KenKen Puzzle: Play KenKen Free Online

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In this guide

• How to play KenKen
• The two-cell cage cheat sheet
• Difficulty tiers: Starter to Expert
• The Daily KenKen
• Stars, Check and hints
• 7 tips to solve KenKen faster
• KenKen FAQ
• Final verdict

How to play KenKen

The board is a square grid, and its size sets the digits. On a 4×4 grid you use the digits 1 to 4. On a 5×5 grid you use 1 to 5, and on a 6×6 grid you use 1 to 6. The first rule is the Latin rule: every row and every column must hold each digit exactly once. If a 4 already sits in a row, no other cell in that row can be a 4. Our game enforces this for you — a digit that repeats in the row or column is refused with a short message, so the rule can never be broken by a stray tap.

The second rule lives in the cages. Bold borders split the grid into cages of one to four cells. The small number in the top left corner of a cage is its target, and next to it sits an operation sign on every cage of two or more cells. Add means the digits sum to the target. Multiply means they multiply to it. Subtract and divide always belong to two-cell cages: the bigger digit minus the smaller must give the target, or the bigger divided by the smaller must give it, exactly, with nothing left over. The order of the two digits never matters for those two signs.

A cage of one cell is the friendly exception. It shows just a number, with no sign, and that number is the digit itself. It works like a given in other puzzles, with one honest difference: the cell is not pre-filled. You still tap the cell and enter the digit yourself, which keeps the board truly yours from the first move. Those one-cell cages are free anchors — place them early and build your logic around them.

One subtle rule catches new players out. Digits may repeat inside a cage. A three-cell cage marked 12× can hold 2, 2 and 3, because 2 times 2 times 3 is 12. The repeat is legal only when the two matching cells sit in different rows and different columns. The Latin rule always wins: if two cells of a cage share a row or a column, they must hold different digits, whatever the cage says. Keep both rules in view at once and the whole game opens up.

Here is the solving idea in one small picture. Take the bottom right cage of our first Starter puzzle. It is marked 4÷ on a 4×4 grid. The only pair of digits from 1 to 4 that divides to 4 is 1 and 4, so those two cells hold 1 and 4 in some order — before you place a single digit, that cage is already narrowed to two options. Now cross it with the rest of the grid. The corner cell also sits in the bottom row, where a 5+ cage waits, and in the last column, where a one-cell cage names a 2 higher up. Each crossing cuts the options further, and cuts like these, chained together, are the entire game. No guessing is ever needed, because every puzzle here has exactly one solution.

Playing is simple. Tap a cell to select it, then tap a digit on the pad. Its cage lights up so you can see the group you are working on. Tap Notes to switch the pad into pencil mode and mark small candidate digits in a cell; tap a digit again in Notes mode to remove that note. Erase clears the selected cell. On a keyboard you can type digits 1 to 6, move with the arrow keys, erase with Backspace and toggle Notes with the N key. The pad only shows the digits the current grid uses, so a 4×4 puzzle never offers you a 5 or a 6.

Action	Phone / tablet	PC / laptop
Select a cell	Tap the cell	Click the cell, or move with arrow keys
Place a digit	Tap a digit on the pad	Click a digit, or type 1 to 6
Pencil notes	Tap Notes, then tap digits	Click Notes or press N, then type digits
Erase a cell	Tap the Erase key	Click Erase or press Backspace
Check your grid	Tap the Check button	Click the Check button
Take a hint	Tap the Hint button	Click the Hint button

The two-cell cage cheat sheet

Two-cell cages are the heartbeat of KenKen, and the subtract and divide cages are the most generous clues on the board, because most of them allow only a few pairs. Learn this small table and whole corners of a grid will solve themselves. The pairs below are written for a 4×4 grid first, since that is where you will learn the game, with the extra pairs a 6×6 grid adds.

