Free alternatives to NYT Games, mapped game by game

There is no free app that replaces all of NYT Games, and every page claiming otherwise is selling you one of the parts. What works instead is to look at which puzzle you actually open every morning, replace that one, and let the rest of the bundle go. This is the map, game by game, with the honest answer about where each substitute falls short.

First: how much of NYT Games is already free

A surprising number of people pay to keep a habit that costs nothing. Checked on 17 September 2026, six of the puzzles are playable free on the web with no account: Wordle, Connections, Strands, the Mini Crossword, Letter Boxed and the daily Spelling Bee.

What the Games subscription actually buys is the full daily Crossword, the archives going back years, and the long-run statistics across every game. Those three things, not access to Wordle. So the first question is not “what replaces NYT Games”, it is “am I paying for the archive, or am I paying out of habit”. Pricing and terms move around, so confirm on the listing before you cancel anything.

If the answer is the archive, nothing free replaces it and you should keep the subscription. If the answer is habit, read on.

The map

If Wordle is the habit

Hello Wordl is the nearest like-for-like: same five boxes, same green and yellow feedback, and you can change the word length. The catch is that it is unlimited, and a fair number of people who think they love Wordle actually love the fact that it stops. If that is you, an unlimited clone will burn the habit out inside a fortnight.

Contexto and Semantle keep one word a day and change the deduction completely: you are guessing at meaning, not spelling, and the feedback is how close your guess sits to the target. Contexto is the gentler of the two. Quordle and Octordle go the other way, four and eight boards at once, for people who found one board too quick.

If the grouping puzzles are the habit

Puzzgrid is the closest thing to Connections and predates it, with a large community-written archive. The trade is consistency: an NYT Connections grid has been through an editor, and a Puzzgrid one has not, so you will meet both brilliant and broken puzzles in the same week. Take it as a feature.

For Spelling Bee, Blossom from Merriam-Webster is the obvious swap and is free daily.

If the Mini is the habit

Puzzmo is the strongest answer here. It is a daily puzzle site rather than a single game, it publishes a free daily crossword alongside several original puzzles, and it is the one place on this list that feels edited rather than generated. If you liked the Mini because it was small, well made and finished in three minutes, start there.

If it is the daily Sudoku, or the ritual itself

This is where Puzzle Lantern comes in, so treat the rest of this section as what it is.

Puzzle Lantern is a collection of four games, each with one Daily puzzle: the same grid, the same pattern and the same words for everyone playing that day. Sudoku is a complete 9×9 grid with pencil marks, unlimited undo and hints. Word Sense gives you three words a day to name from sentence prompts, with five clues each. Recall flashes a pattern and asks you to tap the cells back. Vanish shows a hand of cards and takes one away. Beyond the Daily, More puzzles is unlimited in Sudoku, Recall and Vanish.

Where it does not replace NYT Games:

• There is no crossword, and there is not going to be one soon. A daily crossword needs editors.
• There is no Connections-style grouping game and no Spelling Bee equivalent.
• There is no archive. Yesterday’s puzzle is gone, in every game.
• The Daily Sudoku generator runs at its Easy setting today. If you eat hard grids for breakfast, use More puzzles, which goes up to Expert.
• iOS only. Android is not submitted yet.

What it does have that the bundle does not: no signup form and no password, friends leaderboards for each game where both people had to agree to the connection, and no daily checklist asking you to finish the set.

Replace the puzzle you open every morning. Do not try to replace nine of them at once, because you were never playing nine of them.

If you want to browse rather than be told

Listdle is a directory of daily guessing games across words, geography, music, film, sport and maths. It is the fastest way to find the odd one that fits you, and it costs nothing to skim.

Questions people ask

Which New York Times games are free?

Checked on 17 September 2026: Wordle, Connections, Strands, the Mini Crossword, Letter Boxed and the daily Spelling Bee are playable free on the web. The full daily Crossword, the puzzle archives and the long-run statistics need the Games subscription.

Is there one app that replaces all of NYT Games?

No, and it is worth being suspicious of anything that says it does. Replace the one or two puzzles you actually play.

What is the closest free alternative to Wordle?

Hello Wordl for the mechanic, Contexto if you want to keep the once-a-day shape and change what you are deducing.

Where does Puzzle Lantern fit?

It covers the daily Sudoku habit and the daily word habit, through Word Sense. It has no crossword, no grouping game and no archive, and it is not pretending to be the whole bundle.