Help
How it works.
Everything you need to make a crossword, share it and print it. Can't find your answer? Write to us.
Making a crossword
- Type your words on the maker's first page, one per line. Names, places, dates spelled out, jokes only your family gets: anything 3 to 12 letters long, up to 60 answers.
- Make the grid. The crossword is built in seconds, from your words and nothing else. You'll see a few layouts to choose from; Optimise keeps working on the one you picked to make it tighter.
- Add or take out words at any time. If a word can't be fitted, you're told which one, so you can swap it for another or leave it out.
Spaces and punctuation are taken out of answers (Ice cream becomes ICECREAM, Jack-o'-lantern becomes JACKOLANTERN) and accents are dropped. You're shown every change, so nothing you typed disappears without a word.
Tip: a dozen or more words, with a few longer ones, gives the nicest grids. Words with common letters (E, A, R, S, T) cross each other more easily.
Writing the clues
Every answer gets a clue box, numbered as on the grid. You can also type a clue straight into your word list: put it after the word with a dash, like ROSE - Grandma's favorite flower.
The AI clue writer suggests clues for your answers in the tone you choose (easy, standard or tricky), and puts them in the boxes for you to edit. It runs on our own computer, not a third-party AI service, and sees only your answers and the tone, never anything else about you. Every free account can use it on 1 puzzle a month; Pro can use it on every puzzle.
Sharing and racing
When your puzzle is ready, Share gives you a link. Send it any way you like: a text, an email, a group chat. Whoever opens it can solve it in their browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no app and no sign-up. Their letters are saved on their own device as they go, so they can stop and come back.
Make it a race and everyone who opens the link puts in a nickname; each player sees how far the others have got, and the board shows who finished first and how long they took.
Shared puzzles are unlisted: only people with the link can find them, they aren't listed anywhere on the site, and search engines are asked not to index them.
Printing
The PDF is a typeset page: your title and the line under it, the grid, and the numbered clues, with the answer key on a page of its own. Choose US Letter or A4. It's US$3 a puzzle, or part of Plus and Pro (see pricing). Get it from Finish in the maker, or from Get the PDF at the bottom of a puzzle you made.
Once you've bought a puzzle's PDF, it's yours: print as many copies as you need, download it again any time, and change its title or clues for free.
Accounts and paying
You don't need an account to make or share a crossword. Without one, your browser keeps 10 of your crosswords. A free account (sign in with your email or with Google) keeps 25, safe across your devices; Plus keeps 100, and Pro every one. Crosswords you've bought a PDF of never count. You need an account to buy, so every PDF you buy can be downloaded again wherever you sign in.
Payments are handled by Stripe. Subscriptions can be cancelled any time from your billing page; you keep your plan to the end of the period you've paid for, and everything you've bought stays yours. See refunds if something goes wrong.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Making a crossword, writing its clues, and sharing it by link cost nothing, and you don't need an account to do it. You pay only if you want a print-ready PDF (US$3 a puzzle) or a plan for making lots of them.
What words can I use?
Any words that mean something to the people solving it: names, places, pets, inside jokes, a favorite song. Each answer can be 3 to 12 letters long, and a puzzle can hold up to 60 of them. Spaces and punctuation are taken out (Ice cream becomes ICECREAM), and if a word can't be fitted into the grid you're told which one and why.
Do I have to write the clues myself?
You write them, in a clue box beside each answer, so they sound like you. If you'd like a head start, the AI clue writer suggests clues for your answers in the tone you pick, and you edit whatever it writes. Every account gets it for one puzzle a month, free; Pro has it for every puzzle.
How do my friends solve it?
You send them the link. It opens in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer: no app and no sign-up. Their progress is saved on their device as they go, and if you make it a race, everyone who joins sees the others filling in and who finished first.
What's in the PDF?
A typeset page with your title, the grid and the numbered clues, sized for US Letter or A4, and the answer key on its own page. Once you've bought a puzzle's PDF it's yours: download it again any time, and change its title or clues for free.
Who can see the crosswords I make?
Only people you give the link to. Shared puzzles are unlisted: they aren't searchable, aren't listed anywhere on the site, and are marked so search engines don't index them. Our privacy policy lists exactly what is kept.
Can I use it with my class?
Yes, and teachers are some of our favorite makers: spelling lists, vocabulary, a book's characters, a history unit. Pupils can solve a shared link on school tablets without accounts, or you can print the PDF.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. Making and solving both work in the browser on any recent phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to install.
Can I make a word search?
Yes. On the maker's first page choose Word search, type your words, and pick how hard it is: across and down only, with diagonals, or every direction including backwards. You can hide a message in the letters left over, which appears once every word is found; the page tells you as you type how many letters it needs. Share it by link to solve on a phone, or print it with its answer key. With Plus or Pro, a class pack gives up to 40 different copies of the same words in one PDF, so no two students have the same grid. More about the word search maker.
Something isn't working.
Sorry about that. Tell us what you were doing and on which device, and we'll look into it.