Free NYT Games Alternatives: Daily Puzzles That Don't Need a Subscription
Not every New York Times game is behind the paywall, but the ones that are — the full Crossword, the complete Spelling Bee, Tiles, the archive — are the ones people miss most. Here's exactly what's free, what isn't, and a free replacement for each.
What's free on NYT Games right now
As of October 2026, you can play Wordle, Connections, Strands, the Mini Crossword and Letter Boxed without paying. You need a free NYT account to keep streaks synced across devices, but not to play. What needs the Games subscription: the daily full-size Crossword, Spelling Bee beyond the first few words, Tiles, Sudoku, and the archives for everything. Prices change, so check the current rate — but the point of this page is that you may not need it.
Instead of the Crossword
The Washington Post, USA Today and LA Times all publish free daily crosswords online, the LA Times being closest to NYT difficulty. Crosshare is a community site with hundreds of free, often excellent, constructor-made puzzles. And the NYT Mini is free, so a two-minute crossword fix is still on the table.
Instead of Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee lets you play a handful of words free before the paywall drops. The nearest free clone is Freebee, with the same seven-letter honeycomb and the same "pangram" bonus. Squaredle is a different shape — find words in a grid, Boggle style — but scratches the same find-everything itch and is entirely free.
Instead of Sudoku and Tiles
Sudoku is the easiest to replace: sudoku.com and websudoku.com have been publishing free dated puzzles for years. For Tiles — the pattern-matching chain game — Sumplete is a free daily logic grid with a similar calm, no-timer feel, and LinkedIn's Queens is a genuinely good place-one-per-region logic puzzle hiding inside a job site.
Instead of Wordle and Connections (if you want more)
Both are free, so this is about variety rather than replacement. Quordle (Merriam-Webster) is four Wordles at once. Waffle is a letter-swapping grid. For Connections, PuzzGrid has thousands of user-made "connecting wall" puzzles — the format Connections was borrowed from — and Red Herring on mobile does the same with more polish.
If you want numbers instead of words
The NYT's own number game, Digits, was shut down in 2023. The gap got filled: Nerdle is Wordle with equations, Mathler gives you the answer and asks for the sum, and XXI — ours — gives everyone the same 4×4 grid of digits and asks you to draw a path that adds to exactly 21, scored by how many tiles you used. All three are free, in the browser, no account, and all three fit in the same two-minute slot Wordle does. Try today's XXI if Wordle's letters never quite did it for you.
The honest trade-off
The NYT subscription buys you one thing the free alternatives can't fully match: the daily Crossword, edited to a standard nobody else quite hits, plus the archive. If that's your game, it's worth the money. For everything else on the Games tab there is a free version that's as good or better, and it's listed above.
Questions
Is Wordle still free?
Yes. Wordle, Connections, Strands, the Mini and Letter Boxed are free to play on the New York Times site and app as of October 2026. Only the full Crossword, full Spelling Bee, Tiles, Sudoku and the archives need a Games subscription.
What happened to NYT Digits?
Digits, the NYT's daily arithmetic game, was discontinued in August 2023 after its beta. Nerdle, Mathler and XXI are the free number games that cover the same ground now.
Do I need an account to play the free NYT games?
No. You can play without one; an account only syncs your streak across devices.