Cage	What it means	Pairs on a 4×4 grid	Added on a 6×6 grid
1−	The digits differ by 1	1-2, 2-3, 3-4	4-5, 5-6
2−	The digits differ by 2	1-3, 2-4	3-5, 4-6
3−	The digits differ by 3	1-4 only	2-5, 3-6
2÷	One digit is double the other	1-2, 2-4	3-6
3÷	One digit is triple the other	1-3 only	2-6
4÷	One digit is four times the other	1-4 only	1-4 only
3+	The smallest two-cell sum	1-2 only	1-2 only
7+	The biggest two-cell sum on 4×4	3-4 only	1-6, 2-5, 3-4
6×	Product of 6	2-3 only	1-6, 2-3
12×	Product of 12	3-4 only	2-6, 3-4

Read the table the way a solver reads it. The cages marked only are gifts: a 3−, a 3÷ or a 4÷ on a 4×4 grid hands you the exact pair, and only the order is left to find. The wide cages, like 1−, tell you less on their own but still cut hard when a row or column already holds one of their digits. Bigger cages follow the same idea. A three-cell add cage with a small target, like 6+, can only be 1, 2 and 3. A three-cell multiply cage with a big target, like 36×, leans on the big digits. Extreme targets are always the loosest threads — pull them first.

Difficulty tiers: Starter to Expert

The set puzzles come in four tiers of ten. The climb is gentle at first and real at the top. Starter teaches the rules on a small board where every cage is close to its neighbours. Classic grows the board to 5×5, the size the Daily uses. Tough and Expert share the 6×6 board, but Expert earns its name with harder cages: fewer one-cell anchors, more three and four-cell cages, and more multiply targets that demand the wide pairs from the cheat sheet.

Tier	Grid	Cages	Best for
Starter	4×4	7 to 10 cages	Learning the rules and the one-way cages
Classic	5×5	10 to 12 cages	A relaxed daily-style solve of a few minutes
Tough	6×6	13 to 16 cages	Longer chains and heavier note work
Expert	6×6	11 to 15 cages, harder mixes	Patient solvers who want a real workout

Every puzzle in every tier has exactly one solution. That is a promise, not a hope. We build each puzzle by first filling a grid as a true Latin square, then carving it into cages and setting each target from the digits inside. After that our own solver counts the solutions of the finished cage grid. If the count is not exactly one, the cages are re-cut — a different operation here, a split or a merge there — and counted again, until one solution is all that remains. A puzzle ships only when the count is one. That means you never need to guess in our KenKen. If you are stuck, the answer is never a coin flip. There is always a logical next step, and finding it is the game.

The Daily KenKen

Alongside the set puzzles there is one Daily KenKen. A fresh puzzle arrives every day, built from the date itself, so every player in the world gets the same grid on the same day. Solve it and your streak grows by one day. Miss a day and the streak restarts at one, so the gentle pressure is real. The Daily is a Classic-size 5×5 grid: big enough for a satisfying chain of deductions, small enough to finish with your morning coffee.

The Daily is generated on your device the moment you open it, from a seed made of the date alone. The generator uses the same Latin fill and solver checks as the set puzzles, and it keeps re-cutting the cages until the solver proves the day’s grid has exactly one solution. Same date, same puzzle, on every phone and every PC. Yesterday’s Daily is gone when the new day starts, so each date is a one-time meeting. Come back tomorrow and a new grid will be waiting.

Stars, Check and hints

Each set puzzle pays up to 3 stars, and the rule is simple to state and hard to earn. Finish with no hints used and no wrong Checks and you earn 3 stars. Use at most one hint and at most one wrong Check and you earn 2 stars. Any other finish earns 1 star. The Daily has no stars; it pays in streak days instead, and a replay of a solved Daily still counts for practice, not for a second streak day.

The Check button is free and you can press it as often as you like. It tells you how many of your filled cells are wrong, but it never tells you which ones. That design is on purpose. A Check that pointed at the exact cell would do the solving for you. A count keeps the pressure honest: you know an error is in the grid, and the cages will tell you where if you read them closely. A Check that finds at least one wrong cell counts as a wrong Check for the star rule, even though pressing Check itself costs nothing.

