What Is Redactle? How to Play the Wikipedia Puzzle Game

Last Updated: November 2, 2026

Quick Answer: Redactle is a free daily browser game that shows you a Wikipedia article with almost every word blacked out; you guess words one at a time, each guess reveals every place that word appears, and you win when you uncover the article’s title. Yes, Redactle is still available: as of November 2, 2026 it runs at redactle.net, where puzzle #1671 is the daily game and a new one goes live at midnight UTC. The original version was created by John Turner and is no longer active; the current site is run by Ben Brady.

Key Takeaways:

• Redactle hides a whole Wikipedia article; guess words to reveal them and name the article’s title in as few guesses as possible
• The official game is at redactle.net; the old redactle-unlimited.com address now redirects there
• A few common words such as “the”, “and”, “of” and “is” are shown from the start, and letter counts for hidden words are on by default
• Besides the daily puzzle, redactle.net offers past dailies by number, random articles, Redactle JR (Junior), Redactle Rush, collections, leagues and multiplayer
• No account is needed to play; we do not publish daily answers, but you can play yesterday’s puzzle or use the built-in hints
• Strategy tip: start with broad nouns (country, war, city, king, species) before narrowing to specific names

What Is Redactle?

Redactle is a Wikipedia-based word puzzle game created by John Turner in 2022, during the wave of daily games that followed Wordle. The original site is no longer active, but the game continues at redactle.net, run by Ben Brady as an independent, one-person side project, according to the site’s About page.

The concept is simple and addictive: you are shown a full Wikipedia article where virtually every word has been replaced by a black bar. Only punctuation and a few very common words remain visible. You type guesses into a text box, one word at a time, and every occurrence of that word throughout the article is revealed at once. Redactle.net also matches related forms of a word, such as plurals and past tenses, which it calls smart matching.

Your goal is to work out the title of the hidden Wikipedia article. In the site’s own words, you need to reveal the title to win and do not need the rest of the article. Fewer guesses is a better score.

Redactle is often compared to Wordle, the five-letter daily word game, but it is far more open-ended. Where Wordle asks you to find one five-letter word in six tries, Redactle asks you to identify an entire Wikipedia topic from a full article, with no limit on guesses. A hard article can take much longer than a typical Wordle.

Redactle belongs to a broader wave of free browser tools that grew by adding interactivity to publicly available content, a model that extends beyond games into free streaming aggregators like those covered in our guide to legal and free video streaming alternatives.

Is Redactle Still Available in 2026?

Yes. As of November 2, 2026, Redactle is live at redactle.net, where the daily game shows Redactle #1671 for Monday, November 2, and the Junior daily shows Redactle JR #229. The daily count runs back to April 7, 2022, which matches the start of the original game’s numbering. One article a day is released at midnight UTC, and it is the same for every player.

The site is actively maintained. Its news log lists updates almost every day in October 2026, including Team Up votes on shared hints (October 25), solo or team choice in the New Game menu (October 28) and accent-free title matching (October 29). Earlier in 2026 it added leagues for scheduled group competitions (March 22), four more interface languages for a total of 10 (April 8), letter counts shown by default (July 22) and Redactle Rush at redactle.net/rush (August 13).

Older addresses still point people to the game. The redactle-unlimited.com domain now redirects to redactle.net, and the unofficial mirror at redactle.anybrowser.org says the original Redactle is no longer available and names redactle.net as the official version.

Redactle is free to play. Since June 2026 the site shows ads to non-supporters; a $5 monthly subscription or a Ko-fi donation removes them, and teachers and students can ask for ad-free access.

How to Play Redactle: Step-by-Step

1. Open the game Go to redactle.net in any browser on a computer or phone. No download and no account are needed to start. An optional Google sign-in saves your history, streaks and stats.

2. Read the redacted article The screen shows a full Wikipedia article with most words replaced by black bars. Punctuation stays visible, and so do a few common words such as “the”, “and”, “of” and “is”. Each hidden word shows its letter count by default.

