What is Gridz?
Gridz is a crossword puzzle without clues. You receive a grid with black squares already placed, but no numbers, no across list, and no down list. Every white square must be filled so the letters spell valid words in both directions, with crossings as the only constraint. Three grids appear daily: a 5×5 Mini, an 8×8 Main, and a larger Mega. The site describes a Monday-to-Sunday difficulty ramp.
How to play Gridz
- Select Mini, Main, or Mega at the top of the board, or use the arrows beside Today to navigate to another date.
- Type or tap letters into the highlighted square. The Across toggle under the keyboard switches between filling across and down.
- Watch the keyboard as you fill. It highlights the letters that can appear in the word you are currently working on.
- When stuck, use check or reveal on a single letter, the current word, or the entire grid.
- Finish the grid against the running clock, which appears beside a counter showing how many words are complete.
Reading the feedback
The grid does not color letters as you type, but it does track progress. As words lock in, the word counter under the board advances and the progress bar fills. To see whether individual letters are correct, you must use check or reveal. Correct letters turn green and wrong ones turn red.
Two readouts run continuously: a word counter and a timer. The keyboard provides live feedback by lighting the letters that belong to the word you are filling and graying the rest, narrowing the alphabet square by square.
Modes
Mini
The 5×5 daily grid, the quickest solve.
Main
The 8×8 daily grid.
Mega
A larger grid, the third of the day's three puzzles.
Why play Gridz?
Without clues, the crossword becomes a matter of satisfying intersecting constraints. You enter a plausible word, and the crossing letters either fit or show that it does not. Size changes how mistakes behave: in the Mini, one wrong crossing is exposed almost at once; in the Mega, a bad guess can keep causing trouble across many entries. The highlighting keyboard helps narrow the choices, so solving does not reduce to blind trial and error.
Tips and strategy
Work from the crossings rather than from isolated words. A letter is useful only when it fits both the across and down entries. Squares where two long entries meet often provide the most information.
Look at the keyboard before typing. It limits the displayed letters to those relevant to the entry you are working on, giving you a narrower set of possibilities.
Check one letter before removing an entire word. The check tool works at the letter, word, and puzzle levels, and the letter check is usually enough to resolve a doubtful crossing.
If the Sunday grid is giving you trouble, try again on Monday. The site says the puzzles get harder through the week, starting with a Monday warm-up.
Popular questions
Really no clues at all?
None. The board contains only white and black squares. Every white square must form a word across and another word down.
When do new puzzles land?
The footer below the board says that new puzzles appear at 9:00 am.
Can I play earlier boards?
Yes. Use the arrows on either side of the Today button to move through dates for the selected size.
Is there anything to keep me coming back?
The site offers a daily streak, a timer, and times you can compare with friends.