How FPL Bonus Points Work: The BPS Explained (2026/27)

Bonus points are the most confusing part of FPL scoring. A player can score and get nothing, while a defender who scored no goals takes all 3. Here's how the system actually works, using FPL's official 2026/27 rules, plus what it took to earn bonus in the first five gameweeks of this season.

If you just want to know who's getting bonus right now, I built FPL Bonus Points Live. It shows provisional bonus for every match as it's played, and your own team's live points with each player's breakdown.

The short version

In every Premier League match, each player earns BPS (Bonus Points System) points for what they do on the pitch. After the match, the three players with the highest BPS in that match get 3, 2 and 1 bonus points in FPL.

Bonus is decided per match, not across the gameweek. Every fixture hands out its own 3, 2 and 1.

Ties

Tied players share the bonus. FPL's official rules:

Tie for 1st: both players get 3, and the next player gets 1. If three or more tie for 1st, they all get 3 and nobody else gets anything.
Tie for 2nd: 1st gets 3, and everyone tied for 2nd gets 2. Nobody gets 1.
Tie for 3rd: 1st gets 3, 2nd gets 2, and everyone tied for 3rd gets 1.

Ties happen more often than you'd think. In Gameweeks 1-5, 14 of the 50 matches had a tie somewhere in the top four BPS scores. I checked all 50 against FPL's confirmed bonus, and these three rules explained every one of them.

Ties also mean a match doesn't always hand out exactly 6 bonus points. In GW1-5, 13 matches gave out 7, and one gave out 9. That was Nottingham Forest 0-1 Leeds in Gameweek 1: Stach topped the BPS with 37, then Bijol, Justin and Trafford all tied for second on 28. Under the tie-for-second rule, all three got 2 points, and nobody got 1.

How BPS is calculated (2026/27)

This is FPL's official table. Each action is worth 1 BPS unless a different number is shown.

Action	BPS
Playing 1 to 60 minutes	3
Playing over 60 minutes	6
Goal from a penalty	12
Goal (non-penalty) by a goalkeeper or defender	12
Goal (non-penalty) by a midfielder	18
Goal (non-penalty) by a forward	24
Assist	9
Clean sheet (goalkeepers and defenders)	12
Save	2
Save from a shot inside the box	1
Save from a big chance	1
Penalty save	7
Every 3 clearances, blocked shots and interceptions	1
Every 3 recoveries	1
Chance created	1
Big chance created	3
Successful open-play cross	1
Successful tackle	2
Successful dribble	1
Scoring the winning goal	3
Goal-line clearance	9
Foul won	1
Shot on target	2
70-79% pass completion (30+ passes attempted)	2
80-89% pass completion (30+ passes attempted)	4
90%+ pass completion (30+ passes attempted)	6
Goal conceded (goalkeepers and defenders)	−4
Conceding a penalty	−3
Missing a penalty	−6
Yellow card	−3
Red card	−9
Own goal	−6
Missing a big chance	−3
Error leading to a goal	−3
Error leading to an attempt at goal	−1
Conceding a foul	−1
Caught offside	−1
Shot off target	−1

The data comes from Opta, and FPL doesn't change it once a gameweek is marked final.

What changed in 2026/27

If you've seen a different table elsewhere, it's probably last season's. Some of the guides that rank highly for this topic still show it. FPL changed the BPS for 2026/27. Last season introduced defensive contribution (DEFCON) points, and centre-backs were often earning DEFCON points and bonus from the same clearances and blocks. FPL counted 112 defenders who got both in the same match. The changes aim to reduce that overlap and give attacking players more of a chance:

Being tackled no longer costs anything. It used to be −1 BPS each time. That hit players who dribble a lot: Rogers was tackled 156 times in 2025/26, the most in the league.
Clearances, blocks and interceptions count for less: now 1 BPS for every 3, down from every 2. That makes bonus slightly harder for centre-backs.
Goalkeeper saves were reworked. Every save is now 2 BPS, plus 1 more if the shot was inside the box and 1 more for saving a big chance. Previously a save from inside the box was worth 3 and one from outside was worth 2.
Penalty saves drop from 8 to 7 BPS. A penalty now counts as a big chance, so the extra 1 BPS for a big-chance save makes up the difference.

What the table means in practice

A few things stand out once you look at real matches:

Goals aren't everything. A forward's open-play goal is worth 24 BPS, but a penalty goal is worth only 12, whoever scores it. In GW1-5, 30% of goalscorers got no bonus at all (37 of 122).
Defenders are still well placed. A clean sheet is 12 BPS on its own, tackles are worth 2 each, and clearances, blocks and interceptions still add up, even at the new rate of 1 per 3. Defenders took 31% of all bonus points in GW1-5, midfielders 44%, forwards 17% and goalkeepers 9%.
Passing is a quiet boost. A midfielder completing 90%+ of 30 or more passes gets 6 BPS, as much as playing the full 90 minutes.
Mistakes cost more than you'd expect. A yellow card is −3, and every goal conceded is −4 for goalkeepers and defenders. A defender in a 3-2 win can drop well down the list.

How much BPS it takes

Across the 50 matches in GW1-5:

The player who got 3 bonus had a median of 40.5 BPS. The lowest winning score was 29 and the highest 92.
The lowest score that still got 1 bonus had a median of 31 BPS, ranging from 20 to 40.

The 92 was Brobbey's hat-trick for Sunderland in their 5-3 defeat at Manchester City in Gameweek 5. That's the highest BPS of the season so far, earned in a losing side.

Who's earned the most bonus so far

After five gameweeks, Haaland and Groß lead with 9 bonus points each. Tavernier and Isak are next on 8, then João Pedro and Tarkowski on 7, and Schade and Ødegaard on 6.

For comparison, last season's leaders were Haaland (43), B.Fernandes (41), Gabriel and João Pedro (30 each), Watkins (26) and Rice (23). Over a full season, bonus is worth a lot to the best players: Haaland's 43 was 18% of his 239 points.

When is bonus confirmed?

FPL adds bonus after the match, usually within an hour or two of the last game of the day. Until then, the FPL app shows each player's points without bonus. That's why your live score often jumps a few points in the evening.

You don't have to wait, though. Bonus is decided entirely by BPS, and BPS updates live during the match, so you can work out the provisional bonus while the game is still going.

See it live

That's what FPL Bonus Points Live does. For every match it shows:

who's currently on 3, 2 and 1
who's close to taking a bonus point, and by how many BPS
every player's points broken down: appearance, goals, assists, clean sheet, DEFCON and bonus

Enter your FPL team ID and you get your own XI on a pitch or as a table, with live points including provisional bonus. It updates every 30 seconds during matches, with a live feed of goals, clean sheets and bonus changes, and marks provisional numbers ⓟ until FPL confirms them.

BPS table from FPL's official rules (2026/27), and changes from the Premier League's 2026/27 BPS announcement. Gameweek 1-5 figures come from FPL's own match data (fixtures/?event={gw}), and 2025/26 figures from FPL's player histories. All checked on 24 September 2026.