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Games like the NYT Mini: daily mini crosswords

The New York Times Mini is a five by five crossword you solve against the clock in a minute or two, and it needs a subscription. Many newspapers and puzzle sites publish their own small grid every day for free, some with a leaderboard, and a few add a twist to the format.

The games

  1. LA Times Mini Crossword title card: the Los Angeles Times Games wordmark above a two by two grid icon and the words Mini Crossword on a coral background LA Times Mini CrosswordA free 5x5 grid every day by Elizabeth C. Gorski, with the last two weeks of puzzles in an archive. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight US Eastern Time
  2. Slate Mini Crossword title art: a drawn cat reaching for a ball of crossword-grid yarn above the words Slate Mini Crossword Slate Mini CrosswordA free 5x5 posted every morning at 6 a.m. Eastern, with every past mini archived. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes 6 a.m. Eastern Time
  3. Boston Globe Mini Crossword art: a few blue and white crossword squares on a light blue background Mini Crossword (Boston Globe)The Boston Globe's free daily mini, a 5x5 or 7x7 grid posted at midnight Eastern. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight Eastern Time
  4. A Telegraph Mini Crossword in the app: a 5x5 grid filled with FUN, AGAIN, SLIDE, TILES and SAT above an on-screen keyboard Telegraph Mini CrosswordThe Telegraph's free numbered mini in Telegraph Puzzles, with an archive of past days and a streak. Crosswords Browser, iPhone, Android 2 minutes Daily
  5. The Chicago Mini Crossword for October 6, 2026 by Kelsey Dixon: the info panel with a Start button over the five-by-five grid and its clues Chicago Mini Crossword (Chicago Sun-Times)The Chicago Sun-Times' free 5x5 by Kelsey Dixon, with clues that nod to the city. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Midnight US Central Time
  6. The Globe Mini illustration: a pencil drawn with crossword squares on its side Globe Mini (The Globe and Mail)The Globe and Mail's small daily grid by Jess Shulman, with older grids kept in an archive. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Midnight Eastern Time
  7. Yahoo Mini puzzle Try to Be Heard (Sep 28, 2026) in play: the 5x5 board partly filled with TEA, WHOSE, HOLY and YES, Across and Down clues on the left and the Instructions panel on the right Yahoo MiniYahoo's free daily mini, made with Puzzmo, timed and scored, with Plonks for answers solved without crossing letters. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Daily
  8. Mini Crossword Daily Easy #127 for October 26, 2026 at phone size: an empty 5x5 grid edited by Jeff Chen, with the first clue and the on-screen keyboard below Mini Crossword (minicrossword.com)Two free minis a day edited by Jeff Chen: a Daily Easy, 5x5 on weekdays and up to 7x7 at weekends, and a Daily Hard. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Daily
  9. Lex.Games Mini #949 for 22 October 2026 on the web: a five by five grid nearly filled (SARA, TRIO, BRICK, RASH) beside its Three Little Pigs themed Across and Down clues Lex.Games Mini CrosswordA numbered 5x5 by Lex Friedman, timed, with a daily Mini leaderboard to compare times as on the NYT Mini.No ads Crosswords Browser, iPhone 1 to 5 minutes Daily
  10. Mini 5x5 for 18 October 2026: today's empty 5x5 grid with one black square, the timer running, and the Across and Down clues beside it Mini 5x5Ponder Club's free 5x5 against the clock, with a daily leaderboard and an archive back to August 2025. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes At midnight Pacific time
  11. A DailyPlay Crossword Mini grid beside a list of clues Daily Mini CrosswordDailyPlay's 5x5 with about ten clues, a timer, three hints and an archive of past days, and no ads.No ads Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight local
  12. Mini·5 puzzle 75 for 18 October on desktop: the 5x5 grid with HIM filled in at 1 Across, the clue Wishes for better days, the timer and the on-screen keyboard Mini·5 (doce.games)A 5x5 from doce.games where your time is your score and each hint letter adds 30 seconds; no ads and no account.No ads Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight local
