How to calculate your padel level: inside our free 0 to 7 test

Every open match starts with the same question: what level are you? Most players answer with a number they half remember from an app, or one they picked because it sounded about right. If you want to calculate your padel level properly, you need two things. You need an honest look at each of your shots, and a fixed rule for turning those answers into a number. We built a free padel level test that does exactly that, and this post opens it up so you can see how the number is made.

It takes about two minutes. Ten questions, no sign-up, and the result appears as soon as you answer the last one.

What the test asks you

The first three questions are about context, not technique. How long you have played, how you compete (only with friends, club leagues and Americanos, federation tournaments, or a national ranking), and how many matches you play a week. They matter because a beautiful self-assessment from someone in their fourth month of padel is still a fourth-month player.

The other seven questions cover the shots that separate levels on a real court:

• serve and return
• forehand
• backhand
• volley
• wall play (what happens when the ball goes into the glass)
• lob
• overheads: bandeja, víbora and smash

Each shot has seven answers, ordered from “I usually miss it or avoid it” up to “I use it to win the point, aiming and varying the pace”. The answers in between describe things you can see on court, not feelings. “I play the back wall reliably; double walls still beat me” is something your partner could confirm. “I’m fairly comfortable off the wall” is not.

We wrote those answers from the level descriptions Playtomic publishes for its 0 to 7 scale and from the Spanish Padel Federation categories, so the language should feel familiar if you have ever read either.

How the padel level calculation works

Here is the whole method. Nothing is hidden, and you can check your own result against it.

Step 1: each shot answer is worth a level. From the weakest answer to the strongest, the values are 0.5, 1.5, 2.25, 3.0, 3.75, 4.5 and 5.5. The steps are smaller in the middle of the scale on purpose: the gap between a 2 and a 3 is mostly about consistency, while the gap between a 4.5 and a 5.5 is about winning points.

Step 2: your starting level is the average of the seven shots. A player with a 3.75 forehand, a 3.0 backhand and a 1.5 wall game does not average out as a 3.75. The weak shot drags the number down, which is exactly what happens in a match, because the other pair will find that shot within two games.

Step 3: your context sets a ceiling.

• Under 6 months of play: 2.5 at most.
• Only friendly games: 4.5 at most.
• Above 5.5 needs federation tournaments or higher.
• 6.0 to 7.0 needs a national ranking or the pro circuit.

Step 4: round to the nearest 0.25 and place the result in its band: Starter below 1, Beginner 1 to 2, Intermediate 2 to 3, Upper intermediate 3 to 4, Advanced 4 to 5, Competition 5 to 6 and Elite 6 to 7.

One detail is easy to miss. If the strongest answer were always worth 5.5, nobody could ever score above 5.5, and the Elite band would be decoration. So the top answer counts for more when the player competes at a level where it is believable: 6.0 for federation players and 7.0 for a national ranking or the pro tour. A club player who ticks the top answer on every shot lands on 5.5. That is a very good club player, and that is the honest ceiling for a questionnaire.

A worked example

Take Carlos, who has played for three years, plays club leagues and gets on court twice a week. His answers:

The total is 20.25, divided by seven gives 2.89. No cap applies to a three-year club player, so it rounds to a 3.0, Upper intermediate. The test also tells him his best shot (the forehand) and the one holding him back (wall play), with a link to a guide on getting the ball back off the wall.

That last part is the useful bit. Carlos does not need to hear he is a 3.0. He needs to hear that one shot is costing him half a level, and which one.

Why the test caps your level

Players sometimes push back on the caps. “I only play with friends, but my friends are good.” Fair enough, and that is why the friends-only cap sits at 4.5, which is already a strong player. The cap is there because a level is about what you can do against unfamiliar pressure. Someone who has never faced a pair that targets their backhand for a whole set does not yet know how that backhand holds up.

The 6 month cap works the same way. New players learn fast and often rate their best rally, not their typical one. Capping at 2.5 is not a judgement; it is the test admitting it cannot tell yet.

If the caps lowered your number, the result screen tells you, with the figure your shots alone would have given you.

An estimate, not your Playtomic level

The test says this plainly on the result, and it is worth repeating here: this is an estimate from your answers, not your Playtomic level. It uses the same 0 to 7 scale so you can compare the two, but it measures a different thing. A questionnaire measures how you describe your game. A rating measures what happens when you play.

Playtomic itself starts new accounts with a questionnaire and then lets results take over, moving your number only after competitive matches. If you want the mechanics of how those ratings move, how padel rankings and ratings work explains them in detail. And if you would rather place yourself without any app at all, the honest on-court self-assessment gives you a five-ball test to run with a partner.

What to do with your number

Use it as a starting point for three decisions.

Which matches to join. If you came out at 3.25, open matches listed at 3.0 to 3.5 are where you will learn the most. Two levels above you is not a learning experience; it is a long hour.

What to train first. Look at your weakest shot before your level. Raising one shot from 1.5 to 3.0 lifts your average by about 0.2 on its own, and in a real match it lifts you by more, because it stops being the target.

When to move up. If your matches are routinely one-sided, the signs in when to move up a level will tell you whether it is time.

Your real level comes from your matches

A test is an estimate. Your real level comes from your results against people whose level you know, match after match. That is why we built Padellog: log the matches you play with your group and you get leaderboards, head-to-head records and pair rankings built on what actually happened on court, including at clubs that do not use any booking app.

Take the padel level test, share the result with your group and see who comes out on top. Then play the match that settles it.