Free Single Elimination Bracket Maker

Lose once and you are out. The shortest tournament format there is, the one everybody already understands, and the fastest to run on paper.

Build your knockout bracket

Round one is seeded from your list. Every later round prints blank, so you write the winners in as they are decided.

Fill the sheet with

Round one is filled in from your list. Later rounds always print blank.

16 of 64 · bracket of 16

Paste a list straight from a spreadsheet. One name per line.

Friday Night KnockoutROUND OF 16QUARTERFINALSSEMIFINALSFINALCHAMPIONDanaMarcusPriyaTomYaelChenSofiaAndreNinaOmarRuthKwameLenaDiegoAikoFelix

Everything you type stays in your browser and is drawn on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no watermark on the print or the PNG.

Now make it pay off

Want the bracket to run itself?

A printed sheet is finished the moment it leaves the printer. Move this draw into the Bracket widget instead and winners advance on their own, visitors vote and predict, and a live leaderboard ranks everyone’s picks. Your players come across, so you carry on where you left off.

No credit card. Live in minutes.

Every bracket sheet

By format

By size

By event

Widgets that pair with a tournament

A printed sheet settles the draw. These free CommonNinja widgets keep the tournament alive on your own site once the first results are in.

Bracket Maker logo

Bracket Maker

Bracket generator for creating interactive tournaments that organize matchups, track progress, and deliver a clear and engaging competition experience.

See the widget →
Leaderboard logo

Leaderboard

Add a customizable leaderboard to your site to display rankings, track scores, and encourage friendly competition.

See the widget →
Poll logo

Poll

Create interactive polls with a poll widget that gathers real time feedback, boosts engagement, and helps you understand visitor opinions quickly and clearly.

See the widget →
Countdown logo

Countdown

Add a countdown timer to your site to highlight upcoming events or launches and encourage timely user action.

See the widget →

Explore More Free Tools

Other free tools to build and share something in a browser tab.

Free Double Elimination Bracket Maker

Print a double elimination bracket with a blank losers draw. Two lives each, 4 to 64 players.

Use Tool →

Free Consolation Bracket Maker

Print a bracket with a consolation draw, so first-round losers get a second game. 4 to 64 players.

Use Tool →

Free 16 Team Bracket Maker

Print a 16-team tournament bracket: 4 rounds, 15 matches, first round seeded from your list.

Use Tool →

How It Works

Three steps, about a minute

1. Type or paste your players

One name per line, or paste a column straight out of a spreadsheet. Switch to a blank sheet if you would rather write them in by hand.

2. Check the draw

Choose whether round one follows your list, a random shuffle, or standard seeding that keeps the strongest apart. Byes are worked out for you.

3. Print it

The sheet is fitted to one A4 page exactly, so it never spills onto a second one. Your print dialog will save it as a PDF if you prefer.

The Format

How single elimination works

One loss and your tournament is over. It is the oldest and simplest format, and its arithmetic is unusually tidy.

  • One fewer match than playersEvery match knocks exactly one person out, and you finish with one winner. 16 players is always 15 matches, whatever else changes.
  • Rounds double downThe field halves every round, so 8 players is 3 rounds, 16 is 4, 32 is 5, 64 is 6. Nobody ever plays more than six matches.
  • Byes fill the gapsBrackets need a power of two, so 12 players sit in a 16 slot draw with 4 byes. Seed the draw and the byes go to the top seeds, as they should.
  • Shortest to runHalf the matches of a double elimination draw of the same size. If you have one table and one afternoon, this is the format.

The Trade-off

What single elimination costs you

Use single when

Time is short, you have one court or table, the result matters less than finishing, or everybody already knows the format.

Use something else when

People have travelled a long way, the ranking has to be genuinely fair, or you want everyone to play more than once.

The weakness is obvious once you have run one: a single bad match ends somebody’s day. The strongest player can go out in round one to a bad draw, a bad call or a bad morning, and the format has no answer to that. In a social tournament it means half your entrants have gone home before the thing has properly started.

If that matters to you, the fix is not a bigger bracket. Consolation gives first-round losers a second draw without doubling the schedule, and double elimination gives everybody a second life at the cost of roughly twice the matches. Both print from this same tool.

Other Sizes

Need a different bracket?

Same sheet, same print settings, a different number of slots.

Free Double Elimination Bracket Maker

Print a double elimination bracket with a blank losers draw. Two lives each, 4 to 64 players.

Free Consolation Bracket Maker

Print a bracket with a consolation draw, so first-round losers get a second game. 4 to 64 players.

Free 16 Team Bracket Maker

Print a 16-team tournament bracket: 4 rounds, 15 matches, first round seeded from your list.

Or start from the general printable bracket maker, which opens with every size and format available and works out the right one from however many players you paste in.

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FAQ

A knockout draw where losing one match puts you out of the tournament. Players are paired in round one, the winners advance, and the field halves each round until one is left. It is the format most people picture when they hear the word bracket, and the one used for the knockout stages of almost every major competition.
Always one fewer than the number of players. 8 players is 7 matches, 16 is 15, 32 is 31, 64 is 63. The reason is simple: each match eliminates exactly one person, and you need to eliminate everyone but the champion. Adding a third place play-off adds one more.
The spare slots become byes, which are free passes through the first round. Eleven players go in a 16 slot bracket with five byes. Pick the seeded draw and the byes go to the top five seeds automatically, which is what a real draw does and what players expect.
It is fair in the sense that everybody faces the same rule, but it is a poor ranking system: it reliably identifies a winner and tells you very little about who was second best. One bad match removes anybody. If you need the result to reflect real strength, double elimination or a round robin will do it better, at the cost of more matches.
Yes. Click Print and choose "Save as PDF" as the destination in your browser's print dialog, which every major browser has built in on both Windows and Mac. That gives you a true vector PDF that stays sharp at any size. There is also a Download PNG button if you want an image to drop into a chat or a document.
Because that is what a printable bracket is for. Only the first round can be known before anyone plays, so the rest of the sheet prints as empty lines for you to write the winners into as the tournament goes on. If you would rather the bracket advanced winners by itself and updated live on a web page, that is what the Bracket widget does, and you can move your draw into it in one click.
No. Everything you type stays in your browser and the bracket is drawn on your own device. Nothing is sent to any server, so your players and your tournament name stay private to you.
Yes, completely free. No account, no sign-up, no credit card, and no watermark on the print or the PNG. Make as many brackets as you like.

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