The Hint button fills one correct digit for you, in the cell you have selected if that cell needs it, or in the first cell that is empty or wrong. You get 3 hints per puzzle. Hints are the pressure valve for the one chain you cannot crack, but each one lowers your star ceiling, so the clean solve stays the true win. Choose your moment: a hint spent late, on a nearly full grid, often unlocks three or four cells at once as the crossings fall into place.

7 tips to solve KenKen faster

1. Place the one-cell cages first. They name their digit outright. You still type it yourself, but each one placed shrinks its whole row and column at once, and every cage that touches them gets shorter options.
2. Learn the only pairs. On a 4×4 grid, 3−, 3÷ and 4÷ each hold exactly one pair, and 3+ is only 1 and 2. Spot those cages the moment a puzzle opens and note their pairs before anything else.
3. Pull the extreme targets first. Tiny sums and big products have the fewest options. A 6+ cage in three cells is 1, 2 and 3 in some order. Work those cages before the wide middle ones.
4. Let rows and columns vote. A pair can fit its cage and still clash with the row. When a cage sits inside one row, cross its pairs against the digits the row already holds — often only one pair survives.
5. Allow honest repeats. In cages of three or four cells that bend across rows, the same digit may appear twice. A 12× cage holding 2, 2 and 3 is legal when the two 2s share neither a row nor a column. Do not rule a set out just because it repeats.
6. Finish the nearly full lines. When a row or column has one empty cell, the missing digit is forced: it is the one digit the line does not hold yet. Placing it often cracks the cage it belongs to.
7. Check with a plan. If Check says two cells are wrong, do not tap digits at random. Re-read the cages around your last placements. Errors travel along cage borders, so the second wrong cell is usually inside a cage that touches the first.

KenKen FAQ

Is KenKen free to play?

Yes. KenKen is 100% free: the Daily and all 40 set puzzles are included. You play right on this page, with no download, no sign-up and no payment.

How is KenKen different from Sudoku?

Sudoku fills a fixed 9×9 grid so each row, column and box holds 1 to 9 once, with no arithmetic at all. KenKen uses cages instead of boxes: every outlined cage must combine to its target with its operation, and the grid comes in several sizes. Digits may even repeat inside a KenKen cage, as long as the repeated cells share neither a row nor a column.

Does every KenKen puzzle here have exactly one solution?

Yes. Before a puzzle ships, our solver counts its solutions from the cages alone. A puzzle is used only when the count is exactly one, and the Daily is generated on your device with the same check. You never need to guess: there is always a logical path to the single solution.

What is the Daily KenKen?

The Daily KenKen is one fresh 5×5 puzzle per day, the same for every player, built from the date alone. Solve it to grow your daily streak. A new puzzle arrives at midnight your time, and yesterday’s puzzle is replaced.

Do Check and hints cost anything?

Check is free and unlimited. It tells you how many filled cells are wrong, never which ones. A Check that finds a wrong cell counts against your stars. Hints fill one correct digit, you get 3 per puzzle, and each hint used lowers the stars you can earn on that puzzle.

Does KenKen save my progress?

Yes, in your own browser. Stars, best times, your streak and solved Dailies save automatically, and a puzzle you leave half finished is restored exactly where you left it when you come back. Nothing leaves your device and there is no account to make.

A note on the name: KenKen is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC, and the puzzle was created by Tetsuya Miyamoto. This page is an independent, unofficial GameOLL game: every grid here is original, generated by GameOLL’s own software, and this site is not affiliated with Nextoy, LLC.

Last updated: November 7, 2026. KenKen v1.0 — the first release of our original cage-arithmetic game, with a Daily KenKen, 40 set puzzles in four tiers, solver-proven single solutions, pencil notes, free Check, hints and star ratings. An original GameOLL browser game. Found a bug? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it in the next version.