  13. A Crosshare mini crossword being solved on a phone: a 5x5 grid with LAUGH and ELISE filled in, the clue 1D about Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and the on-screen keyboard Crosshare Daily MiniOne community-made mini picked as the Daily Mini each date, credited to its constructor, with every past one archived…No ads Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight UTC
  14. Emcee mini crossword on mindloftdaily.com: an empty 5x5 grid with three black squares, the clue 1A Something worth having, and the Across and Down clue lists Emcee (Mind Loft)Mind Loft's free 5x5 with numbered Across and Down clues and a leaderboard on checks and time.No ads Crosswords Browser 1 to 3 minutes Midnight US Eastern Time
  15. Crossherd's mini crossword for 18 October 2026 on a desktop: an empty 5x5 grid with four black squares, the clue Cells that protect neurons above it and the clue lists beside it CrossherdCleverGoat's numbered daily 5x5 with a timer and an archive of earlier grids. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Midnight Eastern Time
  16. The Mini Crossword on Greatest Games at desktop size: the day's empty 5x5 grid beside its five Across and five Down clues, starting with Logic gate that inverts its input The Mini Crossword (Greatest Games)A free 5x5 on Greatest Games, new at midnight Eastern, where your solving time is your score. Crosswords Browser 1 to 3 minutes Midnight US Eastern Time
  17. Mini Meta's own artwork from The Washington Post: black and white crossword squares set as diamonds on a green tile Mini MetaThe Washington Post's 5x5 from Monday to Saturday; by Saturday the week's grids lead to a meta answer hidden as a path… Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes a day, longer for the meta Not confirmed this read
  18. Fox News Mini Crossword board for 26 October 2026: an empty 5x5 grid with black squares, a timer, the clue 1 Across Curved path and an on-screen keyboard Mini Crossword (Fox News)A free small daily crossword from King Features Syndicate on Fox News's games page. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Daily
  19. Illustration with the words Mini Word Cross on crossword tiles, a New York Post mug and people with pencils Daily Mini Crossword (New York Post)A free dated mini from the New York Post, with the past week on a date picker. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Midnight New York time
  20. Quick Cross in play on desktop: the 21 Oct 2026 4x4 grid with FAST typed down the first column, the clue list and a 4 moves counter Quick Cross (USA TODAY)USA TODAY's daily mini, free for a limited number of puzzles a week, with past days in an archive. Crosswords Browser, iPhone, Android 1 to 5 minutes Once a day
  21. Arkadium Mini Crossword for 19 October 2026 in play: a 5x5 grid with ROBE, PLAZA and ESPY filled down, Across and Down clues beside it, a timer and Check, Reveal and Print buttons Arkadium Mini CrosswordArkadium's small daily grid with Check and Reveal buttons for when you stall. Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Daily
  22. CNA's Daily Mini for 19 October 2026 (Singapore date): an empty four by four grid with 1 Across, Mineral springs, highlighted beside the Across and Down clue lists Mini Crossword (CNA)The daily mini from Singapore's CNA, solved against a running clock, free on the website and in the CNA app. Crosswords Browser, iPhone, Android 2 to 5 minutes Around midnight Singapore time
  23. The Fast Crossword icon: a small crossword grid with the letters L and V Fast Crossword (La Vanguardia)An English 5x5 with five clues across and five down on La Vanguardia's games page, timed in the style of American minis. Crosswords Browser 1 to 3 minutes Once a day
  24. The Hindustan Times Mini Crossword for Mon, Oct 19, 2026 on a phone: an empty 5x5 grid with the clue for 1 Across above it, timer and Assist bar on top Mini Crossword (Hindustan Times)The Hindustan Times' free dated 5x5 with the setter's name on each grid, a running time, and earlier days playable from… Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Midnight India time
  25. Today's Times of India Mini Crossword on a desktop: an empty 5x5 grid with six black squares, a timer, reveal buttons and clues such as Woodturner's spinning machine (5) Mini Crossword (Times of India)The free daily mini on TOI Games, timed, with a letter reveal that adds to your time and an auto check, in a grid whose… Crosswords Browser 1 to 5 minutes Daily
