Codenames online: the free official version, and when to play Codewords instead
Two sides, one word and a number, and one card that loses the game. Here is where to play it, and what is different here.
First, the honest answer
If you want to play Codenames online, the publisher’s own version at codenames.game is free, needs no account, and is exactly the board game. Make a room, share the link, pick sides. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
Codewords is our game in the same shape, and it is the right pick for a different night: when Codenames is the first game of several, when the room wants the board up on a TV, or when you are three and need a bot to make four. What is the same and what is different is below, rule by rule.
Side by side
| Codewords | Codenames Online | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Our own word game in the same shape, inside a room of other games | The official Codenames, from its publisher |
| Price | Free, with ads; optional Party Pass | Free |
| Download or account | Neither | Neither |
| Players | Four or more; bots fill seats | Two can open a room; a proper game wants four, a spymaster and an operative on each side |
| Picking a card | The side talks, one taps, it flips for everyone | Guessers mark cards for everyone to see; any guesser confirms one |
| The handler | From the side’s volunteers each round, favoring someone who has not had a turn | Whoever sits in the spymaster seat |
| Bonus guess | One optional extra guess, offered once the number is used | One optional extra guess, as in the board game |
| On a TV | The board large on any screen with a browser, phones for the private view | One shared page; put it on a screen yourself |
| After the game | The host picks the next game; the room follows | Another round, or another site |
The rules that differ, and why
- The side talks, one taps. Guessers argue out loud, then whoever is sure taps the card and it flips for everyone. Nothing shows on any screen before the flip, so the handler and the other side learn the choice when you do.
- The handler takes turns. Each round the handler comes from the side’s volunteers, and the game favors someone who has not had a turn yet, so over an evening the clues go round.
- Guess the full number. A side keeps guessing until it misses or uses its number, then may take one bonus guess or stop. Clue numbers run from 1 to the words the side has left: no zero, and no unlimited.
- Clues are checked. A clue has to be a single word of letters (one hyphen or apostrophe allowed), and it cannot be a word still on the board or an everyday form of one. The form refuses it before the referee does, so the argument never happens.
- Bots. A bot can sit on a side as a guesser or a handler, so a table of three plays. It gives real clues and guesses as well as its difficulty allows.
On a TV, and on a call
Codewords keeps two views apart: the handlers’ phones show the key, the guessers’ phones show the words, and the TV page shows the board large for the room with nothing secret on it. On a call, the host shares the TV page and everyone keeps their own phone. The remote-play page has the setups.
Questions
- Is Codenames free to play online?
- Yes. Codenames Online at codenames.game is the official version from the publisher and it is free: make a room, share the link, pick sides. If Codenames is the only game you want tonight, play that.
- Is Codewords the same game as Codenames?
- The same shape: two sides, a board of 25 words, a clue giver who knows the key, one word and a number, guess your side's words and never the assassin. It is not Codenames, it is not made by its publisher, and a few rules differ; they are listed on this page.
- Why would we play Codewords instead?
- When the room is going to play other things afterwards. Codewords lives in a Join Me Games room that moves on to the next game without anyone rejoining, it puts the board large on any TV, and bots can fill a side when you are three.
- How many people do we need?
- Four or more for a real game: a handler and at least one guesser on each side. With fewer, bots take the empty seats.
- Can we play it on a TV?
- Yes. The TV page shows the board large for the room while each phone shows its owner what they are allowed to see: the handlers the key, the guessers the words.
Play
Codewords, free, four or more, bots for the empty seats. Or the original at codenames.game.
Codenames is a trademark of Czech Games Edition. Codewords and Join Me Games are not affiliated with or endorsed by Czech Games Edition. Details of Codenames Online are as observed on 30 September 2026.