You can play today's daily logic puzzle for free right now at major newspaper sites like the New York Times and LA Times, or on dedicated puzzle sites like Web Sudoku, Puzzlestoplay, and daily-sudoku.com — most publish a brand-new puzzle every day in multiple difficulty levels, no account needed. Want offline practice? Grab a sudoku puzzle book or try the trickier killer sudoku variant. Background reading: Sudoku on Wikipedia.
What Is a Daily Sudoku?
A daily sudoku is simply one fresh 9×9 number puzzle published each day by a newspaper, magazine, or website — everyone gets the same grid on the same day. The concept comes straight from print newspapers, which have run a new sudoku in their puzzles section for decades, and moved online with the same rhythm: solve today's grid before midnight, and a new one arrives tomorrow.
There is no single official game called "Sudoku Today." When people search for "sudoku today," they are really asking: where is today's puzzle, and how do I play it? Publishers use the daily refresh as a habit-builder — one puzzle a day keeps players coming back, and because the same puzzle is shared worldwide, you can compare times and strategies with other solvers.
The Best Places to Play Today's Sudoku
Not all daily sudoku sources are equal. Here are the established publishers and sites that reliably publish a fresh puzzle every day, all verified to exist and operate today.
New York Times
The New York Times runs a daily sudoku alongside its crossword and Wordle on NYT Games, offering three difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, and Hard. New puzzles are released in the evening US Eastern time, and the day's puzzle is free to play; full archive access requires a paid NYT Games subscription (gamlio.com/new-york-times-sudoku-guide/). The interface includes Normal and Candidate modes, hints, and move-by-move conflict feedback.
Los Angeles Times
The LA Times publishes a daily sudoku in its online games section (latimes.com/games/sudoku) with selectable difficulty from Easy up through Expert, plus a separate Impossible Sudoku on Sundays. It includes notes, auto-cleanup, and slash-note features, and a limited number of daily puzzles are playable for free, with the full archive behind a subscription.
Web Sudoku
One of the oldest sudoku sites on the web — launched in June 2005 by Gideon Greenspan and Rachel Lee and rated one of Time's 50 best websites in 2008 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Sudoku). Web Sudoku offers four difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, Hard, and Evil — with free unlimited puzzles, a "How am I doing?" mistake checker, pencil marking, and printable puzzles.
Daily Sudoku (daily-sudoku.com)
This site publishes a brand-new sudoku every day at midnight UTC in five difficulties — Very Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard — with no accounts and no paywall. Every puzzle is guaranteed to have exactly one unique solution, and its archive stretches back to 2011, so you can replay any missed day (daily-sudoku.com).
Puzzlestoplay
Puzzlestoplay's daily sudoku page serves up a fresh free puzzle every day with difficulties from Easy to Evil, keyboard and tap controls, pencil-mark notes, and a built-in hint system that explains why a move is correct — handy if you're learning. Print-friendly output is included (puzzlestoplay.com/sudoku/daily).
SudokuLoop
SudokuLoop runs a daily challenge with streak tracking — complete today's puzzle to build a day streak, with no login required. Difficulty levels include Easy, Medium, and Hard, with notes, hints, mistakes mode, and a timer in a clean mobile-friendly interface (sudokuloop.com/daily-sudoku).
How Daily Difficulty Levels Work
Daily sudoku difficulty has nothing to do with math ability — it reflects how many cells come prefilled and how advanced the logical techniques required are. An easy puzzle can usually be solved with simple scanning and single-candidate placements, while a hard or evil puzzle demands pattern techniques like pairs, triples, and X-wings.
Most publishers use one of these ladders:
- Easy / Very Easy — plenty of given numbers (30+), solvable by scanning rows, columns, and boxes.
- Medium — fewer givens; requires pencil-mark candidates and looking for pairs.
- Hard — requires deeper candidate analysis and pattern logic.
- Evil / Expert / Very Hard — sparse grids demanding advanced techniques and patience.
Beginners should start at the easiest level and move up only when they can finish comfortably in under 10–15 minutes. Difficulty labels vary between publishers — an NYT Medium may feel different from a Web Sudoku Medium — so treat the labels as a rough guide, not an exact science.
