Guide
How to Play FreeCell
FreeCell is a game of planning, not chance. All 52 cards are dealt face up across eight columns — use four free cells to reorganise the tableau and lift every suit to its foundation from Ace to King.
Play FreeCellThe objective
Move all 52 cards to the foundations
FreeCell is played with one standard 52-card deck, and unlike most solitaire games every card is dealt face up. Four free cells sit above the left half of the board and four foundation piles sit above the right half, both empty at the start. You win when every card has been moved to the foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King.
Because nothing is hidden, the entire puzzle is visible from the first deal — the work is reading the position and finding the order of moves that clears it, using the free cells and empty columns as temporary workspace.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the board when you want to play; use this guide for the rules, the mechanics, and the habits that win more games.
The deal
Eight columns, four free cells, four empty foundations
All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight tableau columns — seven cards in each of the first four columns, six in each of the last four. The four free cells and four foundations start empty above the board. Nothing is drawn from a stock later; the whole deck is already in front of you.
Every deal here is generated from a game number, shown on the idle screen and in the HUD once you are playing. Note it down, or type one in directly, to come back to a specific board — almost every deal can be solved, so a game number worth sharing is usually one that gave someone trouble.
Controls
Drag, tap, or use the keyboard
Every method moves the same cards. Pick whichever fits the device in your hand.
Everywhere
Drag or tap-to-move
Drag a card or an ordered run onto its destination, or tap once to pick it up and tap the target pile to drop it. Legal destinations light up the moment you pick a card up, including how many cards a run move can carry.
Fast foundations
Double-click / double-tap
Double-click any playable card to send it straight to its foundation if the move is legal. It is the quickest way to clear Aces and low cards without dragging across the board.
Desktop
Keyboard
U undoes, H asks for a hint, A auto-plays every provably safe card to the foundations, N deals a new game, R redeals the current game number, and M mutes the sound. Every on-screen button also has a visible focus ring for keyboard navigation.
The loop
Four moves you repeat all game
Reading the board, then choosing between these four is the whole game.
- 1
Read the deal
All 52 cards are dealt face up across eight tableau columns — seven cards in each of the first four columns, six in each of the last four. Four empty free cells sit above the left half of the board and four empty foundations sit above the right half. Nothing is hidden, ever.
- 2
Build the tableau down
On the tableau, place a card on one that is one rank higher and the opposite colour: a red six goes on a black seven. An empty column is not picky — any card, or any ordered run, can start a fresh one, which makes emptying a column one of the strongest moves in the game.
- 3
Park cards in free cells
Each of the four free cells holds exactly one card as temporary scratch space, freeing up a buried card or making room to reorganise a column. A parked card can move back to the tableau or up to a foundation at any time.
- 4
Send suits to the foundations
Move each Ace up to a foundation, then build that pile in suit from Ace to King. Because every card is visible from the start, the whole game is a planning puzzle — work out the order that gets every card home, then execute it.
Rules & scoring
Every rule that decides a move
The objective
Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, each built up in a single suit from Ace to King. The game is won the moment the last King lands.
Tableau building
Tableau columns are built downward in alternating colours. A card or a correctly ordered run of cards can move onto a card one rank higher of the opposite colour. An empty column accepts any single card or any legal run, unlike Klondike-style games where only a King may start a new column.
Free cells
Each of the four free cells holds one card. A card sent to a free cell can be moved back to the tableau or up to a foundation at any time — there is no penalty beyond the free cell being unavailable for another card while it is occupied.
Supermoves
A drag can carry more than one card at once when the board has enough open free cells and empty columns to support it: the limit is (open free cells + 1) multiplied by 2 for every empty column, excluding the column you are moving into if it is itself empty.
Scoring
Scoring here is a lightweight efficiency score built for FreeCell specifically: +15 for a card that reaches a foundation, −20 for pulling one back off, and −1 for every other move, clamped at zero. Time and move count are tracked as the primary measures of a strong game.
Winning and getting stuck
Because every card is visible from the first deal, the overwhelming majority of FreeCell deals can be solved with the right sequence of moves — but working out that sequence, and not filling every free cell before you have a plan, is the whole challenge. Undo is unlimited, so a dead end is only final once you choose to move on.
Mechanics
Free cells and supermoves
These two mechanics are what make FreeCell FreeCell — understand them and the rest of the game is just applying them well.
- 01 · Four single-card holding spots
Free cells
A free cell is scratch space, not storage — anything parked there can move to the tableau or a foundation whenever a legal spot opens up. Filling all four at once removes your options, so the strongest players treat open free cells as a resource to spend deliberately, not a place to dump cards on autopilot.
- 02 · (open free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns)
Supermoves
Dragging an ordered run of several cards at once is really a shorthand for moving them one at a time through your free cells and empty columns, so the board only allows a run as long as your current free cells and empty columns could actually shuffle through. Open more of either and you can move longer runs in a single drag.
Common mistakes
Why winnable games get lost
Filling every free cell at once
Four occupied free cells means zero flexibility for the next problem you hit. Park a card only when you can already see how it comes back out.
Blocking your own Aces
Burying an Ace or 2 deep in a column early costs you foundation progress for the rest of the game. Scan for them before making an unrelated move.
Emptying a column without a plan
A cleared column is powerful, but only once you know what goes into it next. Clearing one just to clear it can strand the cards you moved out of it.
Ignoring the supermove limit
A long run drag can fail simply because the board does not have enough open free cells or empty columns to support it. Free up a cell first, or split the move into smaller steps.
- Survey the whole board before your first move — nothing is hidden, so the entire puzzle is visible from the deal.
- Treat free cells as a resource you spend, not a dumping ground. Filling all four with no plan can lock the board before you realise it.
- An empty column is the strongest tile on the board. Plan toward emptying one deliberately rather than by accident.
- Count your supermove capacity — open free cells plus empty columns — before committing to a long drag, since the board will simply refuse a run that is too big.
- Free Aces and 2s early, but do not rush every card to the foundations; a foundation card can come back down, but it costs tempo you may not have.
- Look two or three moves ahead. Because information is perfect, FreeCell rewards reading the position more than it rewards fast reflexes.
- Use undo freely to test a line. If a supermove does not open anything useful, take it back and try another order.
Where you can play
Same game on phone and desktop
playfreecell.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. Drag cards with the mouse, double-click to send a card to its foundation, or use the keyboard shortcuts for undo, hint, auto-play, and dealing.
Phones and tablets
The layout is touch-first. Tap a card to pick it up and tap a pile to drop it, or drag directly. All eight columns, the free cells, and the foundations stay on one screen in portrait, and restart is instant.
Progress on this device
Best score, best time, best move count, games played, and win streak live in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still stuck on a rule? Read the FreeCell FAQ or jump in and play.
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