  26. A Pocket Grids 5x5 mini crossword in progress, with the clue 'Inactive chemically' highlighted beside the Across and Down clue lists Pocket GridsA numbered 5x5 posted each day in the Reddit community r/pocketgrids, where players also post minis of their own. Crosswords Browser, iPhone, Android 1 to 5 minutes A new daily mini is posted at 13:00
  27. STAT Mini promo: a three by three grid of coloured and white squares, captioned New game from STAT STAT Mini CrosswordSTAT's weekday mini, Monday to Friday, with clues built around health, medicine and science. Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes A new puzzle each weekday
  28. The Observer's Daily Mini Crossword for Friday, October 16: a seven by seven grid by Damian Grove with the across and down clue lists, 1 Across Requiring immediate attention Daily Mini Crossword (The Observer, Fordham)A free 5x5 from the Fordham Lincoln Center student paper, posted at midnight each weekday with a timer and clues drawn…No ads Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Daily
  29. The Nano Crossword on desktop: today's empty open 4x4 grid with no black squares beside its four Across and four Down clues and the clock The Nano CrosswordA 4x4 with no black squares, eight four-letter words in sixteen squares, that most players finish in under a minute. Crosswords Browser Under a minute Midnight US Eastern Time
  30. PlayFour! official art: a four-by-four letter grid with BRIE across, BESS down and SLED along the bottom row, the R square highlighted PlayFour!A 4x4 with eight clues by John Wilmes on GoComics Puzzles, which needs a subscription.No ads Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Daily
  31. Newsroom mini crossword for 6 October: an empty 4 by 4 grid with one black square beside its clues, from 'Radio modulation (1,1)' to 'Hatchet (3)', with 'Puzzles by Pagemasters' under the grid Mini Crossword (Newsroom)New Zealand's Newsroom posts a free 4 by 4 with eight short clues each weekday. Crosswords Browser 1 to 3 minutes Each weekday morning
  32. The YourLifeChoices Mini Crossword for 19/10/2026 on a phone: the whole empty 6x6 grid numbered 1 to 5 under the timer and Reveal Letter and Reveal Word YourLifeChoices Mini CrosswordA dated 6x6 with six plain clues and a timer from the Australian site YourLifeChoices, with the previous six days also… Crosswords Browser 2 to 5 minutes Once a day by the Australian date
  33. A PlusWord grid in Telegraph Puzzles with the PlusWord row below PlusWord (Telegraph)For Telegraph Puzzles subscribers: a 5x5 crossword whose answers then act as guesses for a hidden five-letter word… Crosswords Browser, iPhone, Android 3 to 5 minutes Daily
  34. Swap tiles in green, grey and black with a beach umbrella picture square Swap (Los Angeles Times)A themed mini on LA Times Games with all its letters on the board but scrambled; swap tiles until the answers fit their… Crosswords Browser 3 to 5 minutes Daily
  35. Shuffled #255, grid 1 of 3: a 4x4 board of scrambled letters, one J swapped into place and locked green, moves 1/20, clue Triangular sails ShuffledThree small scrambled crosswords a day, each solved by swapping letters within a set number of moves.No ads Crosswords Browser 5 to 10 minutes 6:00 AM UTC
  36. Crosswordle 1499 on 26 October 2026: 1 Across solved as REP in green after a first guess of RED, beside the guess rows and an on-screen keyboard Crosswordle (crosswordle.org)A hand-made 5x5 with no clues, where each across and down word is solved by Wordle-style guesses, plus a daily 7x7. Word Browser 5 to 15 minutes Midnight local
  37. The Wordcrux card: A mini but deadly crossword puzzle, with a daily puzzle grid WordcruxA daily mini where you guess five-letter answers and three wrong letters on any one square end the game.No ads Crosswords Browser 3 to 10 minutes Once a day
  38. Jumble Crossword Daily art: the colourful Jumble logo beside a crossword grid with numbered squares and circled letter boxes on a yellow background Jumble Crossword (Chicago Tribune)A small crossword where every answer also comes as jumbled letters, free on the Chicago Tribune's games site. Anagram Browser 5 to 10 minutes Daily
  39. Squared Away official art: a small crossword grid with the starter letters D, M, A, L across the top and B, E, F, P down the left side, the rest empty Squared AwayTwo small grids whose clues come mixed in one list, on GoComics with a subscription.No ads Crosswords Browser 3 to 8 minutes Once a day

