How to Change Your USAP Membership Level

To register for USA Pickleball (USAP) sanctioned tournaments on Pickleball.com, you need a paid USAP membership — either Challenger ($12/year) or Championship ($60/year). The free Casual membership doesn't qualify for sanctioned events. You manage your USAP membership directly through the USAP website, not through Pickleball.com.

What are the USAP membership levels?

Level	Annual cost	Sanctioned tournament access
Casual (free)	$0	No — cannot register for USAP sanctioned tournaments
Challenger	$12/year	Yes — full access to sanctioned tournament registration
Championship	$60/year	Yes — full access plus additional USAP member benefits

Both Challenger and Championship memberships allow you to register for USAP sanctioned events on Pickleball.com. The difference between them is the scope of additional USAP benefits (insurance coverage, member discounts, etc.) — check usapickleball.org for the current comparison of what each level includes.

How to upgrade your USAP membership

USAP membership is managed through the USA Pickleball website, not through Pickleball.com. To change your membership level:

Go to USA Pickleball's login page
Log in to your USAP account (or create one if you don't have one yet).
Navigate to your membership settings. You can search for "individual membership" using the site's search
Click on your name to open your membership details.
Under the Individual Membership scroll to the far right side and click on the 3 dots under the Actions column. When the drop down comes up click on Change Membership Type
Select the membership level you want — Challenger or Championship.
Complete the checkout process at the bottom of the page.

Once your USAP membership is upgraded, the change should be reflected on Pickleball.com within a few hours. If your membership level hasn't updated after 24 hours, contact us at [email protected].

Note

Pickleball.com syncs your USAP membership status automatically. You don't need to do anything on Pickleball.com after upgrading on the USAP site — just wait for the sync to complete.

How do you know if a tournament requires USAP membership?

When browsing tournaments on Pickleball.com, sanctioned tournaments are labeled with a USAP sanctioning badge. If you try to register for a sanctioned tournament without a qualifying USAP membership (Challenger or Championship), the registration process will notify you that an upgrade is required before you can complete your registration.

Troubleshooting

I upgraded but Pickleball.com still shows my old membership level

Membership syncing can take a few hours. If your level hasn't updated after 24 hours, contact us at [email protected] with your USAP member ID and the date you upgraded. We can manually trigger a sync.

I can't find my USAP account

If you don't remember your USAP login credentials, go to usapickleball.org and use their password recovery process. If you're not sure whether you have a USAP account, contact USAP directly — they can look you up by name or email.

How to Cancel USAP Autorenewal — stop automatic membership renewal
How to Register for a Tournament — find and sign up for events
How to Change or Appeal Your Pickleball Rating — rating adjustments
How to Edit Your Pickleball Profile — update your profile settings

Need more help? Try our live chat, browse our FAQs, or submit a ticket and we'll get back to you. You can also email us at [email protected].