About Mini Crossword

A fast, free daily 5×5 crossword you play in your browser, with no paywall and no signup. It’s made by Coffee Break, a small independent studio that makes free daily puzzle games.

A new 5×5 every day at midnight Eastern Time, with the last 90 days kept in a free archive. There’s also a new 6×6 and 7×7 each day, and Unlimited mode for playing one after another. Every daily 5×5 in the archive has its own hints page and answers page.

• Free — no paywall, no signup
• A fresh 5×5 every day, plus 6×6 and 7×7 grids
• A free archive of the last 90 days
• Three-step hints and a full answer key for every daily 5×5
• Printable grids for solving on paper
• Progress auto-saved to your browser

Every puzzle on the site comes from our own puzzle generator. People don’t write the clues by hand, so here is exactly what does happen:

The grid

Our own software fills each grid from a crossword word list, using a small set of black-square layouts. It skips answers we have used recently and words on our blocklist, and an automatic check throws out weak fill before any clue is written.

The clues

An AI model writes the clues. A second AI pass then rates every clue and fact-checks it against the letters of its answer. A grid with a wrong or unacceptable answer is thrown away; weak clues get one rewrite, and if they are still weak the grid is thrown away too and the generator starts again. We also check that a new puzzle doesn’t duplicate an earlier one.

The hints

The three hints for each clue of the daily 5×5 are also written by an AI model, from a gentle pointer to a strong push that usually names the first letter.

Publishing

A scheduled job makes each day’s 5×5, 6×6 and 7×7 ahead of time. They go live at midnight Eastern Time.

Corrections

If a clue looks wrong, open Feedback in the menu and choose “Clue problem”. The report reaches us with the puzzle and the clue attached, and we fix the puzzle file. Clues players reported have already been corrected this way.

New to mini crosswords?

Start with the how-to-play guide, which solves a real puzzle step by step, then pick up the habits that make solving quicker in our solving tips. Curious about the format itself? Read what is a mini crossword?