A 9 minute read, written in October 2026

Padel court dimensions: the size of the court, net, lines and walls

A padel court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide inside the walls, 200 square metres of playing area, with a net 0.88 metres high at the centre. Here are the rest of the padel court dimensions that matter, from the service lines and the stepped side walls to the clear height above the court.

The playing area: 20 by 10 metres

The International Padel Federation (FIP) sets the playing area at 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, measured on the inside of the walls. That is 200 square metres of surface, or roughly 65.6 by 32.8 feet for anyone working in imperial. The rules allow a small construction tolerance, but a court built for club play is typically right on the figures, because the walls are part of the game and a court that runs short or long changes how every ball comes off the glass. The surface is typically artificial turf dressed with sand, though the rules also allow other surfaces, such as porous concrete or synthetic materials, as long as the bounce is consistent.

The net

The net runs across the middle of the court, splitting it into two halves of 10 by 10 metres. It is 10 metres long, 0.88 metres high at the centre and 0.92 metres at the posts, so it dips by 4 centimetres from the edges to the middle. In imperial that is about 34.6 inches at the centre, a little lower than a tennis net, which stands at 3 feet, or 0.914 metres, in the middle. The posts stand at the sides of the court, and the net is held by a cable along its top edge, typically finished with a white band so players can read its height against the glass behind it.

Lines and service boxes

Only a few lines are painted on a padel court. A service line runs across each half 6.95 metres from the net, which leaves 3.05 metres between it and the back wall. A centre service line runs from the net to each service line, dividing that space into two service boxes, and it typically extends a short way past the service line so the server knows where to stand. All the lines are 5 centimetres wide. There are no sidelines or baselines in the tennis sense, because the walls do that job: the ball has to land inside the court on its first bounce, and after that the glass is in play. The serve is when the lines matter most, since it has to land in the diagonal box and the server has to stand behind the service line; the padel rules guide covers the rest.

The back walls: 4 metres in all

Each end of the court is closed by a back wall 10 metres wide. The bottom 3 metres are glass or solid wall, and a further metre of metal mesh sits above that, so the back wall is 4 metres high in all. The glass is what the game is built around: a ball that bounces in the court and then hits the back glass is still alive, and returning it off the wall is one of the first skills a new player has to learn. A ball that hits the mesh after the bounce is in play too, though it comes off far less predictably than it does off glass, and the guide to the ball hitting the fence explains which contacts are legal and which end the point.

The side walls, and why they step down

Side walls are where courts look least alike at first glance, but the rules are tidy. For the first 2 metres from each back wall, the side wall is glass or solid wall 3 metres high, the same as the back. For the next 2 metres it steps down to 2 metres high. Mesh continues above both sections to a total of between 3 and 4 metres, typically 4 metres in the corners and 3 metres further along. The rest of each side, the central stretch either side of the net, is mesh. The result is a glass corner at each end, which is where the classic double-wall rebounds happen, and open mesh near the net. Most courts also have openings in the side walls by the net, which is what makes it possible to chase a ball out of the court and play it back in; the guide to playing outside the court explains when that is allowed.

Height above the court

FIP sets a minimum clear height of 6 metres above the whole playing area, with nothing such as beams, lights or ducts reaching into that space. That is a minimum, not a target. Lobs are a large part of padel, and a low roof punishes the team that defends well, so courts built for professional tour events are typically considerably higher, and many indoor clubs build above the minimum for the same reason. For anyone planning a court in an existing building, the clear height is often a harder number to meet than the floor space.

Indoor, outdoor and rooftop padel courts

The playing dimensions are the same wherever the court stands. What changes between an indoor padel court and an outdoor padel court is everything around it. Indoors, the 6 metre clear height is the number that decides whether a building can take a court at all, and every metre above it gives the lob more room. The light is all artificial, so it has to be even across the court and placed where it does not shine into the eyes of a player looking up at a lob. There is no wind, and the ball behaves the same from one week to the next, though a cold hall in winter makes a pressurised ball feel heavy and slow.

