PSA Centering Standards (2026): 55/45, 75/25 and Every Grade Explained
PSA's official centering standards for every grade, PSA 10 to 1.5, front and back: 55/45, 75/25, the 5% leeway, OC qualifiers and what 58/42 really gets.
PSA's published centering standard for a PSA 10 Gem Mint is approximately 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the back. A PSA 9 allows approximately 60/40 front and 90/10 back. PSA 8 is 65/35 front, PSA 7 is 70/30, PSA 6 is 80/20, PSA 5 and 4 are 85/15, and PSA 3 down to PSA 1.5 are 90/10 on both sides. Every one of those figures comes straight from PSA's grading standards page, and the full table is below.
Two words on that page matter almost as much as the numbers: "approximately" and "eye appeal." PSA writes the centering lines as approximate targets, adds a footnote allowing a small variance at the grader's sole discretion, and publishes a 5% leeway for the front of cards grading PSA 7 or better. So the standard is firm enough to plan around and soft enough that a 57/43 card is a coin flip, not a rejection.
This article walks the whole ladder, explains the 60/40-to-55/45 change that still confuses people, covers the OC qualifier and PSA's 2021 policy, and finishes with what to expect when your own card measures 56/44, 58/42 or 62/38.
The official PSA centering table, grade by grade
PSA states its centering requirement inside each grade description on its standards page. Pulled out into one table, front and back:
| PSA grade | Front centering | Back centering | PSA's wording |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Gem Mint | ~55/45 | 75/25 | "within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse" |
| 9 Mint | ~60/40 | 90/10 | "approximately 60/40 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse" |
| 8 NM-MT | ~65/35 | 90/10 | "approximately 65/35 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse" |
| 7 NM | ~70/30 | 90/10 | "approximately 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back" |
| 6 EX-MT | 80/20 | 90/10 | "80/20 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse" |
| 5 EX | 85/15 | 90/10 | "85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back" |
| 4 VG-EX | 85/15 | 90/10 | "85/15 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back" |
| 3 VG | 90/10 | 90/10 | "90/10 or better on the front and back" |
| 2 Good | 90/10 | 90/10 | "90/10 or better on the front and back" |
| 1.5 Fair | ~90/10 | ~90/10 | "approximately 90/10 or better on the front and back" |
| 1 Poor | not stated | not stated | No centering figure given |
Three things jump out once it is laid out this way.
First, the front ladder is not evenly spaced. From 10 to 7 the steps are 5 points each (55, 60, 65, 70), then there is a 10-point jump to PSA 6 at 80/20, and PSA 5 and 4 share the same 85/15 line. Centering stops separating grades below EX; corners, edges and surface wear do that work instead.
Second, the back is looser than the front at every grade, and dramatically so at the top. A PSA 10 back may be 75/25, a full 20 points past the front line. From PSA 9 down to PSA 4, the back standard sits at 90/10 and never moves.
Third, the word "approximately" appears on grades 10, 9, 8, 7 and 1.5 but not on 6, 5, 4, 3 or 2. That is not an accident of drafting. The grades where a 2 or 3 point difference decides real money are exactly the ones PSA wrote with wiggle room.
60/40 or 55/45? The PSA 10 standard change
If you search "PSA 10 centering" you will find guides that say 60/40 and guides that say 55/45. Both were right at some point. PSA's official standards page now reads approximately 55/45 on the front for a Gem Mint 10. Secondary sources report the tighter figure replaced 60/40 in early 2025, and collectors noticed it as a quiet edit rather than an announcement. The exact date is not published by PSA, so treat any date you see as a third-party claim.
What matters for your submission is simple: 55/45 is the published PSA 10 line, and 60/40 is now the published PSA 9 line. Any guide still saying 60/40 for a 10 is describing the older standard.
In millimeters, the gap between those two lines is small. Take an English card with a total left-plus-right border of 5.0 mm:
- 55/45 means 2.75 mm on one side and 2.25 mm on the other, a difference of 0.5 mm.
