PP Calculator: Understanding osu! Performance Points
Our PP calculator lets osu! players estimate their performance points for any play scenario by adjusting star rating, accuracy, combo, and mods. Whether you're planning your next PP farm session or curious how a specific map might contribute to your profile, this osu! performance points calculator gives you immediate, formula-based results.
What Are Performance Points in osu!?
Performance points, universally known as "PP" in the osu! community, are the primary ranking metric in osu! — the popular rhythm game developed by peppy. Introduced in 2012 to replace the older score-based ranking system, PP attempts to measure actual skill rather than grind. The core idea: beating a harder map with higher accuracy earns more PP than farming an easy map thousands of times.
Your profile PP is calculated as a weighted sum of your top plays. Your single best play contributes 100% of its value. Your second-best contributes about 95%. Your third-best contributes ~90%, and so on with diminishing returns. This means that to significantly increase your PP, you need new plays that are better than your current top plays — not just more plays.
How PP Is Calculated in osu! Standard
The PP formula breaks down into three distinct skill components, then combines them:
Aim PP
Aim PP measures how accurately you move your cursor to follow circles and sliders. It scales heavily with star rating — a 7-star map's aim component is dramatically higher than a 5-star map. Accuracy and combo ratio also contribute, since missing circles or losing combo indicates aim failure. Mods like Hidden (HD) and Hard Rock (HR) increase aim difficulty by adding fadeout and changing approach angles.
Speed PP
Speed PP measures how quickly and consistently you can tap. It scales with star rating and is particularly sensitive to accuracy at high tempos. Double Time (DT) is the most impactful mod for speed PP because it increases the BPM of a map by 50%, dramatically raising the speed challenge. Many top players specialize in either aim or speed — very few excel at both.
Accuracy PP
Accuracy PP rewards precision — hitting notes exactly on beat rather than just in the hit window. It scales exponentially with accuracy percentage. The difference between 98% and 99% accuracy is much larger in PP terms than between 95% and 96%. This component rewards players who prioritize note quality over raw completion.
How Mods Affect PP
Mods dramatically change how much PP a play is worth:
- Hidden (HD): Notes fade out before you hit them, requiring memorization and reading skill. Adds approximately 10% to aim PP.
- Hard Rock (HR): Increases circle size reduction, raises approach rate, and flips the map vertically. Adds about 15% to aim PP.
- Double Time (DT): Plays the map at 1.5× speed, massively increasing speed demands. Adds up to 50% or more to speed PP — this is why DT is the most commonly used PP farming mod.
- No Fail (NF): Prevents failing but reduces total PP by 10%. Useful for practice but not optimal for ranked PP.
- Easy (EZ) and Half Time (HT): Reduce difficulty and significantly reduce PP rewards.
What Makes a Good PP Farming Map?
PP farming is the practice of playing specific maps that maximize PP gain relative to difficulty. Good farm maps typically:
- Are slightly below your skill ceiling — you should be able to FC (full combo) them or come close.
- Have high PP rewards for their star rating — some maps are "overweighted" by the algorithm.
- Suit your particular skill strengths (aim-heavy vs speed-heavy).
- Work well with mods that boost PP without pushing the map beyond your ability.
A common farm strategy for intermediate players (4–7★ range) is to find 5.5–6.5★ maps with DT applied, bringing them to roughly 7–8★ equivalent. If you can consistently hit 97%+ accuracy on these with full combo, the PP rewards are substantial.
Understanding Your Rank and PP Requirements
The relationship between PP and global rank follows a steep curve. Moving from rank #500,000 to #100,000 requires relatively little PP improvement. But moving from #10,000 to #5,000 requires significantly more grinding and skill development. The top 1,000 players globally have profile PPs exceeding 12,000 — a number that represents years of dedicated practice.
Tips for Increasing Your PP
- Focus on accuracy first: Accuracy PP rewards precision exponentially. 99% accuracy is worth dramatically more than 97%.
- Aim for full combos: Combo ratio directly impacts aim and speed PP. Even one miss can cut your PP reward significantly.
- Play at your limit, not above it: A solid play on a map you can handle beats a messy play on something too hard.
- Use HD on familiar maps: Once you know a map well, adding HD is a relatively easy PP boost.
- Work on speed gradually: DT gives huge PP bonuses but requires dedicated training to handle accurately.
- Track your top plays: Use osu! tracker sites to identify which plays are being "pushed off" your top 100 — replacing those first gives the most PP gain.
Disclaimer
This PP calculator uses a simplified approximation of the osu! standard PP formula. The actual osu! PP algorithm is more complex, accounts for additional factors like slider accuracy, reading difficulty, and specific map patterns, and is periodically updated by the development team. Use these numbers as estimates for planning and practice purposes, not as exact predictions of ranked results.
Conclusion
Understanding how performance points work makes you a smarter player. Our PP calculator helps you visualize the relationship between star rating, accuracy, combo, and mods so you can make informed decisions about which maps to practice and which mods to run. Whether you're chasing your first 100pp play or pushing toward 1,000pp single plays, knowing how the system works gives you a real edge.