Pickleball Court Dimensions (Every Number That Matters)
By José Cabrera · September 18, 2026 · 7 min read
A pickleball court is 20 feet wide and 44 feet long, including the lines, for both singles and doubles. The net is 36 inches high at the posts and 34 inches at the center. The non-volley zone extends 7 feet back from the net on each side, which makes the service boxes 15 feet deep.
Somebody is about to paint a driveway, and they want one number they can trust.
Here it is. Twenty feet by 44 feet, measured to the outside edge of the lines. Everything else on this page is detail, but the detail is where people get it wrong, and a court that is wrong by a foot plays wrong forever.
The full set of measurements
| What | Size |
|---|---|
| Court, total | 20 ft wide by 44 ft long |
| Non-volley zone (the kitchen) | 7 ft from net, each side |
| Service box | 10 ft wide by 15 ft deep |
| Net at the posts | 36 in |
| Net at the center | 34 in |
| Line width | 2 in |
| Recommended total playing area | 30 ft by 60 ft |
Two of those deserve a note, because they are the ones people skip.
The lines are part of the court. All measurements run to the outside edge. A two-inch line painted outside the 20-foot mark makes the court 20 feet 4 inches wide, and the two service boxes will no longer be equal if you measured from a center line drawn the other way.
The net sags on purpose. Thirty-six inches at the posts, 34 at the center. That two-inch difference is in the rules, not a tolerance. A net pulled tight and level across the middle is two inches too high where almost every ball crosses it, and it changes how a dink behaves.
Where the lines actually go
Start with the outer rectangle, 20 by 44. The net splits it in half, 22 feet to each side.
From the net, measure 7 feet back on each side and draw a line across the full width. That is the non-volley zone line, and that zone is the kitchen. It runs the whole 20 feet across, which surprises people who assume it only covers the middle.
Everything behind the kitchen line is the service area, 15 feet deep. Split it down the middle with a center line and you get two service boxes, each 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep.
That is the entire court. Six lines, if you count the baseline and both sidelines.
Singles and doubles are the same size
This is the one that trips up anybody coming from tennis, where the doubles alleys change the width of the court.
Pickleball does not do that. Twenty feet wide either way. A singles game uses the same lines, the same kitchen and the same service boxes as a doubles game, which is a big part of why the sport is easy to set up and easy to teach.
If you are making the jump the other direction, the full comparison with tennis covers what else does and does not carry over.
The number that is not in the rulebook
The court is 20 by 44. The space you need is bigger.
Thirty by 60 feet is the recommended total playing area, and it is not a luxury. That extra five feet behind each baseline is where a lob gets chased down, and the five on each side is where a wide ball gets returned instead of ending in a wall.
Courts painted right up against a fence play differently and more dangerously than courts with run-off. If you are choosing between a properly sized court with no room around it and a court set a few feet in from the edges, take the room.
Fitting one on a tennis court
A tennis court is 60 feet by 120 feet including the run-off, and 36 by 78 for the playing surface itself.
That means one tennis court holds four pickleball courts with usable space between them, which is why so many clubs converted. It also means a single pickleball court fits inside the tennis service area alone if you are just chalking one out for an afternoon.
The practical version for a casual game: use the existing tennis net if you can lower it, or accept that a tennis net at 36 inches in the center is two inches too high and the dinking will feel harder than it should.
Why 20 by 44, of all numbers
Because it is a badminton court.
Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, on a badminton court that already existed in somebody's back yard. Nobody chose these dimensions for how the game would play. They chose them because the lines were already painted.
The net came down from badminton height to something closer to tennis, the racquets became paddles, and the rest of the sport was built to fit a rectangle that was sized for a completely different game. Almost everything that makes pickleball distinctive follows from that accident, including the kitchen, which exists because a court that small would otherwise be won entirely by whoever got to the net first.
What the measurements do to the game
This is the part that matters more than the numbers.
The court is small, so placement beats power. Twenty by 44 is about a quarter of a tennis court. There is nowhere to hit a ball that somebody cannot reach, which is why hitting harder mostly produces errors rather than winners.
The kitchen is deep. Seven feet is further back than it looks when you are standing at the line. It is the single rule that decides the shape of a rally, because it forces the two teams into a soft exchange at close range instead of a smashing contest. If you want the whole argument, the kitchen has its own walkthrough.
The service boxes are wide and shallow. Ten by 15 is a generous target, which is most of why the underhand serve in pickleball is not the weapon it is in other sports. Getting the serve in is not the hard part. The serve rules are where people actually fault.
Common measuring mistakes
Measuring the kitchen from the net posts instead of the net. Seven feet from the net, straight back, perpendicular. On a slightly off-square layout those two are not the same line.
Forgetting the center line stops at the kitchen. It runs from the baseline to the non-volley zone line and no further. There is no center line inside the kitchen, and painting one is the most common giveaway of a home court done from memory.
Squaring the rectangle by eye. Measure both diagonals. On a 20 by 44 court they should both be 48 feet 4 inches. If they differ, the court is a parallelogram and every ball down the line will be wrong in a way nobody can quite name.
Using tape that stretches. A cloth tape off by one percent over 44 feet is off by more than five inches, which is enough to make the two service boxes visibly unequal.
If you are laying one out yourself
Do the outer rectangle first and check the diagonals before painting anything. Then the net line, then 7 feet back on each side for the kitchen, then the center lines in the service areas only.
Two-inch lines, in a color that contrasts with the surface. On a shared tennis court, a different color from the tennis lines saves a hundred arguments a season.
And then, inevitably, somebody will still call a ball out that landed on the line. It is in. The lines are part of the court, all of them except the kitchen line on a volley, which is the one exception and the one everybody forgets.
That kind of dispute is most of the social life of this sport, and we have made a whole line of t-shirts about it for the people who enjoy being right. A shirt that states a measurement is the only way to win that argument without having it again, and the good ones say it once and stop.
If you want the rest of the rules in the same plain form, they are collected here.
The one-line version
Twenty by 44 feet, net 36 inches at the posts and 34 in the middle, kitchen 7 feet deep on each side, and the same dimensions whether you are playing singles or doubles.
Common questions
- What are the dimensions of a pickleball court?
- Twenty feet wide by 44 feet long, measured to the outside of the lines. That is the same for singles and doubles, unlike tennis.
- How high is a pickleball net?
- Thirty-six inches at the posts and 34 inches at the center. The two-inch sag is intentional and it is written into the rules.
- How big is the kitchen in pickleball?
- Seven feet from the net on each side, running the full 20-foot width. That makes the non-volley zone 7 by 20 feet.
- Can you fit a pickleball court on a tennis court?
- Yes. A tennis court is 60 by 120 feet, which holds four pickleball courts with room between them, or one with a generous run-off area.
- Is a pickleball court the same size as a badminton court?
- The playing surface is identical to a doubles badminton court, 20 by 44 feet. That is not a coincidence, because the sport was invented on one.
The Rules Lawyer
You’ve called a ball out from two courts away. Twice.
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