- 60/40 means 3.0 mm and 2.0 mm, a difference of 1.0 mm.
Half a millimeter separates the old 10 line from the new one. That is why measuring by eye fails, and why a proper measurement (see how to measure card centering at home) pays for itself before you mail anything. For the specific question of whether a 60/40 card can still gem, see is 60/40 centering a PSA 10?.
What "approximately" means: the eye-appeal clause
PSA says out loud that centering is partly a judgment call. The standards page carries a footnote: "At the grader's sole discretion, a small variance may be permitted on occasion based on the card's overall eye appeal." And in a section titled "Importance of Eye Appeal and Subjectivity," PSA explains that while most cards fall clearly within the centering guidelines for a grade, some fall just inside or just outside the printed lines, and graders reserve the right, based on the strength or weakness of the eye appeal, to make a judgment call.
The examples PSA gives are instructive because they show the variance cutting both ways. A 1955 Topps Koufax with a low-contrast yellow background may receive an unqualified grade despite borderline centering, because the off-centering is hard to see. A 1957 Topps Koufax, with a high-contrast design, "one that technically measures for a particular grade – let's say 70/30, may be prevented from reaching that unqualified grade because the market would view that card as off-center."
Translate that to modern cards and the lesson is: the same 58/42 measurement looks different on a thick yellow Pokémon border than on a thin silver one, and different again on a white-bordered vintage card against a dark photo. A high-contrast border makes a small shift obvious; a low-contrast border hides it. PSA is telling you its graders react to what the card looks like, not only to what it measures.
The 5% leeway for PSA 7 and above
Buried in PSA's qualifier text is the most concrete statement of how much slack exists: "A 5% leeway is given to the front centering minimum standards for cards which grade PSA 7 or better."
PSA's own worked example: a card that meets all the other requirements for PSA 9 and measures 60/40 on the front automatically meets the PSA 9 front centering standard. If it measures 65/35, "it may be deemed to meet the PSA front centering standards for PSA 9 if the eye appeal of the card is good."
Read carefully, that is a two-tier rule. Inside the published line, you pass automatically. Up to 5 points outside it, you may pass if the card looks good. Beyond that, no. Applied to the top grade, the published 10 line is 55/45 and the leeway zone runs to roughly 60/40. That is consistent with what collectors report: cards in the 56/44 to 59/41 range sometimes gem and sometimes do not, and the deciding factor is usually how obvious the shift is on that particular design.
Note the limits. The leeway is for the front only, for cards grading PSA 7 or better, and PSA says it applies at the grader's discretion. There is no published leeway on back centering, and the 75/25 back line for a 10 is already generous.
How PSA measures: the worse side rule
PSA also describes, briefly, what it is measuring. Centering is determined "by comparing the measurements of the borders from left to right and top to bottom," and it "is designated as the percent of difference at the most off-center part of the card."
That last phrase is the one collectors miss. Left/right and top/bottom are two separate measurements, and the worse of them is your centering. A card that is 51/49 side to side and 60/40 top to bottom is a 60/40 card in PSA's eyes. Being dead-on in one direction does not average out a miss in the other. Top/bottom is, in collectors' experience, more often the axis that fails, partly because sheet cutting tends to drift more in one direction and partly because the top and bottom borders on many designs are thinner and less forgiving. We go deep on this in both axes off vs one axis off.
Measure both axes, front and back, and the worst of the four numbers is the one to compare against the table.
Off-center qualifiers: OC, MC and the 2021 policy change
PSA has two ways to handle a card whose centering is worse than its grade allows. It can lower the numerical grade to whatever grade's centering standard the card does meet, or it can give the higher grade with an OC (Off Center) qualifier. PSA's standards page puts it this way: "Cards that are off center will either by designated 'OC' or will have a numerical grade that reflects the minimum centering allowed for the grade."
PSA's glossary example is the clearest illustration: a card that "exhibits all the qualities of a NM-MT 8, but is 90/10 centered left to right, will receive a grade of NM-MT 8oc."
