What does shanten mean?

Shanten is the number of tile swaps you still need before the hand is ready to win. A hand with a shanten of 2 needs two useful tiles before it can win; a shanten of 0 means it is ready and any winning tile completes it.

Why does my hand not show a result?

A hand can only be read at certain sizes. Enter 13 tiles for a concealed hand, or 10, 7 or 4 when part of the hand is already exposed. Any other number of tiles cannot form a legal hand, so the checker waits.

Does this use the tiles that have been discarded?

No. The checker only sees the tiles you enter, so the remaining counts are based on your hand alone. On a real table some of those tiles will already be gone.

Which mahjong rules does this follow?

This version follows Hong Kong mahjong. The shapes it looks for — runs, triplets, pairs, seven pairs and thirteen orphans — are shared with most mahjong variants, so the result is a useful guide for almost any table.

Is my hand sent anywhere?

No. The checker runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter leaves your device and nothing is stored.

Mahjong Hand Checker

Tap the tiles in your hand and find out what it is waiting for — how far it is from ready, and which tiles would complete it.

Tap your tiles

Tap a tile to add it. Tap a tile in your hand to remove it.

Your hand

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How to use the hand checker

A mahjong hand checker is for the moment when you are staring at thirteen tiles and cannot tell whether the shape is close. Tap every tile you are holding into the grid above. There is no submit button: the mahjong hand checker updates as soon as the count is one that can be read — usually thirteen for a fully concealed hand, or ten, seven or four when part of the hand is already exposed on the table.

What you get back is three answers at once. First, shanten: how many tile swaps still stand between this hand and a ready shape. Second, if the hand is already ready, the exact waiting tiles that would complete it. Third, when the hand is not ready yet, the useful tiles that would bring the shape one step closer. Those three readings are the same ideas players argue about at the table — distance, waits, and acceptance — spelled out without requiring you to do the combinatorics yourself.

The remaining-count figure next to each waiting or improving tile only subtracts copies that appear in the hand you entered. It does not know what other players discarded or melded, because the checker cannot see the table. Treat that number as an upper bound: on a live table some of those copies may already be gone. That honesty is deliberate — a precise wall count would be a lie when the tool only sees your tiles.

Shareable links are part of the design. As you tap tiles, the address bar quietly stores the hand in a `hand` query string. Copy the URL, paste it into a chat or forum post, and anyone who opens it sees the same hand and the same reading. Illegal or truncated codes are ignored rather than throwing an error, so a broken paste never bricks the page.

This mahjong hand checker follows Hong Kong mahjong for the shapes it recognises — runs, triplets, pairs, seven pairs and thirteen orphans. Those building blocks overlap with most regional variants, so the distance reading is a useful guide even if your home table scores differently. Scoring itself is a separate question; when you already know what you are waiting for, the score calculator answers how many fan the completed hand is worth.

Use the checker while you play elsewhere: keep it in a second tab, mirror your current hand, and read the answer before you discard. Because the numbers come from the same engine that powers the practice tables on this site, a hand that looks ready here will look ready in a Hong Kong game here too. That consistency is the whole point of a checker that claims to read tiles rather than guess.

Shanten, tenpai and useful tiles

A mahjong hand is not a pile of tiles, it is a set of blocks: four groups of three plus a pair. Shanten measures how far the hand is from that shape, counting the swaps still needed. A hand at shanten 4 is a long way out; a hand at shanten 1 needs a single useful tile. The number is not a prediction of who wins, it is a reading of how close the shape is.

When shanten reaches 0 the hand is tenpai — ready. That is the point where the question changes from "what do I keep" to "what am I waiting for". A wait can be wide or narrow: a hand waiting on three kinds of tile can be completed by twelve tiles, while a single-tile wait may be down to two or three live copies. Two tenpai hands can look equally ready and be worth very different amounts, which is why a checker shows the waiting tiles rather than only the shanten.

Frequently asked questions

What does shanten mean?: Shanten is the number of tile swaps you still need before the hand is ready to win. A hand with a shanten of 2 needs two useful tiles before it can win; a shanten of 0 means it is ready and any winning tile completes it.
Why does my hand not show a result?: A hand can only be read at certain sizes. Enter 13 tiles for a concealed hand, or 10, 7 or 4 when part of the hand is already exposed. Any other number of tiles cannot form a legal hand, so the checker waits.
Does this use the tiles that have been discarded?: No. The checker only sees the tiles you enter, so the remaining counts are based on your hand alone. On a real table some of those tiles will already be gone.
Which mahjong rules does this follow?: This version follows Hong Kong mahjong. The shapes it looks for — runs, triplets, pairs, seven pairs and thirteen orphans — are shared with most mahjong variants, so the result is a useful guide for almost any table.
Is my hand sent anywhere?: No. The checker runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter leaves your device and nothing is stored.

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