Best Crossword Apps in the UK (2026): Cryptic, Quick and Free

The best crossword app in the UK depends on one question: do you want a cryptic? If you do, the Guardian's website gives you a daily Cryptic and Quiptic free, and Times Puzzles and Telegraph Puzzles sell the newspaper cryptics as apps for a few pounds a month. If you want a quick crossword with plain clues, the same three publishers cover that too, and the big free apps (Puzzle Page, Daily Themed Crossword, Grid Genius) fill in with a daily habit that costs nothing.

We checked every price on this page against the UK App Store, Google Play or the publisher's own site on 22 September 2026, in pounds. Our wider best crossword apps comparison is written for a US reader and priced in dollars. This one is for a solver in Britain, where the newspaper you grew up with matters more than the app store chart.

The short version

• Best free cryptic: the Guardian's website. The Cryptic, Quiptic, Quick cryptic, Prize and Genius puzzles load in a browser at no cost, with check and reveal tools and a PDF to print.
• Best newspaper cryptic app: Times Puzzles or Telegraph Puzzles. Both are subscription apps that carry the paper's Cryptic and Quick crosswords, plus the Times Concise and the Telegraph Toughie.
• Best for learning cryptics: Learn Cryptic Crosswords by Teazel (chapter 1 free, £4.99 to unlock the rest) and Crossword Genius on iOS, whose AI explains the wordplay behind any clue.
• Best free quick crossword habit: Puzzle Page for a page of British puzzle types every day, or Grid Genius for a free daily challenge and AI puzzles on your own topics.
• The American one: NYT Games is on the UK store and it is excellent, but its crossword is an American-style grid with American spelling and references.

Cryptic, quick or concise: which crossword do you want?

British newspapers run two different games under the word "crossword", and the apps sort along the same line.

A cryptic clue is a small puzzle in itself. It contains a definition and a piece of wordplay (an anagram, a hidden word, a charade), and the surface reading is designed to mislead you. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph each run one every weekday, with a harder version at the weekend (the Guardian Prize, the Telegraph Toughie) and a gentler one for beginners (the Times Quick Cryptic, the Guardian Quiptic and Quick cryptic). If you have never solved one, our guide to the art of crossword clues explains how a clue is built.

A quick or concise crossword uses plain definition clues. The Guardian calls it the Quick, the Times calls it the Concise, the Telegraph calls it the Quick. This is the crossword most people mean when they say they do the crossword on the train, and it is the kind that Puzzle Page, Daily Themed Crossword and Grid Genius produce.

The grid differs too. British grids leave roughly half the letters unchecked, so you cannot lean on the crossings as much. American grids, including the NYT, check every letter. That is why an NYT puzzle feels alien to a Telegraph solver and vice versa, quite apart from the spelling.

UK crossword apps compared

Prices are what the UK App Store, Google Play or the publisher's website showed on 22 September 2026. Where a listing shows several monthly plans we give the range. Where we could not verify a figure we say so rather than guess.

The apps, one by one

The Guardian: free crosswords on the website, puzzles inside the news app

The Guardian is the only one of the three big papers that gives its crosswords away. The crosswords page at theguardian.com is titled "Online and free", and on the day we checked it listed the Quick, Sunday quick, Mini, Quick cryptic, Quiptic, Cryptic, Prize, Genius, Weekend and Special series. We opened the day's Cryptic (No 30,118, set by Boatman) in a browser with no account: it came with Check Word, Reveal Word, Clear Word, an Anagram Helper, Check All and Reveal All, it saved our progress automatically, and it offered a PDF version for print.