OC is not the same as MC (Miscut). MC is for "any and all cards that exhibit an atypical cut for the issue, which may result in portions of the subject card being cut off or more than one card being visible." An off-center card has all of its own design on it, just shifted; a miscut card shows part of a neighbor, or loses part of itself. A card with a factory cut abnormal enough for the issue can also come back as no-grade N8 Miscut, and PSA states you are not charged the grading fee in that instance. The full breakdown is in off-center vs miscut: PSA OC and MC qualifiers explained.
Policy matters here. In its June 2021 customer update, PSA announced: "PSA no longer requires card submitters to decide on qualifiers. Going forward, the Marks (MK) and Miscut (MC) qualifiers will continue to be applied when warranted. The other qualifiers – Off Center (OC), Staining (ST), Print Defect (PD) and Out of Focus (OF) – will be assigned at the grader's discretion, and most typically will impact the numerical grade rather than carrying a qualifier."
So today, a badly centered but otherwise perfect card most often simply gets a lower number. A 9 OC is possible but is the exception. Collectors report that in the sports market a qualified grade trades roughly two grades below its number, which is why many submitters preferred the lower straight grade even when they had the choice.
Half-point grades put "a clear focus on centering"
PSA awards half grades on the basis of high-end qualities within a grade, and it names centering as the attribute it looks at first. The standards page says: "Cards that exhibit high-end qualities within each particular grade, between PSA 2 and PSA 9, may achieve a half-point increase. While PSA graders will evaluate all of the attributes possessed by a card in order to determine if the card may be eligible, there will be a clear focus on centering."
That is the practical use of the centering ladder for anyone chasing an 8.5 or 7.5: a card that meets the next grade's centering line while being held back by a corner or a surface issue is the classic half-grade candidate. Centering is the attribute PSA names when it explains half points, so a PSA 8-quality card centered 58/42 is in a better position for an 8.5 than one centered 64/36.
What to expect when your card measures 56/44, 58/42 or 62/38
Here is how to read your own numbers against the published lines. "Worse axis" means the worse of left/right and top/bottom on the front.
| Your worse front axis | Against the published table | Realistic expectation |
|---|---|---|
| 50/50 to 55/45 | Inside the PSA 10 line | Centering will not be the reason you miss a 10 |
| 56/44 | 1 point past the 10 line | Inside "approximately"; collectors report these usually gem if the rest is clean |
| 58/42 | 3 points past the 10 line, inside the 9 line | Coin flip for a 10; depends on design contrast and the rest of the card; safe PSA 9 territory |
| 60/40 | On the 9 line | Published PSA 9 centering; a 10 is possible only via discretion, not by standard |
| 62/38 | 2 points past the 9 line | Inside the 5% leeway zone for a 9 if eye appeal is good; otherwise PSA 8 territory |
| 65/35 | On the 8 line | Meets PSA 8; may be deemed to meet PSA 9 "if the eye appeal of the card is good" |
| 70/30 | On the 7 line | PSA 7 centering; leeway may still carry a good-looking card |
| 75/25 to 80/20 | Past 7, at or inside 6 | PSA 6 ceiling on centering alone |
| 85/15 | PSA 5 and 4 line | Mid-grade at best regardless of corners |
| 90/10 | PSA 3 and below | Or a higher grade with OC, at the grader's discretion |
The back follows the same logic with its own numbers: up to 75/25 is fine for a 10, and anything from 76/24 to 90/10 caps you at PSA 9 unless discretion intervenes. A 70/30 back is not a problem for a Gem Mint on paper; an 80/20 back is. We go through that separately in does back centering matter?.
A worked example makes the front table concrete. Say you measure a modern card's top border at 2.9 mm and its bottom border at 2.1 mm. The ratio is 2.9 / (2.9 + 2.1) = 2.9 / 5.0 = 58%, so the card is 58/42 top to bottom. If left/right measures 2.6 mm and 2.4 mm, that is 2.6 / 5.0 = 52%, a 52/48. The worse axis is 58/42, and that is the number to compare to the table: past the 10 line, inside the 9 line, a candidate for a 10 only on eye appeal.
