Play the daily midi crossword free — a 9×9 that sits between the mini and the full crossword, edited by Jeff Chen (150+ NYT puzzles). No account, no paywall.
Free forever. No account, no paywall. A fresh 9×9 midi crossword every day — bigger than a mini, quicker than a Sunday — hand-crafted and edited by Jeff Chen, constructor of 150+ New York Times crosswords.
Welcome to midicrossword.com — the free daily midi crossword. The midi is the sweet spot: a 9×9 grid that gives you a real puzzle with room to breathe, without eating your whole morning like a full crossword. A few minutes, a satisfying solve, a streak worth keeping. No signup, no subscription, no paywall. Just open it and solve.
The midi crossword sits right between the mini and the full-size puzzle. Where a mini is a quick 5×5 and a full crossword is a sprawling 15×15, the midi is a focused 9×9 — room for some clever longer answers, small enough to finish on a coffee break. Across and down clues, crossing entries, the works, in three to five minutes. It's the puzzle for when the mini's too quick but the full crossword's too much. New to the format? Read what a midi crossword is, or see how the midi compares to the mini.
Like the crosswords you grew up on, the midi gets tougher as the week goes on — Monday's a gentle start and the weekend bites hardest. The grid stays a 9×9, but the clues sharpen day by day.
That weekly arc is something to notice: it's the rhythm classic crosswords have always had, and it gives you a reason to come back — Monday eases you in, Sunday makes you earn it. Want a tougher solve any day? There's a Daily Hard midi too. And when one a day isn't enough, Unlimited and the Archive have you covered.
Fill the 9×9 so every across and down clue is answered correctly. Click a square and type; click again to switch between across and down. A wrong letter just won't check — guess freely and lean on your crossings. On a 9×9, even short answers create lots of crossings, so a letter you're sure of unlocks several clues at once.
Every daily midi — the Daily Easy and the Daily Hard — is edited by Jeff Chen, a crossword constructor with 150+ puzzles published in The New York Times, plus hundreds more in the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, and beyond. For a decade he wrote the daily NYT-puzzle analysis at XWord Info; he edits the Sunday crossword at Andrews McMeel Universal; and he's mentored dozens of constructors into their first NYT byline. Will Shortz has called his puzzles "ingenious."
A 9×9 lives or dies on its fill and its clues — and that's exactly where an expert constructor beats an algorithm: cleaner grids, fairer crossings, an "aha" that actually lands. More about Jeff.
(Unlimited puzzles are auto-generated for infinite practice; a Chen-edited Unlimited filter is on the way. For now his hands are on the two dailies.)
A midi crossword is a mid-size crossword — a 9×9 grid — that sits between the quick 5×5 mini and the full 15×15 puzzle. Bigger than a mini, faster than a full crossword, usually solved in three to five minutes.
Yes — free forever. No subscription, no paywall, no daily limit. A fresh daily midi, a hard midi, and unlimited practice puzzles, all free. The past 7 days of daily puzzles are open to everyone; a free account unlocks the full archive.
No — play instantly, no signup, and the past 7 days of daily puzzles are open too. Your stats and streak save locally, but local storage is per-browser and can slip if you switch devices or clear your data. A free account (just an email and password, or Google sign-in) keeps them reliable and synced — and unlocks the full daily archive, every puzzle back to day one, not just the last week. Free to play either way; the account adds durability and history, never access.
Most solvers finish in three to five minutes — longer than a mini, much shorter than a full crossword. New solvers might take a bit more; that's normal.
Yes — this is one. midicrossword.com is a free, no-account midi crossword with daily puzzles edited by celebrated NYT constructor Jeff Chen, plus an unlimited mode. No subscription required.
Jeff Chen, constructor of 150+ New York Times crosswords, edits both daily midis — the Daily Easy and the Daily Hard.
We're Hey, Good Game — a small studio that builds and buys brainy games, for good. We think a daily puzzle can be a genuinely healthy habit, and we're set on making the best free version of one. Learn more about us.
midicrossword.com is not affiliated with The New York Times or its games.