Padel Levels Explained: What A1 to C Actually Means

Ask five padel players what level they are and you'll get five different answers, using five different scales. One says "B level." Another says "3.5." A third just shrugs and says "intermediate, I guess." None of them are wrong. Padel just never settled on one system.

Tennis had decades to standardize around NTRP. Padel grew explosively in the last five years or so, and the level systems grew alongside it, invented independently by different platforms, clubs, and countries. Spain does it one way, France another, and casual booking apps often use whatever felt intuitive to whoever built the app.

This guide breaks down the two systems you'll run into most, letter grades and numeric scales, and gives you a practical way to figure out where you actually stand rather than guessing.

Clubs across Spain, Latin America, and increasingly the US use a letter system, usually running from C (lowest) up to A (highest), sometimes with a D tier below C for total beginners.

C level players are still learning to use the walls and glass on purpose instead of by accident. Points end quickly because the ball keeps flying past them or into the net.

B level players start reading the walls, cover the court with a partner without constant collisions, and can keep a rally going. This is where most regular club players sit.

A level players bring consistent lobs, controlled bandeja and vibora shots, and real pressure at the net. Above A, you're usually looking at tournament and pro-adjacent players, sometimes labeled A+ or Pro depending on the club.

Some clubs and apps, Playtomic among the biggest, use a numeric scale from 1.0 to 7.0, deliberately similar in feel to tennis's NTRP.

Below 2.0, you're brand new, working out which side of the court you're even supposed to cover. Around 2.5 to 3.5 you can rally, know the basic rules, and aren't a liability to your partner. From 4.0 to 5.0 you're a strong club player with real shot variety. Past 5.0 you're into competitive territory, and 6.0 to 7.0 is reserved for professional and near-professional players.

The numbers look precise, but they're usually self-reported or lightly moderated by a club, so treat them the same way you'd treat a stranger's self-reported tennis rating: a starting point, not a guarantee.

Since no scale is universal, the fastest way to find your real level is to play, not to read a chart. Show up to an open or social session, ask to be matched conservatively at first, and adjust up if you're winning easily or down if you're getting run over.

If you also play tennis or squash, our guide to cross-sport rating conversion, the Rosetta Stone piece, gives you a rough starting band based on what you already know about your NTRP or squash number.

Rally solves this by rating you from how you actually play against other Rally players, not from a letter or number you picked off a chart, so your level travels with you between clubs instead of resetting every time you show up somewhere new.

For the other two systems, see our guides to the NTRP scale and squash ratings. And if you want to understand why self-rated levels drift in the first place, read about sandbagging, or how Rally calculates your level instead.