How to check your own card before you submit
Because the difference between the 10 line and the 9 line is half a millimeter on a typical border, you need a real measurement, not a glance. Take the card out of the sleeve, photograph or scan it flat and straight on, and measure from the card edge to the outer printed border on both sides of each axis. The free card centering calculator does the measurement from a photo in the browser with adjustable guide lines and maps the result to the PSA, BGS, CGC, SGC and TAG lines in one pass, and our grading standards guide keeps the full tables in one place. If you want to see how PSA's numbers stack up against the other graders' before you choose where to send a card, the card centering tolerances by grade table puts them side by side.
Bottom line
- PSA's published PSA 10 centering standard is approximately 55/45 front and 75/25 back; 60/40 is now the PSA 9 line, and older guides quoting 60/40 for a 10 are out of date.
- The ladder runs 55/45, 60/40, 65/35, 70/30 for grades 10 through 7, then 80/20 (PSA 6), 85/15 (PSA 5 and 4) and 90/10 (PSA 3 to 1.5). Backs are 90/10 from PSA 9 down to PSA 4.
- "Approximately," the eye-appeal footnote and the 5% front leeway for PSA 7 and up mean borderline cards are judgment calls; high-contrast borders make a shift look worse.
- PSA measures left/right and top/bottom separately and uses the most off-center part of the card; one good axis does not cancel a bad one.
- Since June 2021, OC is applied at grader discretion and usually shows up as a lower number rather than a qualifier.
- Measure to the half millimeter before you submit: 56/44 usually gems, 58/42 is a coin flip, 62/38 is a 9 at best.
Frequently asked questions
What are the PSA 10 centering requirements?
PSA's published standard for a PSA 10 Gem Mint is centering within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the reverse. The word approximately is part of the standard, and PSA's page also notes that a small variance may be permitted at the grader's discretion based on overall eye appeal. In practice, measure both axes and treat 55/45 as the line you want to be inside.
Did PSA change the PSA 10 centering standard from 60/40 to 55/45?
PSA's official grading standards page currently lists approximately 55/45 on the front for a PSA 10. Many older guides and forum posts still quote 60/40, and secondary sources report the tighter figure appeared in early 2025. Whatever the exact date, 60/40 is now the published line for a PSA 9, not a 10, so plan submissions around 55/45.
What is PSA back centering for a 10?
The back of a PSA 10 may be off-center up to 75/25. For PSA 9 through PSA 4 the back standard tightens to 90/10 or better, and for PSA 3 and below it is 90/10 front and back. The back tolerance for a 10 is looser than the front because back designs are usually lower contrast and less visible in the slab, but a back worse than 75/25 can still cost you the 10.
What does the 5% leeway on PSA centering mean?
PSA states that a 5% leeway is given to the front centering minimum standards for cards that grade PSA 7 or better. Their own example: a card measuring 60/40 automatically meets the PSA 9 front standard, and a card measuring 65/35 may still be deemed to meet it if the eye appeal is good. It is a discretionary cushion, not a guarantee, and it applies to the front only.
What does PSA OC mean on a label?
OC is PSA's Off Center qualifier. A qualified card meets every criterion for a grade except one area; PSA's own example is a card with all the qualities of an NM-MT 8 but 90/10 centering receiving an 8 OC. Since June 2021 PSA no longer asks submitters to choose, and OC is applied at the grader's discretion and most typically affects the numerical grade rather than adding the qualifier.
Is 58/42 centering good enough for a PSA 10?
58/42 sits between PSA's published 10 line of approximately 55/45 and the 9 line of approximately 60/40. On paper it is a PSA 9 front. Collectors report that borderline cards with perfect corners, edges and surface sometimes still receive a 10, but it is a judgment call tied to eye appeal, and you should not count on it. Measure both axes, because only the worse one matters.
