Daily Grand: $7 Million Lump Sum or $1,000 a Day for Life?

Match five numbers and the Grand Number on a Daily Grand ticket and you have a decision to make: $1,000 a day for the rest of your life, or $7 million now. The annuity pays $365,000 a year and passes the lump sum after 19 years and two months. It also pays for at least 20 years, even if the winner dies sooner. The Daily Grand lump sum is yours to invest, spend or leave to your family from the day you claim it. Which one comes out ahead depends mostly on your age, and on what $7 million would earn you after tax.

The figures below come from the Daily Grand game conditions (opens in a new tab), the national rules every Canadian lottery sells the game under, and from Statistics Canada’s life tables.

What are the Daily Grand payout options?

Daily Grand’s two top prizes are paid as annuities, and each comes with a lump-sum option. Five numbers plus the Grand Number pays $1,000 a day for life or $7 million. Five numbers without the Grand Number pays $25,000 a year for life or $500,000. A play costs $3, with draws every Monday and Thursday.

The price, draw days and odds are from Loto-Québec’s Daily Grand page (opens in a new tab), which publishes the same national prize structure every province uses.

Is it really for life?

Yes, with a floor. The game conditions define the annuity as one issued “for a minimum period of 20 years” by an outside annuity provider that the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation chooses. So the payments last as long as the winner lives, and never less than 20 years.

On the second prize, the arithmetic is simpler. $25,000 a year for the 20-year minimum is exactly $500,000, the same as the lump sum, so taking the cash gives up only the years past 20.

How long until $1,000 a day beats $7 million?

19 years and two months. That’s when $365,000 a year adds up to $7 million, and the 20-year minimum alone pays $7.3 million. But a dollar paid 20 years from now is worth less than a dollar today, so the better question is how long you’re likely to collect, and what return $7 million would need to earn to keep up.

Average years left is Statistics Canada’s life expectancy (opens in a new tab) at that age, for women and men together, from its life tables for 2022 to 2024. The last column is our calculation: the return after tax at which $7 million, paying you $365,000 at the start of each year, would run out in the last year. If you’d expect to earn more than that, the lump sum comes out ahead. If not, the annuity does.

Plenty of people outlive the average, and the annuity keeps paying them. A 40-year-old winner who lives to 90 collects $18.25 million.

How is each option taxed?

Canada doesn’t tax lottery prizes, so the $7 million arrives whole. The CRA does tax part of the annuity, though. It treats a prize paid as an annuity like an annuity you bought, and taxes the interest part of each payment. Under Daily Grand’s rules, each payment is made big enough to pay that tax.

The CRA’s income tax folio on lottery winnings (opens in a new tab) values a prize annuity at what it was worth when you got it. Each payment then counts as income, minus a deduction for the part that’s a return of that value, so only the interest part ends up taxed.

Under the game conditions, the annuity provider sets the gross amount of each payment using the highest combined federal and provincial tax rate in the province or territory where you live when you claim, so that what’s left after tax is about $1,000 a day. That rate is locked in on claim day. Nothing is adjusted if tax rates change later, or if you move to another province or country. So a winner whose province raises its top rate would keep a little less than $1,000 a day, and one who moves somewhere with a lower top rate would keep a little more.

With the lump sum, the $7 million itself is never taxed, but everything it earns from the day you invest it is. Interest is taxed like a paycheque, and half of any capital gain is added to your income, as our guide to whether lottery winnings are taxable explains.

What would $7 million earn if you invested it?

To pay yourself $1,000 a day forever without ever touching the $7 million, you’d need to earn about 5.5% a year after tax. Below that, the money still lasts a long time if you spend it down: about 28 years at 3% after tax, and 34 years at 4%.

These are our calculations, with $365,000 taken out at the start of each year, and the returns are after tax.

On October 28, 2026, a 10-year Government of Canada bond paid 3.87%, and a long-term one 4.15% (opens in a new tab), both before tax. Interest is taxed as ordinary income, so with $7 million invested, much of it would be taxed at your province’s top rate, and a bond’s return after tax would land near the bottom of the table. Reaching the 4% or 5% rows after tax usually means owning stocks, which can earn more over time but can also fall hard in a single year. The annuity’s $1,000 a day doesn’t move with the markets.