The New York Times Mini is a clued five by five you race against the clock, so the closest matches are other dated 5x5 grids. For free ones, start with the newspapers. The Los Angeles Times mini is a 5x5 a day by Elizabeth C. Gorski, with the last two weeks in an archive. Slate posts a mini every morning at 6 Eastern and keeps every past one. The Boston Globe's mini is 5x5 or 7x7 and free on its games page, The Telegraph's mini is free in Telegraph Puzzles, and the Guardian posts a numbered 5x5 every day at midnight UK time. The Chicago Sun-Times, The Globe and Mail, Yahoo (made with Puzzmo), Fox News, the New York Post, Arkadium, Singapore's CNA and La Vanguardia, in English, have free daily minis too. USA TODAY's Quick Cross lets you play a limited number of puzzles free each week before asking for a Play subscription. Further afield, the Hindustan Times posts a free dated 5x5 every day and the Times of India a free timed mini whose grid shape changes daily, The Irish Times has The Daily Eight, a 7x7 grid with eight clues seven days a week, and The Indian Express and The Sydney Morning Herald, whose mini also runs in The Age, keep theirs for subscribers.

If the leaderboard is what you like about the Mini, try the Lex.Games Mini by Lex Friedman, Ponder Club's Mini 5x5 and Mind Loft's Emcee, each with a daily leaderboard. Mini·5 from doce.games makes the clock the whole game, with each hint letter costing 30 seconds, and DailyPlay's Daily Mini Crossword gives a timer, three hints and no ads. Minicrossword.com, edited by Jeff Chen, posts a Daily Easy and a Daily Hard each day, Crosshare picks one mini from its community of constructors as the Daily Mini, Pocket Grids posts a numbered 5x5 on Reddit every day, and The Observer, the student paper at Fordham Lincoln Center, posts a timed 5x5 each weekday. STAT's weekday mini leans on health and science clues.

For a twist on the format, The Washington Post's Mini Meta runs from Monday to Saturday, and by Saturday one answer from each of the first five grids gives a clue to a meta answer hidden in the last. PlusWord, for Telegraph Puzzles subscribers, has you solve a 5x5 and then use its letters to guess a hidden five-letter word. Swap from the LA Times and Shuffled give you every letter already on the board, in the wrong places. Crosswordle.org has no clues at all: each across and down word is its own small Wordle. Wordcrux ends the game when one square collects three wrong letters, and the Jumble Crossword gives each answer as scrambled letters beside its clue.

If even a mini feels long, The Nano Crossword is a 4x4 with no black squares, eight words in sixteen squares, and Newsroom's weekday mini and John Wilmes's PlayFour on GoComics (with a subscription) are 4x4 grids too. When a mini starts to feel short, The Atlantic's crossword begins mini sized on Monday and grows through the week, a gentle step towards full-size grids. Every daily mini crossword we list, in English and other languages, is on our daily mini crosswords page (/daily-mini-crosswords).

Questions

Is there a free alternative to the NYT Mini?

Yes. The LA Times, Slate, the Boston Globe, The Telegraph, the Guardian, the Chicago Sun-Times and Yahoo all publish a free mini crossword each day, The Washington Post's Mini Meta is free Monday to Saturday, and Ponder Club's Mini 5x5 and DailyPlay's Daily Mini Crossword are free too. The NYT Mini itself needs a New York Times Games or All Access subscription.

Which mini crossword has a leaderboard like the NYT Mini?

The Lex.Games Mini, Ponder Club's Mini 5x5 and Mind Loft's Emcee each have a daily leaderboard, and Yahoo Mini scores your time along with answers solved without crossing letters.

Which mini crossword has an archive?

Slate and the Guardian keep every past mini, Crosshare lists every past Daily Mini by month, Ponder Club's Mini 5x5 goes back to August 2025, the LA Times keeps the last two weeks, the New York Post the past week, and DailyPlay's, Crossherd's and The Telegraph's have archives of previous days.

Is there a harder mini crossword?

Minicrossword.com posts a Daily Hard mini beside its Daily Easy. Wordcrux ends the game after three wrong letters on one square, PlusWord, for Telegraph Puzzles subscribers, adds a hidden word to find after the grid, and The Washington Post's Mini Meta ends each week with a meta answer hidden in Saturday's grid.

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