Connections is the one that makes group chats argue. Sixteen words, four hidden categories, and the constant trap of a word that looks like it belongs somewhere else. We wanted that same “wait, which four go together” puzzle available whenever the mood strikes, so we built Category Grid, an original word-grouping game that runs right here on this page. Four mistakes, one daily puzzle everyone shares, and a practice mode for whenever you want another round. Free, no download, no signup.
Play Category Grid now
Tap four tiles you think share a hidden category, then hit Submit.
How to play
Sixteen words sit on the board, and four of them secretly share a category with three others. Select four tiles by tapping or clicking them, then press Submit. Get all four right and the group locks in at the top with its own color and its category name revealed. Get it wrong and you lose one of your four mistakes, shown as dots under the board. If three of your four picks were actually correct, we tell you with a one away nudge instead of leaving you guessing blind.
Two tabs sit above the board. Daily serves one puzzle that is the same for every player until midnight, and Practice deals a fresh set of categories every time you tap it, with no limit on rounds. A Shuffle button rearranges the remaining tiles if you want a different visual layout, and Deselect clears your current picks. Your streak and your best mistake count are saved on your device. Nothing leaves your browser.
How it compares to Connections
Category Grid keeps the mechanics that make Connections addictive: sixteen words, four hidden groups, a four-mistake limit, and the one away hint that keeps a near-miss from feeling like a dead end. The daily puzzle is shared by everyone who plays that day, so you can compare notes the same way people compare their grids from the original.
The categories themselves are ours, built across four difficulty tiers from plain groupings to wordplay-style connections, and every word in our list is unique to its own category, so there is never a genuinely ambiguous tile hiding two valid answers. The big addition is Practice mode. The official game gives you exactly one puzzle a day, which is deliberate and part of its appeal, but some afternoons you want five rounds back to back. Practice mode keeps its own session separate from your daily streak, so a practice binge never inflates results you did not really earn on the daily board.
One honest caveat: our daily puzzle will never match the real Connections answer, since our category list and our date seed are entirely our own. If your group chat is comparing the actual New York Times grid, this is a companion for extra rounds, not a substitute. We also skip accounts, cross-device sync, and any archive of past puzzles, since everything here lives in your browser’s local storage.
The original stays free to play on the NYT site and inside the NYT Games app, which also bundles Wordle, the Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Strands for subscribers who want the full set.
Get the official game
Connections lives inside NYT Games, the same New York Times app that carries Wordle, the Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Strands. The daily puzzle is free to play with an account, and a Games subscription unlocks the archive and the rest of the puzzle lineup. If you liked our Wordle-style game, our Wordle web alternative is worth a round too.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play Connections unlimited for free?
The official Connections gives you exactly one puzzle a day, with no unlimited mode. Category Grid, the game on this page, answers that directly: switch to the Practice tab and it deals a brand new set of sixteen words and four categories every time, free, with no cap and no signup.
Is this the real Connections?
No. Category Grid is an original game we built, inspired by the group-four-words puzzle format that made Connections a daily habit. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The New York Times in any way. The categories, the word list, and the code are entirely our own, and the download links above point to the official NYT Games app.
Is the daily puzzle the same as the official Connections?
No. Category Grid picks its daily categories from its own list using its own date seed, so it will never match the NYT answer grid. Every player here does get the same four categories on the same day, which keeps daily results comparable among people playing on this page. Treat the two dailies as separate puzzles with separate answers.
Does it work offline?
Once the page has finished loading, the game makes no further network requests, so it keeps working through a dropped connection and your stats stay stored on your device. For puzzle access without any connection at all, the NYT Games app is the better fit, since it can sync a day’s puzzle in advance.
Is it free?
Completely. No ads, no purchases, no accounts, and nothing tracked. The official daily Connections is also free on the NYT site and app, with a Games subscription needed only for the archive and the rest of the puzzle lineup.
