What is FreeCell?

FreeCell is the thinking player's solitaire, and it starts with one honest promise: every card is already on the table, face up, waiting for you to solve it.

Quick answer: FreeCell is a solitaire game played with one 52-card deck dealt face up into eight columns. You have four free cells - open spaces that each hold a single card - and the goal is to build all four suits up from Ace to King on the foundations. Because every card is visible from the start, FreeCell is almost pure strategy.

How the table is set up

At the deal, all 52 cards land face up across eight columns - four columns of seven cards and four of six. Above the board sit four empty free cells and four foundation piles. Nothing is hidden, so a losing hand is never bad luck you could not see coming - it is a puzzle you have all the information to solve.

The two rules that drive everything

Within the columns you build downward in alternating colors, so a red six goes on a black seven. On the foundations you build upward by suit, starting with each Ace and finishing with each King. Learn those two directions and you have learned FreeCell. The full rules page walks through every legal move.

Why people love it

Unlike luck-heavy games, nearly every FreeCell deal can be won with careful play, so a loss usually means there was a better line you missed. That mix of fairness and challenge is why FreeCell became one of the most-played card games in the world. Ready to try? Just start a new deal and dig in.

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Related questions

Is every FreeCell game winnable?

Almost, but not quite. About 99.999% of FreeCell deals can be solved with perfect play, which is why the game feels so fair. Of the classic 32,000 numbered Microsoft deals, only one - deal number 11982 - has been proven impossible to win.

What are the free cells for?

The four free cells are open spaces that each hold exactly one card. They give the game its name and its strategy: you use them to park cards temporarily, freeing up moves and letting you shuffle stacks around. Think of them as four extra hands that can each carry one card.

How do you win FreeCell?

You win by moving all 52 cards to the four foundations, each built up from Ace to King in a single suit. The path there is about planning: get the Aces and low cards up early, keep free cells and columns open, and always think a few moves ahead before you commit.