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Prisoner's Dilemma Payoff Calculator

Enter the four payoffs and each player's choice to see the result.

How it is calculated

This is a lookup, not a formula. You enter the four payoffs T (temptation), R (reward), P (punishment) and S (sucker), then choose cooperate or defect for each player. The tool first checks that T > R > P > S holds strictly, and gives no result if any two are equal or out of order. It then selects the cell of the 2 × 2 table: both cooperate gives R to each; both defect gives P to each; a lone defector gets T while the cooperator gets S. It prints both payoffs in points and a one-line outcome label in English. Nothing is simulated or repeated, and it does not check the extra condition 2R > T + S that some textbooks add for repeated play. It reads one round only.

Worked example

Use the classic values T = 5, R = 3, P = 1, S = 0. The order 5 > 3 > 1 > 0 holds. Player 1 defects and Player 2 cooperates, so Player 1 receives the temptation payoff and Player 2 receives the sucker's payoff. Player 1 gets 5.00 pts and Player 2 gets 0.00 pts. The outcome line reads that Player 1 defects and Player 2 is the sucker. If both had cooperated they would each have received 3, and if both had defected each would have received 1.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering payoffs in the wrong order, such as R = 5 and T = 3. The tool requires T > R > P > S strictly, and returns nothing otherwise, because then the game is no longer a prisoner's dilemma.
  • Using equal values, such as T = R. A tie breaks the strict ordering, so the tool refuses it.
  • Entering years in prison as positive payoffs. Prison time is bad, so it must be entered as a negative number (for example 0, −1, −2, −5) so that more is better.
  • Reading the result as a prediction of what players will do. The tool only reports the payoffs for the choices you pick; it does not decide who defects.
  • Treating one round as a repeated game. Strategies like tit-for-tat only matter over many rounds, whereas this tool scores a single round.

About this calculator

The Prisoner's Dilemma is the foundational game of classical game theory, built on four payoffs that must satisfy the strict ordering Temptation, then Reward, then Punishment, then Sucker's payoff (T, R, P, S each ranked in descending value): T (Temptation) is what you get for defecting while the other cooperates, R (Reward) is what both get for mutual cooperation, P (Punishment) is what both get for mutual defection, and S (Sucker's payoff) is what you get for cooperating while the other defects. Given those four values and each player's choice, this calculator looks up the resulting outcome and reports each player's individual payoff.

The dilemma is that defection is each player's individually rational choice regardless of what the other does (it's a dominant strategy, since Temptation exceeds Reward and Punishment exceeds the Sucker's payoff), yet mutual defection (P, P) leaves both players worse off than mutual cooperation (R, R) would have. This tension between individual and collective rationality is why the model is used across economics, evolutionary biology (explaining cooperation among unrelated organisms), international relations (arms races, trade wars), and the design of repeated-game strategies like tit-for-tat.

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Comments (1)

  • Editorial team

    Map the four letters onto a situation you care about before typing numbers. In a price war, T is the profit for undercutting alone, R for both holding prices, P for both cutting, and S for being undercut. If the real situation does not keep T above R above P above S, the game is not this dilemma. Which real situation are you mapping, and what values did you choose?

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