The app story is more confusing, which is why "guardian crossword app" is such a common search. The standalone Guardian Puzzles app closed in 2024. Its App Store and Google Play listings both return nothing today, so if you still have it installed do not expect updates. Crosswords now live inside the main Guardian news app, which the Google Play listing describes as free to download with a Puzzles hub, and which every crossword page on the website points you to ("Download the Guardian app for a better puzzles experience"). That app is ad-supported and sells a Premium tier: the UK App Store lists monthly Premium plans at £5.99 and £11.99 and an annual plan at £114.99. The listing does not say whether the crosswords inside the app are part of Premium or free, so we will not claim either. The website is the route we can vouch for.

Best for: anyone who wants a daily British cryptic or quick crossword for nothing and does not mind solving in a browser.

Times Puzzles and the Times Crossword Club

The Times sells its puzzles two ways, and the prices are different, which trips people up.

The Times Puzzles app (published by Times Media Limited) carries "all Times and Sunday Times crosswords, including Concise, Cryptic, Quick Cryptic, Jumbo and General Knowledge", plus Sudoku, Killer Sudoku, Futoshiki, Kakuro, KenKen, Lexica, Polygon, Quintagram, Set Square and Suko. The catch is the archive: the listing says two weeks, not decades. The UK App Store lists three monthly plans, £3.99, £4.99 and £6.99, each after a 7-day trial for new customers, and the Google Play description says an app subscription does not include any other Times product. If you already pay for a Times digital subscription, you log in and the app is included.

The Crossword Club is the web version, at thetimes.com/puzzles. On the day we checked, the Times was offering its puzzles subscription at £1 for the first 3 months and £4.99 a month after that, described as unlimited access to Times Puzzles, and the hub listed the day's Times Concise, Times Cryptic and Times Quick Cryptic alongside the Crossword Club. That is the cheaper door if you solve at a desk.

One honest note before you subscribe: the app's Google Play listing showed a 1.9-star average from 166 reviews when we looked. Read the recent ones before you commit.

Best for: Times solvers who want the Cryptic and the Quick Cryptic on a phone, and anyone who wants the Concise with a proper British grid.

Telegraph Puzzles

Telegraph Puzzles (the app is listed as "Telegraph Puzzles: Word Games") is the most complete of the newspaper apps on paper. The App Store description lists the Quick Crossword, the Cryptic Crossword, the General Knowledge Crossword (a weekly prize puzzle), and the Toughie, which it calls "the Telegraph's hardest (and most rewarding) crossword", alongside a Mini Crossword, PlusWord, Cross Atlantic, Sudoku, Codewords, Kakuro and Panagram. It talks about an archive of more than 30,000 extra games, and it tracks streaks and achievements.

Pricing, from the UK App Store on the day we checked: Telegraph Puzzles Annual at £49.00, with £3.99 and £29.99 options also listed. Google Play advertised an introductory year for £1. The Google Play description is blunt about the free tier: without a subscription "you can still browse the app, but not play any of the puzzles". The Telegraph's website is more generous, with a free Mini Crossword, Mini Cryptic, Mini Sudoku and Mini Codewords each day, which is a good way to sample the setters before you pay. The same caveat as the Times applies: the app's Google Play listing showed a 1.7-star average from 461 reviews.

Best for: Telegraph readers, and anyone who wants the Toughie, which is the hardest daily cryptic sold as an app.

Crossword Genius: an AI that explains cryptic clues (iPhone only)

Crossword Genius, from Unlikely Artificial Intelligence Limited, is not a newspaper app. It is a solving companion. Its AI, called Ross, will give you hints on a cryptic clue, explain how the wordplay works, or solve it outright if you are stuck. You can photograph a crossword from a newspaper or magazine and solve it on the phone with Ross alongside, import puzzles from the web through a Safari share, and there is a free cryptic every day called the Daily Bite plus a free tutorial pack. The listing says it supports British quick crosswords too.

Two things to know. It is iPhone and iPad only: the developer's own website still asks you to leave an email to be told when an Android version is ready. And the last update on the App Store, version 2.92, dates from 2021, so it is a finished product rather than a growing one. The listing still offers it for iOS 12 or later, and the explain-a-clue feature is the best teaching idea of anything on this page.

