NYT Mini Crossword Answers Today

Five by five, five minutes, and occasionally one clue that ruins the whole thing. Below are today’s NYT Mini Crossword answers for October 30, 2026, split into Across and Down so you can uncover only the half you’re stuck on. Updated daily as soon as the new grid goes live.

Last updated: October 30, 2026

Across answers

Down answers

Yesterday’s Mini Crossword answers

The full grid for October 29, 2026:

Answers from the past week

Date	Answer
October 29	1A BEAR / 5A IDIOT / 7A BELLY / 8A SNEER / 9A DSA — 1D BIBS / 2D EDEN / 3D AILED / 4D ROLES / 6D TYRA
October 28	1A PERK / 5A SITON / 6A PAUSE / 7A INDEX / 8A TOES — 1D PIANO / 2D ETUDE / 3D ROSES / 4D KNEX / 5D SPIT
October 27	1A SPELL / 6A THREE / 7A ROOMS / 8A UNDO / 9A TEEN — 1D STRUT / 2D PHONE / 3D ERODE / 4D LEMON / 5D LES
October 26	1A CRUNCH / 7A HOHOHO / 8A AVATAR / 9A NEURON / 10A LESS — 1D CHAN / 2D ROVE / 3D UHAUL / 4D NOTRE / 5D CHAOS / 6D HORNS
October 25	1A FOLK / 5A LEVEE / 6A IMEAN / 7A FUNK / 8A ERS — 1D FEMUR / 2D OVENS / 3D LEAK / 4D KEN / 5D LIFE
October 24	1A MLB / 4A PRIUS / 6A PACKRAT / 8A ATLANTA / 9A THEBEAN / 10A SALTY / 11A NET — 1D MRCLEAN / 2D LIKABLE / 3D BURNETT / 4D PATHS / 5D SATAY / 6D PAT / 7D TAN
October 23	1A FAST / 5A INCH / 6A FORUM / 8A TREND / 9A HAWKS — 1D FIFTH / 2D ANORA / 3D SCREW / 4D THUNK / 7D MDS

How the Mini works

The Mini is a 5×5 crossword — occasionally 7×7 on Saturdays — with around ten clues. Unlike the full NYT Crossword it stays free to play, in a browser or the NYT Games app, and most solvers finish in under two minutes.

A new Mini appears every day. In the United States it typically unlocks the evening before the date it carries, so American players often solve tomorrow’s puzzle tonight; elsewhere it lines up much more closely with local midnight. The countdown above runs on your own clock.

Your solve time is recorded and you can compare it with friends, which is the real reason the Mini is so sticky — it is less a puzzle than a daily race.

Getting unstuck faster

Fill the short entries first. Three-letter answers in a Mini are heavily constrained and often crossword staples — ERA, ONE, ALE, OREO. Getting two of them gives you starting letters for every long entry they cross.

Read the clue’s part of speech. A clue in past tense wants a past-tense answer; a plural clue wants a plural. In a grid this small, knowing the last letter is almost certainly S or D resolves a surprising number of crossings on its own.

A question mark means wordplay. “Spring forward?” isn’t about clocks or seasons — it’s a pun. When you see one, stop taking the clue literally.

Use the crossings, not the clue. If a clue means nothing to you, ignore it entirely and solve the five entries crossing it. The Mini is small enough that the letters usually give you the word before the clue does.

The clues that catch people out

The Mini leans on a compact set of recurring answers — short vowel-heavy words that fit awkward grids. ADIEU, ARIA, EPEE, ETUI, OBOE and ALOE appear far more often than their frequency in normal English would suggest. If a four-letter slot has vowels in positions one and three, one of those is a reasonable first guess.

Proper nouns from current culture also show up regularly, and they’re the most common reason a solver stalls. If a clue references a show or musician you don’t follow, that’s the entry to solve entirely from crossings.

Frequently Asked Questions

More daily puzzle answers

• NYT Wordle answer today
• NYT Connections answers today
• NYT Strands answers and spangram today
• All daily puzzle answers