It’s Sunday morning. You have your coffee. The sun is shining. You feel intellectual. You open a news website. You click “Crossword.” You solve three clues. You are feeling like a genius. And then, the pop-up appears.
“You have reached your limit. Subscribe for $40/year to finish this puzzle.”
It is the most buzz-killing moment in modern internet history. Look, I love the New York Times. Their crossword is the gold standard. But not everyone wants to pay a monthly subscription just to figure out a four-letter word for “Etruscan deity.”
Sometimes, you just want to kill 15 minutes at work while your boss isn’t looking. You don’t want to create an account. You don’t want to “Login with Facebook.” You just want the grid.
If you are tired of hitting paywalls, I have done the digging for you. Here are the best places to find free, high-quality daily crosswords that don’t demand your credit card info.
1. The “USA Today” (The Old Reliable)
If you want a crossword that feels professional but is completely free, this is your new home. USA Today has seemingly decided that crosswords are a public service.
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The Vibe: It’s “Medium” difficulty. It’s not impossible (like a Saturday NYT), but it’s not insulting (like a coloring book).
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The Tech: The interface is slick. You can play it on your phone browser without it glitching out.
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The Best Part: No login. You click the link, and the timer starts. They also have a “Stan Newman” daily puzzle which is a classic in the crossword world.
2. The “Guardian” (For the Masochists)
Okay, we need to talk about the British. The UK does crosswords differently. They have two types: Quick and Cryptic.
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Quick: This is what Americans are used to. Standard definitions.
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Cryptic: This is a nightmare realm where the clues are riddles, anagrams, and puns wrapped in a lie.
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Clue: “He bugs the crazy girl (7)”
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Answer: INSECTS. (Because “In” + “Sects”?? I don’t know, ask a British person).
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If you are brave, The Guardian website offers all of their puzzles for free. No paywall. The interface is clean, minimalist, and very “newspaper.” I recommend starting with the “Quick” crossword unless you want to spend your entire lunch break crying over one clue.
3. The “Boatload Puzzles” (Ugly but Infinite)
Do you care about aesthetics? If yes, skip this. If no, welcome to Boatload Puzzles.
This website looks like it was built in 1998 by a guy named Dave in his basement. It has zero graphics. The font is basic Arial. But it has a database of 40,000 puzzles. You can just keep clicking “Next Puzzle” until you die.
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Difficulty: Easy/Moderate.
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The “One-Click” Magic: There is literally no landing page. You load the URL, and you are inside a puzzle. It is the fastest way to start playing.
4. The “Washington Post” (The Stealth Option)
Most people think WaPo is fully paywalled. And for news, it is. But for games? They have a surprisingly generous free tier.
They host a “Daily Crossword” that is syndicated (usually from the LA Times or similar high-quality constructors). The Tangent (Why Syndication Matters): (You might notice that the puzzle on WaPo is the same as the one on another site. That’s because making a crossword is hard work. Constructors sell them to syndicates. It’s not “stealing,” it’s just how the industry works. It means you are getting a verified, human-made puzzle, not something generated by a bad AI).
5. Dictionary.com (Surprisingly Good)
I use this site to look up words I don’t know, but I recently discovered they have a daily crossword. It makes sense, right? They own the words.
Their player is very modern. It has features like:
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“Reveal Letter” (for when you are stuck).
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“Check Word” (to see if you are wrong).
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Dark Mode (essential for 2 AM solving).
It’s completely free, supported by ads (which are usually just banner ads on the side, nothing that screams in your face).
The “Archive” Hack (Infinite Content)
Here is a trick most people miss. On sites like USA Today or The Guardian, you aren’t limited to today’s puzzle. There is usually a tiny calendar icon or an “Archive” button.
You can go back in time. You can play the puzzle from June 12, 2019. Who cares if it’s old? A crossword doesn’t rot. (Unless the clues are about “Current President [4 letters]” and the answer is BUSH. Then it’s a history lesson).
What to Avoid (The Spam Traps)
If you just Google “Free Crossword,” be careful. You will land on sites that are 90% ads and 10% puzzle. If a site asks you to:
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Download an
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“Allow Notifications” to play.
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Register an email to “Unlock the Grid.”
Close the tab. The beauty of the crossword community is that there are enough legitimate newspapers giving this away for free that you never need to visit the sketchy corners of the internet.
The Tangent (Why do we do this?)
(I have a theory that we love crosswords because life is messy and unsolvable. You can’t “solve” your relationship problems or your career stress. But a crossword? It has a solution. Every box has a letter. Every clue has an answer. When you finish it, the grid is complete and perfect. It gives you a hit of dopamine that says: “Look, I fixed something. I made order out of chaos.” That is worth a lot. Even if the answer to 14-Down was a word I have never used in real life).
You don’t need the NYT subscription. Is the NYT app nice? Yes. Is it worth $40 if you are just a casual solver? No.
Bookmark USA Today for your daily fix. Bookmark The Guardian if you want to feel confused and British. And bookmark Boatload Puzzles for when you are on a slow Wi-Fi connection and just want pure, ugly, grid-filling action.
Now, go find a four-letter word for “Farewell.” (Hint: BYE).