Best for: beginners who want to understand why the answer is the answer, and solvers who do the paper crossword and want a second opinion.

Learn Cryptic Crosswords by Teazel

If Crossword Genius is the tutor, Learn Cryptic Crosswords is the textbook. It is a six-chapter course that takes you through every type of cryptic clue, with diagrams, interactive exercises, a practice puzzle at the end of each chapter, a selection of newspaper puzzles at the end, and a set of reference tools for solving. Chapter 1 is free. The UK App Store lists "Access to every chapter" at £4.99 as a one-off, with cheaper £3.99 and £2.99 prices also shown, and the Google Play listing carries no ads label. Both versions were updated in 2026.

Best for: anyone who has looked at a Times Cryptic, understood nothing, and wants to fix that in a fortnight.

Puzzle Page

Puzzle Page delivers a fresh page of puzzles every day, and its list reads like the back of a British newspaper: Crossword, Codeword, Word Search, Sudoku, Killer Sudoku, Kakuro, Futoshiki, Picture Cross and more than 20 types in total, with a calendar to browse over 2,000 past pages. It is free with ads. The UK App Store lists a monthly subscription at £5.99 and a 12-month subscription at £35.99, which unlock the daily pages, more than 2,500 past pages, a library of subscriber-only Special Issues and remove the ads, with coin and token packs from £2.99 to £19.99 if you would rather pay as you go.

There is no cryptic. What you get is a quick crossword and a codeword every day inside a wider puzzle habit, which suits people who alternate the crossword with sudoku.

Best for: the puzzle-page solver who wants the whole page, not just the crossword.

Daily Themed Crossword

Daily Themed Crossword, by PlaySimple Games, shows more than 10 million installs on its Google Play listing, and it is a themed quick crossword: a new puzzle every day, with a different theme each day of the week (the listing names Movies, Sports, Technology, Games, History and Architecture) and hints for the obscure words. It is free with ads. A VIP membership listed at £7.49 on the UK App Store removes the ads, adds five free archive puzzles a day and unlimited access to the Mini archive, and coin packs run from £0.99.

It is the most casual entry here. There is no cryptic mode, and the themes on the listing are general ones rather than anything British.

Best for: a light daily crossword with a theme, on a phone, for nothing.

NYT Games (and why it feels wrong to a British solver)

NYT Games is on the UK App Store and it is one of the best-made crossword apps anywhere. The daily Crossword gets harder through the week, the Mini and the new Midi are quick, and subscribers can solve more than 10,000 past puzzles. The UK listing shows a Games monthly plan at £2.99.

The reason it sits low on a UK list is not quality. The NYT Crossword is an American-style puzzle: every letter is crossed by two answers, the spelling is American, and the references lean American. There is no cryptic. If you learned on the Telegraph you will find it fast and strange, and if you learned on the NYT you will find a Times Cryptic impenetrable. Neither is wrong. They are different games.

Best for: solvers who want the American crossword tradition, or who play Wordle and Connections anyway.

Grid Genius: crosswords on any British topic, with AI hints

Grid Genius does something none of the newspaper apps do. Instead of a fixed puzzle a day, it generates a crossword on any topic you name: the 2005 Ashes, the Premier League, Formula 1, the Tudors, Doctor Who, your village. You choose the size and difficulty and a clue style, Straight or Punny. Ready-made topic collections cover cricket, football and Formula 1, among many others.

The hints are the other difference. Most apps reveal a letter. Grid Genius's AI Hints rephrase the clue or add a related fact, so you still do the solving. Free accounts get two AI hints a day, plus a daily bonus and rewarded ads for more.

The free tier is broad: a free daily challenge with a global leaderboard and streaks, community puzzles, and two puzzle makers (word list and freeform) that need no account. Every account gets 3 AI-generated puzzles to start and then 1 free a day. Pro is $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year (the UK App Store lists it at £7.99 and £49.99; store prices are localised) for unlimited AI puzzles and hints, an ad-free app, news-grounded puzzles and premium themes. If you would rather build a puzzle from your own words for a quiz night or a classroom, the free crossword puzzle maker runs in a browser.

