Pickleball ratings answer one question: who should you play with so the game is fun for everyone? A 4.0 versus a 2.5 is not a game — it is a lesson. A 3.0 versus a 3.0 is a rally. Ratings make it easier for organizers to seed brackets, split courts by level at open play, and let auto-generated games produce close scores.
Every serious rating system in pickleball uses the same 2.0–8.0 numeric scale. That is why Pickle IQ, DUPR, and most club "3.5 court" labels are directly comparable.
These are the widely accepted skill bands. They apply to doubles play — singles typically runs a bit higher for the same player because the court is bigger relative to the number of players.
Pickle IQ's picker uses 0.25 increments from 2.0 to 5.5. If you are past 5.5, connect DUPR — a self-entered "6.0" is not what most people mean by it.
DUPR is the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating — an algorithmic 2.0–8.0 rating computed from real match results across the DUPR network. It updates whenever your matches are posted. Two numbers exist: doubles and singles , which move independently.
Self rating is what you enter in your Pickle IQ profile when you do not have a DUPR score. It uses the same 2.0–8.0 scale so it slots into the same matchmaking math.