Outdoors, the ceiling is the sky, apart from the floodlight poles, but the weather comes in. Wind pushes the lob and the slow ball around, a low sun can blind a player looking up, and outdoor courts are commonly laid out roughly north to south so that the morning and evening sun does not shine straight down the court. Heat makes the ball livelier and the game quicker; cold and damp slow it down, and wet sand on the turf changes the bounce. Outdoor courts also tend to carry more sand and need drainage under the base. A canopy over an outdoor court, a roof open at the sides, keeps the rain off but not the wind or the cold.

A rooftop padel court is an outdoor court with more of everything: more wind, more sun and nothing nearby to break either. The structure has to be anchored against the wind, the roof has to carry the weight of the base, the glass and the steel, and extra netting around the roof is often added so that balls cannot go over the edge. Those are questions for a structural engineer rather than the rulebook; the playing area is still 20 by 10 metres. The padel balls guide explains which ball to pick for heat, cold and altitude.

Panoramic padel courts: no pillars in the corners

A panoramic padel court, also sold as a full vision or panorama court, plays to exactly the same dimensions and rules as a standard one. The difference is the frame. On a standard court, steel posts stand between the glass panels, including in the corners. A panoramic court takes the posts out of the corners and holds the glass with fittings and a structure designed to stay out of the line of sight, so the glass panels meet with nothing in the way. From behind the back wall or from a stand, you see straight through the court.

That clear view is why tour events, show courts and clubs with seating for spectators favour them, and why so many new club courts copy the look. For the players the playing area is unchanged; the gain is mostly in what spectators and cameras can see. Panoramic is a maker's label rather than an FIP category, and brands do not all use it the same way: some call a court with corner pillars panoramic and keep another name for the version without them, so look at the drawings rather than the name. The court cost calculator shows what the panoramic option adds to a build.

Smaller courts: the single padel court and kids' padel

A single padel court is built for one against one. It keeps the full 20 metre length but is usually 6 metres wide instead of 10, with the same net height and the same glass and mesh heights, and the back wall is typically three glass panels wide instead of five. The FIP rules only set the standard 20 by 10 metre court, so the 6 metre width comes from court builders and clubs rather than from an FIP rule, though the builders and club guides we checked all give the same figure. You will also see it sold as a padel tennis single court. Single courts are still rare, and most padel singles is played on a normal court using only the diagonal half; Spain's federation recognises both forms in its competition rules, crosscourt singles on a standard court and singles on a single court.

There is no official kids padel court. We could not find a smaller court in the FIP rules or from a national federation, and clubs run their junior sessions on the standard 20 by 10 metre court. For the youngest players, coaches often use only part of it, let the ball bounce more than once, and switch to softer, lower-pressure balls that travel slower and bounce lower, which gives a small child time to reach the ball. The bigger change is the racket, which should be shorter and lighter than any adult model; the kids' racket guide covers the sizes.

Padel court size against a tennis court

A doubles tennis court is 23.77 metres long and 10.97 metres wide, about 261 square metres inside the lines. The padel court size, at 200 square metres, is a little over three quarters of that, and the gap grows once you add the generous run-off a tennis court needs behind the baselines and beyond the sidelines. A padel court needs little space outside its walls by comparison, beyond the structure itself and some room at the side openings, which is why clubs converting old tennis courts can often fit more than one padel court into the same footprint. For a tennis player, the bigger change is not the area but the walls: the court is almost 4 metres shorter, and the ball does not leave play when it passes you. The guide for tennis players covers what that does to your game.

What the numbers mean on court

Most of these measurements explain habits you will see at any club. The 6.95 metres from net to service line is why serving and following the ball in works so well: the server reaches a strong position at the net in a few steps. The 3.05 metres behind the service line is why returners stand close to the glass rather than on the line, using the wall for room. The 10 metre width split between two players gives each of them 5 metres to cover, which is why so many points are won through the middle rather than down the sides. And the 3 metres of glass at each end, with mesh above, is why a lob that clears the net pair and drops in deep is so hard to deal with. Knowing the padel court dimensions will not win you a point on its own, but it does make the patterns of the game easier to read.