3. Type a guess Enter a single word in the guess box and press Enter. Multi-word phrases do not work as one guess.

4. Watch words reveal If your word appears anywhere in the article, every instance of it is revealed at once, along with related forms such as plurals and past tenses. The guess list shows how many times each word appeared, which tells you a lot: if “France” turns up dozens of times, the topic is probably French.

5. Keep guessing until you identify the article Continue guessing relevant words. As more of the article appears, context clues add up. Once every word in the title is revealed, the puzzle is solved and the full article opens.

6. Check your stats After solving, the results panel shows your guess count, accuracy and time, and you can share your result. If you are stuck, you can take a hint, and the game offers one before you choose to give up.

Redactle Scoring: How It Works

Redactle.net tracks your performance with several numbers:

Pre-revealed words don’t count. The common words shown at the start are not part of your guess count, so you never need to spend a guess on “the” or “of”.

There is no official par score, because difficulty varies a lot from article to article. Redactle.net shows a difficulty rating with coffee mug icons, which it rescaled against actual player results on October 16, 2026, so you can judge your guess count against how hard the article was.

Redactle Strategy: 10 Tips to Win Faster

1. Start with broad category words. Open with words like “war,” “country,” “city,” “king,” “president,” “football,” “species,” “river” or “album.” They appear across many article types and quickly tell you whether you are dealing with a person, place, event or concept.

2. Look at what’s already revealed. The visible punctuation and common words show the sentence structure. Long parenthetical sections at the start (dates, coordinates) suggest a biography or a place. Many numbers and units suggest a science or geography topic.

3. Let smart matching work, but vary your words. Redactle.net reveals plurals, past tenses and some related forms such as “teach” and “teacher” with one guess. Different words with the same meaning still need separate guesses, so try synonyms when a guess misses.

4. Use article length and structure as a clue. Very long articles with many sections often cover major historical events, famous people or countries. Short articles usually cover specific objects, terms or narrower topics.

5. Watch word frequency. If a word appears 30 or more times, it is probably in the title or closely tied to it. If “American” appears 50 times, the article is likely about an American person, place or event.

6. Guess related proper nouns aggressively. Once you have a rough category (for example, “this seems to be about World War II”), work through specific proper nouns: country names, people, battles and years.

7. Don’t waste guesses on filler words. Words like “was,” “said,” “became” and “known” appear everywhere and tell you little about the topic.

8. Use the title structure. The title is shown as a row of hidden words at the top. Count the words and their letters: three words with a short middle word might be “Battle of ____” or “King of ____”, while one long word suggests a named concept, person or place.

9. Read revealed sentences holistically. As the article fills in, read whole sentences rather than single words. Sentence-level context is far more useful than counting individual words.

10. Keep letter counts switched on. Letter counts for every hidden word have been on by default since July 22, 2026 (you can turn them off in Settings). Matching a word you suspect to the exact number of letters makes guessing much more precise.

Redactle Unlimited: Play Without Limits

Redactle Unlimited is the way to play more than one puzzle a day. The old redactle-unlimited.com domain now redirects to redactle.net, and the official site lists Unlimited among its modes alongside Daily, Rush, multiplayer and leagues, Collections and Junior.

On redactle.net there are several ways to keep playing after the daily game:

• Past dailies: every earlier puzzle has its own number and address, for example yesterday’s puzzle #1670 at redactle.net/1670
• Random articles: a random option that lets you “Play any article from millions on Wikipedia,” with a choice of difficulty
• Play about anything: a box in the New Game menu for themed puzzles or a pasted Wikipedia link
• Collections: themed sets of articles, including a weekly collection, that you can play at your own pace or compete over with friends

Unlimited play is popular with players who want to practise strategy or who have already solved the day’s puzzle. Note that random puzzles are separate from the daily game, so they do not replace your daily solve.

