There are seven Dragon Balls in a standard set.

Quick Scoop

In the original Dragon Ball story, the iconic orange orbs you see Goku hunting for are a set of seven Dragon Balls, each marked with one to seven stars. When all seven are gathered, they can summon a dragon like Shenron to grant wishes, which is the core premise of the series.

Over time, the franchise introduced multiple sets (Earth’s, Namek’s, Super Dragon Balls, Demon Realm Dragon Balls), but almost all of these still come in sevens, with a few special exceptions like the Demon Realm set that only has three. So if someone asks “how many Dragon Balls are there?” in the usual sense, the simple, canon-friendly answer is: a set has seven Dragon Balls.

In short: One standard set = seven Dragon Balls, and different worlds can have their own sets built on that same idea.

TL;DR: A normal Dragon Ball set has seven Dragon Balls, usually used to summon a wish-granting dragon like Shenron.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.