Neither option keeps up with inflation on its own. The annuity pays $1,000 a day in year 30 just as it does in year one. If prices rise 2% a year, the Bank of Canada’s inflation target (opens in a new tab), $1,000 in 20 years will buy about what $673 buys today, and after 35 years about half as much. The lump sum has the same problem unless it’s invested to grow.

When does each option make more sense?

There’s no single right answer, because it depends on your age, health, plans and taxes. These are the situations where each option usually comes out ahead.

The lump sum tends to come out ahead when

• You’re older when you win. At 60, the annuity pays for about 25 years on average, and $7 million keeps pace with a return of about 2.4% a year after tax. At 70, the 20-year minimum outlasts the average lifetime, and $7 million keeps pace at under 1%.
• You’d use the money right away, to pay off a mortgage, buy a home or help family now rather than over 20 years.
• You want to leave something behind. After year 20, the annuity stops when you die. The lump sum, and whatever it grows into, goes to your estate.
• You’d rather not count on an annuity provider for decades. Choosing the annuity means signing a release. Under the game conditions, the lottery isn’t liable if the annuity provider fails to pay.

The annuity tends to come out ahead when

• You’re young. At 30, keeping pace with the annuity over an average lifetime takes about 5.1% a year after tax, every year for more than 50 years. That’s more than a 10-year Government of Canada bond pays before tax.
• You want an income you can’t outlive or overspend. A bad investment, a pushy relative or a spending spree can’t touch next year’s payments.
• You’d rather not manage $7 million. The tax is worked out in advance, and there’s nothing to invest.

This is general information, not tax or investment advice. If you win, an accountant or a fee-only financial planner can run these numbers for your province and your plans before you choose.

When don’t you get to choose?

Under the game conditions, the lottery pays the lump sum instead of the annuity when:

• more than one ticket wins the same prize in the same draw, in which case the lump sum is split, so two top-prize winners get $3.5 million each
• one ticket belongs to more than one person, like an office pool
• the winner hasn’t reached the age of majority
• the winner lives outside Canada
• the lottery can’t get an annuity on reasonable terms, or decides one isn’t practical

The choice is final once you make it. And if you don’t choose, or don’t give the annuity provider the information it asks for in time, you’re treated as having picked the lump sum. Our guide to what to do if you win the lottery in Canada covers claiming a prize this size.

Do other Canadian lottery prizes give you this choice?

Among the national draw games, only Daily Grand does. A handful of scratch tickets offer the same kind of choice, and these were on sale in October 2026:

The last column is our arithmetic. Atlantic Lottery’s news site confirms the $675,000 option (opens in a new tab) for its version. So nearly the same $1,000 a week for about 25 years comes with a $675,000 lump-sum option in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada, and a $1 million one from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, which also adds $10,000 up front to its payments.

Loto-Québec’s Gagnant à vie pays its annuity net of tax, like Daily Grand, and guarantees it for 20 years, or only until what would have been the winner’s 91st birthday for someone who claims at 71 or older. Only a winner aged 18 or older who lives in Quebec and signed the ticket alone can take it, under the game’s rules (opens in a new tab). OLG’s $4 Cash for Life (opens in a new tab) also pays $1,000 a week for life, but its page doesn’t list a lump-sum alternative.

Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 jackpots come with no choice at all. They’re paid as one amount, and the advertised jackpot is what you get. American jackpots work the other way. They’re advertised as an annuity and shrink if you take the cash, as our US guide to the Powerball lump sum or annuity shows.

A weekly draw that never costs you $3

Daily Grand costs $3 a play, and most plays win nothing. Lodavo’s weekly draw is free. You never buy a ticket, and the bigger your savings balance, the more tickets you get. At least $100 is won every week, and the jackpot is $10,000. It’s nowhere near $1,000 a day. But your tickets come from your own savings, which stay in your own bank, so a week without a win doesn’t cost you anything. You can compare the two draws side by side in Lodavo vs Daily Grand.

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Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.