Minesweeper is the timeless logic puzzle where you uncover a grid of squares while avoiding the hidden mines buried beneath. This free online Minesweeper plays instantly in your browser — no download or install — with three board sizes and a built-in timer that tracks your fastest clears.
Each safe square you open shows a number telling you how many mines touch it. Use those clues to deduce exactly which squares are dangerous and which are safe. Your very first click is always safe, so you never lose on move one. Flag the mines you have identified, clear every safe square and the field is yours.
This browser version keeps everything fans love about the classic Windows puzzle — the satisfying cascade when you open a big empty region, the tense final squares, the race against the clock — while adding crisp, modern visuals and full touch support for phones and tablets. Whether you are a speed-runner chasing a record on the 9×9 board or a strategist grinding the 16×16 Hard field, free online Minesweeper is the perfect mix of logic, nerve and a little bit of luck.
Minesweeper's roots reach back to 1960s mainframe puzzles, but it became a household name when Microsoft bundled it with Windows 3.1 in 1992 — reportedly in part to teach a generation of office workers confident left- and right-clicking. Shipped on hundreds of millions of PCs since, it still supports a thriving competitive scene where experts clear the biggest boards in well under a minute.
There is real mathematics under the hood: determining whether a Minesweeper position is logically consistent was proved NP-complete by Richard Kaye in 2000, placing the humble desktop puzzle in the same complexity family as some of computing's hardest problems. In practice, though, most boards fall to a few learnable counting patterns — the famous 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 rows resolve instantly once you know where their mines must sit.
Reveal every square that does not contain a mine. Open all safe cells without detonating a single mine.
Left-click / tap a covered square to reveal it. Right-click or long-press a square to plant or remove a flag 🚩. Click an already-revealed number whose flags match its count to chord — instantly open its remaining neighbours.
There is no points score — you race the clock. Clearing the whole field saves your fastest time as your Best for that board size. Easy is 9×9 with 10 mines, Medium is 12×12 with 26 mines and Hard is 16×16 with 50 mines.
Start from open areas and work outward. A square showing 1 next to a single unopened neighbour means that neighbour is a mine — flag it, then use that knowledge on adjacent numbers. Chording cleared numbers speeds you up once your flags are accurate.
How do you play Minesweeper?
Reveal all the safe squares without clicking a mine. Each number tells you how many mines touch that square, so you can deduce where the mines are and flag them.
Is this Minesweeper free?
Yes — free and unlimited online, with no download.
How do I flag a mine?
Right-click a square on desktop, or long-press it on mobile, to place a flag.
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