Free · No sign-up · Best next guess — not just a list

Wordle Helper

Enter your guesses and their colour results to get the single best next word to try — ranked by how much it narrows down the answer. Or switch to Practice Mode to try the tool without an active game.

1
Pick a starting word below or type your own first guess
2
Play it in your Wordle and note the colours it gives back
3
Click each tile here to set those colours, then Analyse

Popular opening words — click to pre-fill:

After typing a guess, click each tile to cycle its colour: grey (not in word) → green (correct) → yellow (wrong position)

Not affiliated with the New York Times or the official Wordle game.

The tool picks a random secret word. Type your guesses — it colours the tiles automatically and suggests your best next move after each one. No active game needed.

Practice Mode uses a random word — not today's Wordle answer. Not affiliated with the New York Times.
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How to use the Wordle Helper

Open your Wordle game (NYT, a clone, or anywhere you play), enter your first guess there, then come back here. Type the same word into the first row, then click each tile to match the colour Wordle gave you — grey for a letter not in the word, green for correct position, yellow for the letter is in the word but in the wrong spot. Click Analyse and the tool finds your best next guess.

If you don't have an active game open, switch to Practice Mode — the tool picks a random word and auto-colours your tiles so you can see exactly how the solver works in real time.

How the recommendation works

After each guess, the tool filters the candidate pool down to only words consistent with every clue you've entered. It then tests each remaining candidate as a hypothetical next guess: for every possible answer, what pattern would this guess produce? The word that creates the most evenly spread distribution of outcomes gets the highest score. This is Shannon entropy — the same principle NYT's WordleBot uses internally, measured in bits of information. The word that gives you the most information on average is shown as your best next guess.

In practical terms: a guess that could produce 20 different outcome patterns is more valuable than one that only produces 3, because it narrows down the field more aggressively no matter what the answer turns out to be.

Why we don't use the original 2,309-word answer list

When Wordle was originally independent, its answer list was public and several solvers memorised it. NYT has since changed the list and continues to edit it — so any tool claiming to know the exact answer pool is outdated. This helper ranks candidates by real-world word frequency instead of relying on a static list, which makes it more robust as the game evolves.

Starting word strategy

The starting-word chip picker lists 18 well-known high-coverage openers. The best starting words test common letters — E, A, R, I, O, T, N, S — without repeating any of them. CRANE covers C, R, A, N, E; SLATE covers S, L, A, T, E; RAISE covers R, A, I, S, E. All three are solid first guesses. The chip list also includes less obvious options like ROATE, which ranks highly in full entropy analyses. Click any chip to pre-fill it into the first row.

Related tools

If you want to play a full self-contained Wordle game rather than get solving help, try the Wordle game on Wordineer. For a random 5-letter word to practice with, the random Wordle word generator picks one instantly with filters for difficulty. For a drawing-based word game, the Pictionary word generator offers category-filtered prompts.

Frequently asked questions

How does the Wordle Helper work?
Enter each of your guesses and tap the tiles to set the colours Wordle gave you (green for correct position, yellow for wrong position, grey for not in the word). Click Analyse and the tool tests every remaining candidate word to find the one that splits the remaining pool most evenly — the same idea used by NYT's WordleBot, measured in bits of information (Shannon entropy). The top-ranked word is shown as your best next guess.
Is this the official Wordle solver from the New York Times?
No. This is an independent, free tool with no connection to the New York Times or the official Wordle game. NYT's WordleBot is a paid feature; this tool is free with no account required.
What are the best starting words for Wordle?
Words that cover high-frequency letters (E, A, R, I, O, T, N, S) in one guess give you the most information. CRANE, SLATE, and RAISE are popular choices because they test 5 distinct common letters with no repeats. The Wordle Helper's starting word picker lists 18 well-known high-coverage openers you can click to pre-fill.
What is Practice Mode?
Practice Mode lets you use the Wordle Helper without an active game open anywhere. The tool picks a random secret word, you type your guesses, and it colours the tiles automatically — just like a real Wordle. An optional hint panel shows the best next guess after each guess. The word is random, not today's Wordle answer.
How is this different from other Wordle solvers?
Most Wordle solver tools just show a filtered list of remaining words. This tool also ranks every remaining candidate by Shannon entropy and recommends the single best next guess — the word most likely to narrow down the answer fastest. Practice Mode also lets first-time visitors understand and trust the tool without needing an active Wordle game open.

Who uses the Wordle Helper

Streak-savers
Stuck on a hard puzzle with your streak on the line? Enter your guesses and get the best next move — no cheating required, just smarter strategy.
Beginners
New to Wordle and not sure where to start? The starting-word chips and Practice Mode let you learn how the game works before playing competitively.
Teachers
Use Wordle in the classroom as a vocabulary tool. The solver shows how logical deduction narrows possibilities — a great puzzle-thinking exercise. See also: Spelling Bee Words.
Data-curious players
Interested in how information theory applies to word games? The entropy score next to each suggestion shows exactly why one word beats another in terms of information gained.