How to Play FreeCell
FreeCell deals all 52 cards face up into eight columns — four of seven cards, four of six. Four free cells each hold one card. Build the tableau down in alternating colours, build four foundations up in suit from the Aces, and move all 52 cards to the foundations to win.
The rules, step by step
- 1Deal all 52 cards face upEight columns: the first four get seven cards each, the last four get six. Nothing is hidden.
- 2Build the tableau down in alternating coloursA red seven goes on a black eight. Sequences move together only if you have the capacity for it.
- 3Use the four free cells as temporary storageEach cell holds exactly one card, retrievable at any time.
- 4Any card may fill an empty columnEmpty columns double your moving capacity, so guard them.
- 5Build foundations up in suitAce first, then 2, 3, 4 … K in the same suit. Cards may be taken back down.
- 6Move all 52 cards to the foundationsThe game is won when every card is banked. With no hidden cards there is no luck left at the end — if the position is winnable, finishing it is bookkeeping.
Try it — the rules above, running
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Today’s deal
Everyone playing FreeCell today gets deal #1000140030. It changes at midnight UTC.
Track the month on the daily challenge page.
Replay a deal
Every deal is a pure function of its number, so deal #20260726 is the same shuffle on any device, any time.
Keyboard
- U / Z
- Undo
- R
- Redo
- H
- Hint
- N
- New deal (asks first)
- F
- Full screen
- A
- Auto-finish
- Esc
- Deselect, or leave full screen
What is the FreeCell layout?
- Four free cells, top left — one card each, any card.
- Four foundations, top right — Ace to King, one suit each.
- Eight tableau columns — the first four hold seven cards, the last four hold six.
- No stock and no waste. Everything is visible from the first move.
How do you move a sequence in FreeCell?
You do not, strictly — you move one card at a time and use free cells and empty columns as temporary space. The maximum length that can be shifted in one go is (free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns), and an empty column you are moving into does not count toward the exponent.
- 1Count your free cellsEach empty cell adds one to the base. Four empty cells means a base of five cards.
- 2Count your empty columnsEach empty column doubles the total, because it can hold a whole partial sequence rather than a single card.
- 3Subtract the destination if it is emptyMoving into an empty column consumes it, so it cannot double anything.
When should you send a card to the foundation?
Aces and Twos immediately. Anything higher only when no lower card of the opposite colour could still need it as a landing spot — in practice, when both opposite-colour foundations have reached at least one rank below the card, and the other suit of its own colour is within two.
How do you win more often?
- Empty a column before you fill the cellsAn empty column doubles your capacity; a free cell adds one. Four free cells and no empty column moves five cards. Three free cells and one empty column moves eight.
- Get the Aces out early, then stopAces and Twos cost nothing to bank. After that, every card sent up is a card that can no longer catch a lower one, so pause and check what still needs a landing spot.
- Plan the whole unstacking before you start itBecause all cards are visible, you can count the move exactly. If you cannot see the end of a manoeuvre, you are guessing — and in FreeCell guessing is how deals are lost.
- Do not park a low card in a cellCards in cells are dead until something accepts them. A card with no landing place — a lone Six with both black Sevens already banked — will sit there for the rest of the game.
Common questions about freecell
- How many cards can you move with 4 free cells?
- Five, if no column is empty. One empty column takes it to ten, two empty columns to twenty — as long as you are not moving into the empty column itself.
- Is FreeCell harder than Klondike?
- It is harder to play well and far easier to win. Nearly every deal is solvable, so a loss is a mistake rather than bad luck — which makes it feel harder even though the win rate is higher.
Ready to stop reading? Play freecell on the full board, with statistics, deal numbers and unlimited undo.