Be clear about what it is not. It does not have cryptic clues, so it is not a Times substitute. The puzzles are AI-generated, not set by a named human. There is no .puz import. And it loads puzzles from the server, so the offline option is to print. The free tier shows ads, and our guide to crossword apps with no ads explains which ones and how Pro removes them.

Best for: solvers who want a quick crossword about something they care about, teachers and quiz-setters, and anyone bored of generic puzzle libraries.

Is the Guardian crossword app free?

The short answer: the Guardian's crosswords are free, the old app is gone, and the new home is the news app.

Free means free. Every crossword on theguardian.com, from the Quick to the Prize, opens in a browser without a subscription or an account, with the check and reveal tools most apps charge for and a PDF for print. You lose sync between devices and you get the website's ads, but you get the complete daily output of the best-known cryptic setters in Britain for nothing.

The standalone Guardian Puzzles app, which used to sell a subscription of its own, closed in 2024, and its store pages no longer exist. The crosswords moved into the Guardian's news app. That app is free to download and carries ads, and it sells Premium plans from £5.99 a month on the UK App Store. Whether the crosswords inside it need Premium is not stated on the listing, so if you want a guarantee, solve on the website and treat the app as a bonus.

The best app for cryptic crosswords

Nobody has built a great cryptic app from scratch, so the answer is a pairing: one place to solve and one place to learn.

To solve. The Times Puzzles app and Telegraph Puzzles are the two purpose-built British options, and which one you pick is mostly which paper you read. The Times gives you the Cryptic and the friendlier Quick Cryptic with a 7-day trial; the Telegraph gives you the Cryptic plus the Toughie, with free minis on its website to taste first. The Guardian's website gives you the Cryptic and the Quiptic free, which is the right starting point if you have never paid for a puzzle.

To learn. Learn Cryptic Crosswords teaches the clue types in order, with a free first chapter, and Crossword Genius (iPhone only) explains the wordplay of any clue you type in. A month with either, alongside the Guardian Quiptic, is how most people we know got from "I cannot do these" to finishing a weekday cryptic. Our how to solve crossword puzzles guide covers the general habits that carry over.

Not for cryptics. Puzzle Page, Daily Themed Crossword, NYT Games and Grid Genius all use plain clues. They are a different pleasure, not a lesser one, and Grid Genius in particular is where to go when you want a crossword about the Six Nations rather than whatever the setter chose.

How to choose a crossword app in the UK

• You want a daily cryptic and you do not want to pay. The Guardian's website. Bookmark the Quiptic on Mondays.
• You read the Times. Times Puzzles for the phone (£3.99 to £6.99 a month after the trial) or the web subscription (£1 for 3 months, then £4.99 a month) if you solve at a desk. Check whether your existing Times subscription already includes it.
• You read the Telegraph. Telegraph Puzzles at £49 a year on the App Store, or the £1 introductory year on Google Play. Try the free minis on the website first.
• You want to learn cryptics. Learn Cryptic Crosswords (chapter 1 free), then Crossword Genius on iPhone for explanations while you solve the Guardian free.
• You want a quick crossword every day, free, on a phone. Puzzle Page for the full puzzle page, Daily Themed Crossword for a themed grid, or the Grid Genius daily challenge for a fresh puzzle with a leaderboard.
• You want a crossword about a topic you choose. Grid Genius. Three AI puzzles free to start, then one a day, unlimited on Pro. It is the only app on this list that will write you a crossword about county cricket on request.

One last tip that applies to all of them: buy the annual plan only after a month on the monthly one. Two of the newspaper apps carry low store ratings for the app itself, and a year is a long time to be stuck with an app you dislike.

Frequently asked questions