Free Printable Sudoku Puzzles
Free instant PDF — no signup, no watermark, no limit on how many you print. The preview above is exactly what prints, and the solutions are page two of the same file.
Shares these exact options — anyone with the link gets this sheet.
Teacher or parent? Pin this so it's there when you need it.
Save to PinterestHow to use this sudoku maker
Pick a grid size and a difficulty, choose how many puzzles you want on the page, and the preview updates instantly to show the exact sheet you'll get. Click Download PDF and print — the solutions are page two of the same file. If you want a different puzzle at the same size and level, change the puzzle set: there are eight of them, and each is a genuinely different batch rather than the same grid shuffled.
What's included on each sudoku sheet
Every sheet prints the grid with heavier borders around each box, so it reads as a sudoku rather than as graph paper, and a caption under the puzzle number stating how many clues it starts with and the hardest technique it will ask of you. Page two is the answer key: the same grid, completed, with the numbers you had to work out in blue and your starting clues left black. Both pages are laid out identically, so you can hold them up together and check one square without hunting. Every puzzle here has exactly one solution, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing, and no branch that turns out to be a dead end forty squares later.
Tips for solving sudoku
- Scan for the number that appears most often first. If a 7 is already placed in five boxes, the remaining boxes have very few squares left where a 7 can legally go — that is a hidden single, and it is the workhorse technique of every easy and medium puzzle.
- Write small pencil marks only when scanning stops working. Filling every square with candidates first is slow and error-prone; the sheets here are sized so there is room to pencil into a square when you genuinely need to.
- When a number can only sit in one row of a box, it cannot sit anywhere else along that row outside the box. That is a locked candidate, it is what medium puzzles here are built around, and it is the first technique that feels like real deduction.
- If two squares in a unit can only hold the same two numbers, no other square in that unit can hold either of them — even though you do not yet know which is which. That pair is the whole content of the hard level.
- Never guess. If you are stuck, you have missed something rather than reached a fork: every puzzle on this page is solvable by forced deductions from the clues it gives you.
- Starting with a child? Use a 4x4 grid on very easy, and say the rule out loud each time — each number appears once in every row, column, and box. That single sentence is the entire game.
Customization options
Grid size
4x4 uses the numbers 1-4 in 2x2 boxes — sixteen squares and the first sudoku most children ever finish. 6x6 uses 1-6 in 2x3 boxes. 9x9 is the classic newspaper grid. 16x16 uses the numbers 1 to 16 in 4x4 boxes, and prints them as real two-digit numbers rather than letters, so there is nothing to translate while you solve.
Difficulty
Five levels, each defined by the hardest technique the puzzle will require: singles, then hidden singles, then locked candidates, then pairs, then triples and X-Wings. It is not a clue count — removing more numbers does not reliably make a puzzle harder, and it is not how a solver experiences difficulty. The ladder does run out on the small grids: a 4x4 has no room for a locked candidate to exist, so it is always solvable a square at a time. The panel says so when it applies, and every sheet prints the technique its puzzle actually needs.
Puzzles per page
One puzzle fills the page, which is the format for a coffee-break sudoku or a child who needs room to write. Two or four to a page is the class set — every puzzle keeps its own caption and its own solution on the key. A 16x16 grid stops at two to a page, because four would print squares too small for a two-digit number.
Puzzle set
Eight different batches at every size and level. The same settings always produce the same sheet, which is what lets you reprint a lost copy exactly; switching set gives you a genuinely different puzzle without touching anything else.
Paper size
US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) or A4 (210 × 297 mm). The grid is recalculated to fit whichever sheet you choose, so nothing is stretched or clipped.
Frequently asked questions
Does every puzzle have only one solution?
Yes, and that is a guarantee rather than a hope. A puzzle is built by removing numbers from a completed grid one at a time, and a number only comes out if the grid can still be finished by forced deductions alone — steps where a square has one number left, or a number has one square left. A grid that can be completed without ever guessing has exactly one completion. Every puzzle the generator can produce is also re-checked by a separate exhaustive solver that counts solutions and has to find precisely one.
What does the difficulty setting actually change?
The hardest solving technique the puzzle needs. Very easy means every step is a square with one number left. Easy adds hidden singles. Medium adds locked candidates. Hard adds naked and hidden pairs, and expert adds triples and X-Wings. Most generators just remove more numbers and call the result harder, which is not how difficulty works — a 24-clue puzzle solvable with singles is easier than a 30-clue puzzle that needs an X-Wing. Each sheet prints the technique its puzzle really requires, next to the clue count.
Is the sudoku free to print?
Yes. Every grid size and every difficulty is free — no signup, no email, no watermark, and no cap on how many puzzles you generate, download, or print. Nothing is held back for a subscription. The PDF is generated in your browser and downloads instantly.
What sudoku sizes can I print?
Four. A 4x4 grid with the numbers 1-4 in 2x2 boxes, which is where a five- or six-year-old starts. A 6x6 with 2x3 boxes. The classic 9x9. And a 16x16 with the numbers 1 to 16 in 4x4 boxes for a long sit-down puzzle. The 16x16 prints real two-digit numbers rather than letters A-G, so there is nothing to translate.
Do the puzzles come with answers?
Always. Page two of every download is the answer key, with the numbers you had to work out printed in blue and your starting clues left black, so the two pages are easy to tell apart. The key is laid out on exactly the same grid as the puzzle, so you can hold the two pages up together and check a square at a glance.
Can I print several sudoku puzzles on one page?
Yes — one, two, or four puzzles to a sheet, each with its own clue count and its own solution on the key. Four to a page is the format for a class set or a travel folder. A 16x16 grid stops at two to a page, because any smaller and the squares are too small to write a two-digit number in.
Will I get the same puzzle if I come back?
Yes. Each combination of grid size, difficulty, puzzle set, and puzzles-per-page always generates exactly the same sheet, so you can print a class set today and an identical set next week. If you want different puzzles at the same size and level, change the puzzle set — there are eight of them, and each is a genuinely different batch.
What sudoku size is best for kids?
Start with 4x4 at very easy: sixteen squares, the numbers 1 to 4, and every step is a square with one number left. Most children can finish one in a few minutes by kindergarten or first grade, and it teaches the whole idea — each number appears once in every row, column, and box. Move to 6x6 when that gets quick, and to 9x9 somewhere around third grade.
Does a harder sudoku ever need guessing?
Not here. Every puzzle at every level is solvable by logic alone, because the generator only removes a clue when the remaining grid can still be solved by the techniques that level allows. Expert puzzles ask for triples and X-Wings, which are slow and deliberate, but never for trial and error.
What paper size does the sudoku print on?
Choose US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) or A4 (210 × 297 mm) and the grid is recalculated to fill that sheet, so nothing is stretched or clipped. Print at 100% scale on plain paper — the rules are thin and the box borders heavier, which is what makes a sudoku readable, and it prints crisply even on draft quality.
Related worksheets
- Word search makerThe other puzzle every classroom prints, with an answer key.
- Printable coloring pagesMazes, mandalas, and dot-to-dot line art to print free.
- Multiplication chartTimes-table grids and hundreds charts to pin up.
- Graph paperSquare, dot, and isometric grids, exact to scale.
- 3rd grade worksheetsWhere a 9x9 grid usually starts to be within reach.
- 5th grade worksheetsLogic puzzles alongside the year's math practice.
- Multiplication worksheetsTimes-table drills with answers on page two.
- All free worksheetsEvery printable generator on the site in one place.