Redactle Junior: Easier Puzzles for Kids and Beginners

Redactle JR (Junior) is a gentler, quicker version for younger players and beginners who find the standard game too hard. As of November 2, 2026, the key differences are:

• Three free clue words: each Junior game starts with three clue words revealed, separate from your normal hints
• Forgiving guesses: Junior forgives close guesses, according to the site’s How to Play guide
• Its own daily: Junior has a numbered daily puzzle (JR #229 on November 2, 2026) plus Today and Random buttons
• Shared streak: since September 23, 2026, a daily solve in either Main or Junior counts toward one streak

Junior mode is reached from the same New Game menu as the standard daily game.

Redactle vs Wordle: Key Differences

Redactle is frequently described as a harder, more open-ended version of Wordle. Here’s how they compare:

The core difference: Wordle is about vocabulary and letter placement, while Redactle is about general knowledge, deduction and word association. If you also play Wordle, our Wordle hints and answer page shows how we cover that game.

What Happened to Redactle? A Brief History

Redactle was created by John Turner and launched in spring 2022 at redactle.com, shortly after Wordle went viral. Early coverage praised it as one of the toughest Wordle alternatives: Mental Floss reported in October 2022 that each puzzle was drawn from Wikipedia’s list of 10,000 “vital articles” and that common words such as “then,” “if” and “is” stayed visible.

The original site later went offline. A list of its puzzles kept by the Redactle community on Reddit counts 328 daily games, from April 7, 2022 to February 28, 2023. By August 2023 players were already being invited to test a new app at redactle.net.

Redactle.net, run by Ben Brady, is now the official home of the game. It has added multiplayer (Team Up and live races), leagues, Redactle JR, Redactle Rush, curated collections, device sync for supporters and an interface in 10 languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Hebrew and Arabic. In September 2026 it also launched an LLM leaderboard that tests whether AI models can solve Redactle puzzles.

Redactle is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation, as redactle.net states on its About page.

Redactle Answer Today: How to Find Hints

We do not publish daily Redactle answers, because doing so would spoil the puzzle for everyone. Today’s game on November 2, 2026 is Redactle #1671, and it changes at midnight UTC. For help without full spoilers:

• Use the in-game hints: redactle.net can reveal a word or show a Hint Sentence that points at the topic without naming it (using any hint means the solve no longer counts as a Snipe)
• Keep letter counts on: they are on by default and narrow down every hidden word without spoiling the title
• Team up: in Team Up mode, players share hints and vote on using them or giving up
• Ask the community: the official Redactle Discord posts about each daily game
• Give up only as a last resort: the game offers you a hint first, so try that before you give up

For past puzzles (not today’s), you can still play any earlier daily on redactle.net by its number. The unofficial mirror at redactle.anybrowser.org also keeps a history of the games it has served, which follow their own schedule (a new puzzle daily at 16:00 UTC).

Who Made Redactle?

Redactle was originally created by John Turner, a developer who built the game in 2022 as part of the wave of Wordle-inspired daily puzzles. “The original Redactle, now inactive, was created by John Turner,” the official site’s About page says.

The current official version at redactle.net is run by Ben Brady, who describes it as an ongoing side project rather than a company. He has rebuilt and expanded the game with multiplayer, leagues, Redactle JR, Redactle Rush, collections, difficulty ratings and supporter device sync, and he posts a dated news log of changes on the site.

The redactle.anybrowser.org version is an unofficial mirror run by a third party. It credits John Turner as the creator and adds a few enhancements of its own, including a history of previous games.

Games Like Redactle

If you enjoy Redactle, these games scratch a similar itch. Each was checked as live on November 2, 2026:

Redactle.net’s own news log also recommends Nerdle, Globle and Metazooa. For daily puzzles inside crypto apps, see our explainers on the Puzzle Durov game in Major on Telegram and the X Empire Rebus of the Day.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Redactle?
Redactle is a free daily word puzzle based on Wikipedia. The game shows a full Wikipedia article with almost every word blacked out, and you guess words one at a time to reveal them wherever they appear. You win when every word of the article’s title is revealed. Fewer guesses means a better score, and the official version runs in any browser at redactle.net.

