft's steps for inserting a table give two ways:

• Select Insert > Table, then move the cursor over the grid until you highlight 5 columns and 5 rows.
• Or select Insert > Table > Insert Table and enter 5 columns and 5 rows. In Word for the web, this option is called Choose row and column.

Then type one item per cell, with FREE in the middle, and add a B I N G O row above for a header. Center the text, and make the rows tall enough that the squares look square.

Google Docs

Google's help page on tables covers the same steps:

1. Click Insert > Table and choose 5 rows and 5 columns. Tables can be as large as 20 × 20 cells.
2. To set exact sizes, go to Format > Table > Table options and enter the row height and column width.
3. To make all rows the same size, right-click the table and choose Distribute rows.
4. Select the center cell and use the background color tool in the toolbar to shade the free space.

The limit of Word and Docs

Neither app shuffles squares for you, so a second card means copying the table and rearranging the items by hand. For a class or a party, shuffle the list in a spreadsheet first.

Word or Docs is the better choice when you want one good-looking card, or a file you can keep editing. For a ready grid you type into and print, use the bingo card template.

How to shuffle bingo cards in Excel or Google Sheets

Put your items in one column, shuffle them with a formula, and copy the first 24 onto a card. Here's the method with 40 items:

1. Type your items in cells A2 to A41, one per cell.
2. In another cell, enter the shuffle formula for your app (below).
3. Copy the first 24 results and paste them as values only, so they stop changing.
4. Lay them out in your card table, with the free space in the middle.
5. Recalculate to get a new order, and repeat for each card.

In Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel 2024 or Excel 2021, use SORTBY with RANDARRAY and COUNTA. That's the combination Microsoft documents to randomize a list.

In Google Sheets, use SORT with Google's RANDARRAY and ROWS, so the shuffle always matches the length of your list.

Excel:          =SORTBY(A2:A41,RANDARRAY(COUNTA(A2:A41)))
Google Sheets:  =SORT(A2:A41,RANDARRAY(ROWS(A2:A41),1),TRUE)

Fill every cell from A2 to A41, with no blanks, or the Excel formula returns an error.

Older Excel versions don't have SORTBY or RANDARRAY, so put =RAND() next to each item instead, then sort the list by that column. The RAND function returns a new number each time the sheet calculates, so sort again for each new card.

That's also why step 3 matters: every formula here reshuffles whenever the sheet recalculates, so paste values before you move on.

A spreadsheet is the better choice if you like formulas and want many cards for free. The catch is that laying out each card is still manual, and a random shuffle won't stop two cards from sharing a line.

Can Canva create bingo cards?

Yes: Canva offers bingo card designs, and a third-party app in its Apps Marketplace generates several different cards at once. The Bingo Cards app by Ideonate turns a list of words into cards with 2×2 to 5×5 grids. Its listing says it makes "as many as 25 different cards for free" (as of October 2026).

As of October 2026, Canva also requires you to sign up before the editor opens. Canva is the better choice if the look of your cards matters most, and you're happy to design them yourself.

Why shuffled cards can share a winning line

Two shuffled cards can hold the same 5 items in one row, column or diagonal, and both players then shout bingo simultaneously when it's called.

To measure how often this happens, we ran a computer simulation in October 2026. It shuffled 20,000 decks of 30 cards, each card drawn at random from the same 24 items.

What we found: In 74% of the simulated decks, at least two cards shared a winning line. In 38%, it happened at least twice.

That's what pure random shuffling does, whether you use a bowl, a spreadsheet or a tool. The cards all look different, but a few of them contain the same line.

We built the BingoCard Lab card engine to reject any card that shares a full line with another card in the deck. As a result, each winning line in a deck appears on one card only.

One thing it can't do is stop two players from finishing different lines on the same call, which can happen in any bingo game. Plan a tiebreaker, or a second prize, just in case.

Use a bingo card generator

A generator shuffles your items into a deck of different cards and lays them out in a PDF, so it does both jobs.

Many free generators exist. In our Oct. 11, 2026 check of 9 other tools, free decks stopped at 24 to 30 cards on four of them, and some required an account first.

Here's what BingoCard Lab does:

• You describe your game in one sentence, and AI writes up to 30 items for it. A chatbot can also write a good list, but turning it into a deck of different, print-ready cards is a separate step.
• You rename, add or remove items one by one, up to 60.
• You pick a 3×3, 4×4 or 5×5 grid, and print 1 to 100 cards.
• You choose 1, 2 or 4 cards per page, on Letter or A4.
• A call sheet with every item is the last page of the PDF.
• No two cards in a deck share a full winning line.

Words-only cards are free and unlimited, with no account needed. Free PDFs carry a small BingoCard Lab logo. Your first illustrated set is free to make and preview. Its PDF needs an Event pass or Pro: $4.99 for one set, or $9.99 a month or $59 a year.

AI writes the list and draws the pictures. The shuffle and the shared-line check are plain code, so they behave the same way every time.

To try it, describe your game in one sentence and review the item list it generates.

Or start from a finished theme:

When another method is better

BingoCard Lab exports a PDF only, so use Word, Docs or a spreadsheet if you need a file you can edit. Use another tool for online play, more than 100 cards, 1–90 bingo, or pasting in your own list. And if you want to edit one card by hand, Word or Docs gives you that control.

Print and host your game

You need one different card per player, something to mark squares, a call sheet, and an optional prize. Here's the checklist:

• Cards: one per player, all different, plus a few spares.
• Markers: chips, coins, dried beans or crayons.
• A call sheet: a list of every item, or the squares cut out and drawn from a bowl.
• A pen: to check off each item as you call it.
• Prizes: optional.

Print on cardstock for sturdier cards, on Letter or A4. For reusable cards, slip each one into a sheet protector and hand out dry-erase markers.

Pick a theme that fits the crowd: family Christmas bingo for the holidays, or a baby shower theme for a shower. If players pay to play or can win money, check your local regulations first.

Bingo card questions, answered

What about human bingo? Each square describes a person instead of a word, and players collect names. Our human bingo page explains how to run it.

How many items do you need for 30 cards? At least 24 for a 5×5 card with a free space, though more items give more room for different cards. If your list is too short for the number of cards you request, BingoCard Lab tells you how many it can make. You can then add items or print fewer cards.

Can two players win at the same time? Yes, on different lines, which can happen even when no two cards share a line, so have a plan for ties.

Make your first deck

Key points

• Pick a 5×5, 4×4 or 3×3 grid, and list at least as many items as each card holds.
• Pick your method by how many cards you need: by hand or a table for a few, a spreadsheet or generator for a group.
• Give every player a different card.
• Watch for shared lines when you shuffle at random, and plan for ties on different lines.

When you're ready, describe your game and print your cards. For more help planning, read our guide to bingo patterns.