What is the Waffle game?
The Waffle game is a word puzzle on a 5×5 grid shaped like a waffle. Six five letter words hide in it, three across and three down. All 21 letters are on the board from the start, but most sit in the wrong spot.
This site is a Waffle daily word game with its own puzzles. Our software checks every grid before it goes live. Each one uses real words, has only one answer and takes exactly 10 swaps to solve perfectly.
How do you play the Waffle word game?
Tap a tile, then tap another tile to swap them. You can also drag one tile onto another. Keep swapping until every word is right. You have 15 swaps. The full rules and tips page has worked examples.
What do green, yellow and grey tiles mean?
- Green: right letter, right spot. Green tiles stay put.
- Yellow: the letter belongs in a word that runs through this tile, just not here.
- Grey: no word through this tile needs this letter. It goes somewhere else on the board.
Nine tiles sit where an across word meets a down word. On those tiles, yellow means one of the two words needs the letter.
Watch out for repeated letters. In 93% of our grids, at least one word uses the same letter twice. The colours only mark as many copies of a letter as a word still needs, so a spare copy can show grey even when the word contains that letter.
How do you get five stars?
Solve the grid in 10 swaps. You start with 15, and every swap you have left at the end is a star. The trick is to find swaps that turn two tiles green at once.
| Swaps used | Swaps left | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 11 | 4 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| 12 | 3 | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| 13 | 2 | ⭐⭐ |
| 14 | 1 | ⭐ |
| 15 | 0 | 0, but solved |
| Not solved in 15 | 0 | 0, game over |
When does the next Waffle come out?
A new grid goes live at midnight UTC every day. Here is what that means in the places most of our players live. The times update for daylight saving on their own.
| City | New puzzle at |
|---|---|
| New York | 7:00 PM (Mon) |
| Los Angeles | 4:00 PM (Mon) |
| Toronto | 7:00 PM (Mon) |
| London | 12:00 AM (Tue) |
| New Delhi | 5:30 AM (Tue) |
| Sydney | 11:00 AM (Tue) |
The timer above the board also counts down in your own time zone.
What can you play here?
| Mode | Grid | Swaps | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Waffle | 5×5, 6 words | 15 (10 for five stars) | A quick puzzle and a daily streak |
| Deluxe Waffle | 7×7, 8 words | 25 (20 for five stars) | A longer, harder solve |
| Unlimited | 5×5 or 7×7 | Same as above | Practice with no daily cap |
| Archive | Every past daily grid | Same as above | Catching up on days you missed |
Everything is free. You do not need an account, and nothing to download.
Five tips for your first grid
- Read before you swap. Look at every word and note which letters are already green.
- Spot the easy word. Find the word with the most greens. Name it first, since it tells you which letters are left for the others.
- Mind the corners. Each corner sits in two words. A right corner letter helps both.
- Trade, do not shuffle. The best swap sends two letters straight to their homes. Look for tiles that hold each other's letters.
- Stop and think at 5 swaps left. From here every swap you waste costs a star.
Why do players lose stars?
Every grid can be solved in 10 swaps, and each extra swap costs a star. A swap that turns a grey tile yellow feels like progress, but the letter still has to move again, and that can cost a swap you did not need. Another common slip is fixing a row without checking the columns that cross it. The row looks done, but a shared tile is wrong for its column, and fixing it breaks the row.
Our rules and tips page walks through a real grid solved in 10 swaps, with a picture of the board after every move.
What do 254 daily grids tell us?
We keep track of every grid we publish. On a typical board, 5.3 of the 21 tiles start green, so you begin with a quarter of the grid already done. E is the letter you will move most: it is 13.3% of all letters. And a perfect solve here has about 5.7 swaps that fix two tiles at once, which is why hunting for those pairs pays off.
So when you are stuck on a letter, E is the safest first guess, and ER or ED is the first ending to try. The rules page has the full set of numbers.
Who made the original Waffle?
The original Waffle game was made by a developer known as jessian. This site is separate. We are fans of the format and we write every grid ourselves, so there is always a fresh one to play here.
How does Waffle compare with other daily word games?
In Wordle and its spin offs, like Quordle, you guess hidden words. In Connections you sort words into groups, and in Spelling Bee you build words from seven letters. Waffle is different: nothing is hidden. You get every letter from the start, and the whole game is about moving them into place in as few swaps as you can. If you like puzzles where planning beats luck, it is a good fit.
Stuck on today's grid?
Open the hints for Waffle #254. You get one clue per word first. The first and last letters come next, and the full answer shows only when you ask for it.
Is this the NYT Waffle?
No. Waffle is not a New York Times game, even though many people search for it next to Wordle and Connections. This site is an independent fan version with its own daily grids. Our page on NYT Waffle explains the mix up.
Where can you play Waffle online for free?
Right here, on any phone, tablet or computer. There is nothing to install and no account to make. Your daily progress and streak save in your browser, so you can close the tab and finish later.
Waffle guides and tools
- How to play Waffle: the full rules, with a real grid solved swap by swap.
- Waffle tips and tricks: how to find pair swaps and keep all five stars.
- Words in Waffle: the answer words that come up most, from every past grid.
- Waffle answers and hints: a nudge for today's grid, or the full solution.
- Waffle archive: every past daily grid, free to replay.
- Games like Wordle: more free word puzzles to play after this one.
- Wordle hint today: gentle clues for the daily Wordle, with the answer last.