How do you play Redactle?
Open redactle.net, read the blacked-out article and type one word into the guess box. If the word appears in the article, every instance is revealed, together with plurals and similar forms. Common words like “the” and “of” are shown from the start. Keep guessing until all title words are uncovered. Start broad with words like war, city or species, then narrow down.

Is Redactle still available in 2026?
Yes. On November 2, 2026, Redactle is live at redactle.net, where the daily game is puzzle #1671 and a new article is released every day at midnight UTC. The site is updated almost daily and also offers Redactle JR, Redactle Rush, multiplayer and leagues. The original John Turner site is inactive, and older Unlimited addresses now lead to redactle.net.

What happened to the original Redactle?
The original Redactle, created by John Turner in 2022, went offline after about a year. A community list counts 328 daily puzzles, from April 7, 2022 to February 28, 2023. The game continues at redactle.net, run by Ben Brady, which keeps the daily numbering going and has added multiplayer, leagues, Redactle JR, Redactle Rush and an interface in 10 languages.

Is there a Redactle Unlimited?
Yes. The old redactle-unlimited.com address now redirects to redactle.net, which lists Unlimited among its game modes. After the daily puzzle you can replay any earlier daily by its number, start a random Wikipedia article at a chosen difficulty, type a theme or paste a Wikipedia link, or work through themed collections. No account is needed, although signing in saves your history and stats.

What is the Redactle answer today?
We do not publish daily Redactle answers, to avoid spoiling the game. Today’s puzzle on November 2, 2026 is Redactle #1671 at redactle.net. If you are stuck, keep letter counts on, use the built-in word reveals or Hint Sentence, or team up with friends and share hints. Yesterday’s puzzle, #1670, can still be played on the site if you want practice before trying today’s article again.

What time does the new Redactle come out?
A new daily Redactle is released at midnight UTC on redactle.net, and every player gets the same article that day. Depending on your time zone, that can be the evening before in the Americas or the morning in Asia. The unofficial mirror at redactle.anybrowser.org runs on its own schedule, with a new puzzle each day at 16:00 UTC.

Who made Redactle?
Redactle was created by developer John Turner in 2022. The official site’s About page says the original Redactle, now inactive, was his creation. The current version at redactle.net is run by Ben Brady as an independent one-person side project. He has rebuilt the game with new modes, multiplayer, leagues, collections and support for 10 interface languages, and he posts dated updates on the site.

Is Redactle free to play?
Yes. Redactle is free to play at redactle.net, and you do not need an account or a download. Since mid-2026 the site shows ads to non-supporters. A subscription of $5 a month removes ads, as do Ko-fi donations, with each $6 adding one ad-free month. Teachers and students can contact the site for ad-free access after logging in.

What is a Snipe in Redactle?
A Snipe is a solve completed without using any hints. Redactle.net renamed its old “Perfect” label to Snipe in March 2026 and clarified that using any hint, such as a word reveal or a Hint Sentence, rules a Snipe out. That makes a Snipe the cleanest kind of solve, a useful goal once you are comfortable with the daily game and its scoring.

What games are like Redactle?
The closest games are Redactle’s own modes: Redactle Rush, a faster ten-article mode, and Redactle JR, an easier daily. Outside the site, Wordle, Semantle and Contexto are popular daily word games, and Coastle is a geography puzzle where you place missing islands on a globe. Redactle.net also recommends Nerdle, Globle and Metazooa in its news log.

Data sources: redactle.net (home page, play page, About page, How to Play guide, news log and LLM leaderboard, read November 2, 2026); redactle.anybrowser.org; Mental Floss (October 14, 2022); Tom’s Guide (April 21, 2022); Redactle community puzzle list on Reddit; semantle.com, contexto.me and coastle.net (checked November 2, 2026).