How to Solve Today's Puzzle: Beginner Strategies
You don't need to be a maths person to finish a daily sudoku. These are the core techniques that solve the vast majority of easy and medium puzzles:
1. Scan rows, columns, and boxes
Look at each digit from 1 to 9 in turn. If a 7 already appears in two rows of a 3×3 box, the third row's only available cell for 7 may be forced. Sweep the whole grid repeatedly — each placed digit reveals new placements.
2. Find "singles"
A naked single is a cell where only one digit can possibly go. A hidden single is a cell where one digit is the only possible placement for that digit in its row, column, or box. Scanning for singles solves most easy puzzles outright.
3. Use pencil marks (candidates)
When stuck, write small candidate numbers in each empty cell showing which digits are still possible. This turns guessing into logic: cells with only two candidates often unlock entire regions via pairs.
4. Look for pairs and triples
If two cells in the same row, column, or box both contain only the same two candidates, those two digits must occupy those two cells — so you can eliminate them from every other cell in that unit. This "naked pair" technique cracks many medium puzzles.
5. Use hints wisely
Online puzzles offer hints — use them as learning tools rather than crutches. When a hint shows you a move, work backwards to understand why it was the right move. That's how you build real solving skill for tomorrow's puzzle.
Daily Sudoku Sources Compared
| Publisher / Site | Difficulty levels | Cost | Notable features |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Times | Easy, Medium, Hard | Free daily; subscription for archive | Normal/Candidate modes, hints, same-brand crossword/Wordle |
| LA Times | Easy to Expert; Impossible Sudoku on Sundays | Free daily; subscription for full archive | Notes, auto-cleanup, slash notes |
| Web Sudoku | Easy, Medium, Hard, Evil | Free | "How am I doing?" checker, pencil marks, printable puzzles |
| daily-sudoku.com | Very Easy to Very Hard (5 levels) | Free, no account | Archive back to 2011, printable PDFs, unique solutions |
| Puzzlestoplay | Easy to Evil | Free | Hints that explain the logic, print-friendly |
| SudokuLoop | Easy, Medium, Hard | Free, no login | Daily streak tracking, timer, mobile-friendly |
Why Play a Daily Sudoku?
Beyond entertainment, a daily puzzle is one of the simplest mental habits you can build: five to twenty minutes of pure logic, once a day. Regular solvers report that the repetition sharpens pattern recognition — the same scanning and candidate skills that solve today's grid also make tomorrow's grid faster. Streak features on sites like SudokuLoop and the shared-daily-puzzle format on leaderboards add a gentle competitive edge that keeps the habit alive.
Where can I play sudoku for free today?
Play today’s free sudoku at the New York Times or LA Times games sections, or on dedicated sites like Web Sudoku, daily-sudoku.com, Puzzlestoplay, and SudokuLoop — all publish a fresh puzzle daily at no cost.
Is the NYT sudoku free?
Yes, the current day’s NYT Sudoku is free to play on the New York Times Games website or app in Easy, Medium, or Hard. Accessing older puzzles in the archive typically requires a paid NYT Games subscription.
How often does the daily sudoku change?
Once per day. Most sites refresh at midnight (daily-sudoku.com refreshes at midnight UTC), while the New York Times releases its new puzzles in the evening US Eastern time — Tuesday to Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, and Sunday to Monday at 6 p.m. ET.
What difficulty should beginners pick?
Start at Easy (or Very Easy where offered). Easy puzzles have more prefilled numbers and can be solved with basic scanning, which is the fastest way to learn the rules. Move up to Medium once you can finish an easy grid comfortably.
Can I play yesterday’s puzzle?
Usually, yes. Sites like daily-sudoku.com keep a full archive going back to 2011, and most newspaper games pages include an archive selector. The NYT archive requires a subscription, while most independent sites’ archives are free.
Is there a daily sudoku for kids?
Yes — daily-sudoku.com offers Sudoku puzzles for kids alongside its main daily puzzles, and many printable archives include smaller 4×4 or 6×6 starter grids designed for younger solvers.