NYT Connections FAQ

Connections is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times. You get a grid of 16 words and must sort them into four groups of four, where the words in each group share a hidden link. It launched in June 2023 and has a new grid every day. Read the full rules →

Select four words you think belong together and press Submit. A correct guess reveals the group and its category. A wrong guess costs you one mistake. Solve all four groups before you run out of mistakes to win. How to play →

You have four mistakes. The fourth wrong guess ends the game, so you can safely miss three times. If the game says you are "one away", three of your four words are correct.

Yellow is the most straightforward group, green is a little harder, blue is trickier and often involves trivia or a clever phrase, and purple is usually the hardest, often built on wordplay. The colors only appear after you solve a group. Colors explained →

A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight in your local time zone. We usually publish the next puzzle's hints the evening before, US time, so they are ready when your grid refreshes. See today's hints →

Yes. Each group starts with a one-line hint. A single word from the group and then the category name sit behind separate buttons, and the full answers stay hidden until you open them. You choose how much to reveal.

Open the Yesterday page for the previous puzzle, or search the archive by date, puzzle number, word or category. Yesterday's hints →

Yes. Every puzzle we cover has its own page with hints, categories and answers. The archive is searchable and grows every day. Browse the archive →

The daily puzzle is free to play on the New York Times Games site and in the NYT Games app. Browsing the game's own back catalog has generally been a subscriber feature, which is one reason people use an archive like ours.

It means three of the four words you picked belong together and one does not. Swap out only the word you trust least instead of rebuilding the whole guess. Strategy guide →

A red herring is a word that seems to fit one group but actually belongs in another. Puzzle editors plant them on purpose, often by making five or six words fit a theme when only four are correct.

Purple is usually the hardest because it tends to rely on wordplay, hidden patterns or an unusual category. Blue is often a trivia or phrase group. Difficulty is revealed only after a group is solved, so do not assume the easy-looking group is yellow.

No. The game only tracks whether you solved the grid, not where you got help. Using a hint from a site like ours does not change how your streak or stats are recorded.

Scan all 16 words before you tap, find words that fit only one group first, use the shuffle button to clear false patterns, and treat every word as having a second meaning. Playing daily builds a mental library of the category types the editors favor. Read the strategy guide →

Each day's hints, category explanations and red-herring notes are drafted with AI assistance and run through automated checks. A hint is rejected if it contains any of the 16 puzzle words or the key words of its category, so it nudges without giving the answer away.

No. Connections Hint is an independent fan site. NYT Connections is a trademark of The New York Times Company. About this site →

Connections is available in the NYT Games app for iPhone and Android, as well as on the New York Times Games website.

Yes. Subscribe to our RSS feed in any feed reader to get a notice each time a new puzzle is posted. RSS feed →