FreeCell FAQ

FreeCell is a single-player card game played with one standard 52-card deck. Every card is dealt face up across eight tableau columns, so unlike most solitaire games nothing is ever hidden. Four free cells hold one card each as scratch space, and four foundations are built up by suit from Ace to King. Moving all 52 cards to the foundations wins the game.

Yes. playfreecell.app is completely free and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to buy, download, or install, and there are no interruptive video ads, premium tiers, or paywalls. Open the page and a game is already dealt.

No. The game is the website — a 100% browser-based build with no app store download and no sign-up. Your stats are saved locally in your browser, so there is no login to manage.

FreeCell traces back to Baker’s Game and earlier "open" patience variants played with all cards visible, formalised into the modern free-cell layout by Paul Alfille in 1978. It reached a mass audience when Jim Horne ported it to Windows, and Microsoft bundled it with Windows starting in 1995, introducing the numbered-deal format that let players compare notes on specific boards.

Klondike hides most of the deck face down and deals cards from a stock pile, which makes luck a real factor. FreeCell deals every card face up with no stock at all, so the entire game is visible from the first move and is decided almost entirely by planning rather than the shuffle. FreeCell also lets any card start an empty tableau column, not just a King.

Deal 52 cards face up into eight columns (the first four get seven cards, the last four get six). In the tableau, stack a card on one that is one rank higher and the opposite colour; an empty column accepts any card. Move cards to free cells for temporary storage, and move Aces up to the foundations, building each one up in suit. Win by clearing every card to the foundations.

Each of the four free cells holds exactly one card as temporary storage. Parking a card there can unblock a column or make room to reorganise the tableau. A parked card can move back to the tableau or up to a foundation at any time, but filling all four free cells at once leaves you no room to manoeuvre, so spend them deliberately.

A supermove is dragging an ordered run of several cards in one action instead of moving them one at a time. The board allows it up to a limit of (open free cells + 1) multiplied by 2 for every empty tableau column, because that is exactly how many cards you could shuffle through your free cells and empty columns manually. More open cells and empty columns mean longer supermoves.

FreeCell does not have a traditional points system the way Klondike does, so this build uses a light efficiency score: +15 for a card that reaches a foundation, −20 for moving one back off, and −1 for every other move, clamped at zero. Time and move count are tracked separately, since a fast, low-move win is usually the real goal.

Drag a card or an ordered run to its destination, or tap once to pick it up and tap the target pile to drop it. Double-click (or double-tap) sends a card straight to its foundation. On the keyboard, U undoes, H shows a hint, A auto-plays safe cards to the foundations, N deals a new random game, R redeals the current game number, and M toggles sound.

Auto repeatedly sends every card that is provably safe to promote — using the standard rule that a card is safe once both opposite-colour foundations are at least one rank behind it — up to the foundations, so you do not have to click through the obvious moves by hand. It only ever makes moves that cannot strand a card you still need, so it never plays a risky card for you.

Almost all of them. Because every card is dealt face up, FreeCell is a game of perfect information, and the overwhelming majority of deals — well above 99% — can be solved with the right sequence of moves. A famous exception is Microsoft deal #11982, proven unsolvable; a small handful of others are unsolvable too. If a deal truly has no path forward, deal a new game.

Survey the whole board before moving anything, since nothing is hidden. Keep free cells open until you have a plan for them, work toward emptying a column deliberately, and free Aces and 2s early without rushing every other card to the foundations. Undo is unlimited, so use it to test a line before committing to it.

Scan the whole tableau before touching a free cell. Play any Aces and 2s that are already exposed, look for a column you can partially clear toward an empty state, and only use a free cell once you can see how the card comes back out.

The current streak counts consecutive wins. Dealing a new game before winning the current one, or getting stuck with no legal moves left, resets the current streak to zero. Your longest streak is kept as a separate best.

Your best score, best time, best move count, games played, and win streak are saved locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account. Because the save lives on the device, a different phone, a new browser profile, or cleared site data looks like a fresh start. A game in progress is not saved if you close the tab.

Yes. The layout is built for touch: tap a card to pick it up and tap a pile to drop it, or drag directly. All eight tableau columns, the four free cells, and the four foundations fit on one portrait screen, and dealing a new game is instant with no page reload.

Every deal is generated from a numbered seed, shown on the idle screen and in the HUD. Typing a specific number and starting a game reproduces that exact deal, which is how you can retry a tricky board or come back to one you did not finish. "New game" picks a random number; "redeal" replays the number currently on screen.

The game needs a connection to load the page the first time. After that, some browsers may keep the tab playable without a network, but there is no dedicated offline app or installer.

Open Stats from the game menu and use Reset progress, then confirm with the second tap. That clears best score, best time, best moves, games played, and streaks on this browser. It cannot be undone.

Any current browser with JavaScript: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop, plus their mobile versions. If cards do not respond, update the browser, allow scripts for this site, and reload.