Free Sudoku on iPad With Nothing to Install

Sudoku is the game the App Store is worst at. Search it and you get a wall of free apps funded by video adverts between puzzles, with the interesting difficulties behind a purchase.

There are two sudoku games here, not twenty, and both open in Safari with no App Store, no Apple ID, no account and no adverts between puzzles.

The two

Sudoku Classic is the everyday one: fill each row, column and 3x3 box with the numbers 1 to 9, across four difficulties, with a daily challenge. Rated intermediate.

The four difficulties matter more than they sound, because sudoku difficulty is not really about the grid looking emptier — it is about which solving techniques a puzzle forces you to use. An easy grid falls to scanning alone. A harder one eventually requires you to reason about where a number cannot go rather than where it can.

Sudoku Grandmaster is the expert tier, and it is rated Pro — the hardest tier on the site. Every puzzle is generated fresh with a verified unique solution at expert difficulty, with a listed session of about eight minutes.

That "verified unique solution" is the single most useful thing on this page. It guarantees the puzzle can be solved by deduction alone — there is always a next cell you can prove, and you never need to guess and backtrack. A distressing number of free sudoku apps ship generated grids with multiple solutions, where the only way through is trial and error. If you have ever felt a puzzle was unfair, that is usually why.

Which one, and when

Start on Sudoku Classic at whichever of its four difficulties leaves you working rather than waiting. If you finish without ever being stuck, move up; the point is to be stopped occasionally.

Move to Sudoku Grandmaster when the top Classic difficulty stops resisting. Because its difficulty is fixed at expert, your times there are comparable between sessions — which makes it the closest thing here to a real measure of progress. Classic's four levels are better for a relaxed sitting, Grandmaster for actually testing yourself.

The daily challenge in Classic is worth using as a habit rather than a score: one puzzle, same for everyone that day, done and finished.

Playing on an iPad specifically

A tablet is arguably the best surface for sudoku — bigger than a phone, more portable than a laptop, and the input is a tap rather than a drag.

Landscape or portrait both work, but portrait suits a 9x9 grid better on most iPads: the grid is square, so portrait gives you a large board with the number pad below rather than a small board with wasted space beside it.

Nothing installs, which matters on a shared or family iPad — no App Store password prompt, no Apple ID, no app left behind, and no notifications.

Zoom is your friend. If the digits are small, pinch to zoom as you would on any web page; these are ordinary pages and they scale.

No adverts between puzzles. This is the actual difference from the free App Store versions, and in a game where a puzzle takes eight minutes and an advert takes thirty seconds, it is not a small one.

The trade, stated plainly: progress and times are stored by the browser on that iPad. There is no account, so nothing follows you to another device, and clearing site data resets it.

Why a browser suits sudoku better than most genres

Worth a moment, because the usual objection to browser games does not apply here.

Most arguments for an installed game come down to performance or offline play. Sudoku needs neither. A grid of 81 cells and a rule check is close to the lightest thing a computer can be asked to draw, so there is no version of this game that runs better as an app. Any iPad, however old, handles it — the limit is a browser too old to update, not the hardware.

Offline is the one genuine difference. An installed app opens on a plane; a browser page has to load once. After that the puzzle runs in the tab, so a dropped connection mid-grid is not usually a problem, but you do need a moment of signal to start.

What you gain is everything the App Store version takes: no advert between puzzles, no coin currency, no account, no notifications, and no app sitting on a shared family iPad. For a game people play in five-minute gaps, the advert is the thing that actually ruins it, and removing it changes the experience more than any feature would.

A note on getting unstuck honestly

Since there are two games rather than twelve, the more useful thing to offer is how to get past the wall rather than another list.

Scan for the number, not for the cell. Beginners stare at an empty cell and ask what goes in it. Faster is to take one digit — say 7 — and ask which cells in this box can still hold it. Most of the time that question has one answer and the cell question does not.

Work the boxes that are already crowded. A box with six digits filled has far fewer possibilities left than an empty one. Progress compounds from the dense corners outward.

Write down what a cell cannot be. When scanning stops yielding anything, the next step is elimination: this cell cannot be 3, 5 or 9, so it is one of the rest. On a hard grid that is the whole technique.

If you are guessing, stop. On a puzzle with a verified unique solution — which Grandmaster guarantees — a guess is never required. Being forced to guess means you have missed something provable, and it is worth finding rather than gambling.

If you want more logic puzzles

PlayVora has other pure-deduction games if sudoku is what you came for:

Catch the Cat asks you to surround a cat on a hexagonal grid by placing barriers before it escapes to the edge. Unlike sudoku it responds to what you do, so it is about cutting off routes rather than filling a fixed grid.

Arrow Slide describes itself as a brain and IQ trainer — untangle a dense grid of tiny arrows, sliding each off the board without a collision, across hundreds of shape-puzzle levels. The skill is ordering: which arrow must leave first, because the wrong first move traps the rest.

Gear Works is a steampunk puzzle where you match and connect gears, rotating cogs to build chains.

FAQ

How many sudoku games are there?

Two — Sudoku Classic, with four difficulties and a daily challenge, and Sudoku Grandmaster at expert difficulty. Rather than pad this page, the sections above cover what each is and how to get further into a hard grid.

Do I need the App Store or an Apple ID?

No. Both open in Safari or any browser on the iPad. There is no download, no Apple ID, no account and nothing left on the device beyond ordinary browser caching.

Are there adverts between puzzles?

No. That is the main practical difference from free App Store sudoku, where a video advert between puzzles is the usual business model.

What does "verified unique solution" mean and why should I care?

It means the puzzle has exactly one answer and can be solved by deduction alone — you never need to guess. Sudoku Grandmaster generates every puzzle that way. Grids with more than one solution are what make some free sudoku feel unfair.

Which should I start with?

Sudoku Classic, at whichever of its four difficulties leaves you occasionally stuck. Move to Grandmaster when the hardest Classic setting stops resisting.

Is my progress saved?

In the browser on that iPad only. There is no account, so it does not follow you to another device, and clearing site data resets it.

Are they really free?

Yes — no download, no install, no signup and nothing to buy.