Rules guide

How to Play Cosmillion: Rules, Timer, Typos and Reset

How to play Cosmillion: you get seven category prompts a day, 25 seconds for each, and you type one answer per prompt. The rarer your answer is on the game's list, the more it scores, from 10 points for the most common to 100 for the rarest, so a perfect chart is 700. If you are new, the what is Cosmillion page has the background, and the rest of this guide covers the rules, typos, timing and a few tips.

How to play Cosmillion, step by step

How to play Cosmillion fits in six steps, and a launch takes about three minutes.

1. Open today's launch. Go to cosmillion.com, or play our free Daily Chart, and start the day's seven prompts. Everyone gets the same ones.
2. Read the prompt. Each prompt names a category, such as "Name an insect". You have 25 seconds from the moment it appears.
3. Type one answer. Type a single answer and submit it. Rarer answers on the game's curated list score more, from 10 up to 100 points.
4. Confirm or retry. If a close typo becomes a "did you mean", confirm it. If an answer is rejected, type another until the clock runs out.
5. Finish all seven prompts. A miss or a timeout scores 0. A perfect chart is 700 points.
6. Share your result. Copy the result card, which shows your score and a row of coloured squares, and send it to friends. Come back after the daily reset to keep your streak.

What counts as a valid answer

A valid answer is one that appears on the prompt's curated list of accepted answers, which holds roughly 150 to 470 entries. The list is fixed, so nothing is decided by a live vote or an AI judge, and each entry already has a rank from Tourist to One in a Galaxy.

• Typos. Exact matches, simple plurals and a missing "the" or "a" are fine. A near miss becomes a "did you mean" that you confirm, so "Spagetti" can still become Spaghetti.
• Unlisted answers. They are rejected, but you can type again until the timer ends.
• "Type of X" prompts. On prompts like "Name a type of tea", an unlisted "something tea" can still count as Overthought, worth 15 points.
• Misses. If time runs out with no valid answer, you score 0 for that prompt.

Wondering what each rank is worth? See the Cosmillion ranks guide.

Cosmillion 25 seconds and the reset time

Cosmillion gives you 25 seconds per prompt, so a full launch is at most about three minutes of typing. The Cosmillion reset time is 00:00 India time (18:30 UTC, 1:30 pm Eastern Standard Time), when the next numbered launch opens. Launch #1 was on October 16, 2026, and launch #20 is November 4.

You can look up any day's prompts afterwards, for example Cosmillion answers for October 25, or see the newest on Cosmillion answers today.

Sharing and the Cosmillion streak

After the seventh prompt you get a result card with your points and a row of coloured squares, one for each prompt, which you can paste to friends. The official game also offers a challenge link, so a friend plays the same seven prompts and tries to beat your score.

The streak adds one for each consecutive launch day, and one missed day can be covered by a stored repair. Streaks live in your browser, which means a new device starts from zero. See how the paid unlock changes things in the what is Cosmillion guide.

How to play Cosmillion for practice

The best way to practise is to play rounds with the same rules. Our Daily Chart gives everyone the same seven original prompts each day. Cosmillion Unlimited offers the official bank, our original bank or both, with 25-second, 45-second and relaxed timers plus challenge links. Both modes use our star names, from Dim Speck to Quasar. Official-bank practice can reveal answers to official launches. Reading old boards in the Cosmillion archive shows how obscure a top answer has to be.

First-day strategy for Cosmillion

Once you know how to play Cosmillion, the first-day goal is simple: aim for a middle answer, not the first thing that comes to mind. Real boards show the pattern.

• Skip the obvious. For "Name a type of pasta" on launch #1, Spaghetti and Penne sit at Tourist. Malloreddus is Astronaut, Torchio is Deep Space and Testaroli is One in a Galaxy.
• Go one level deeper. For "Name a martial art" on launch #10, Karate and Judo are Tourist, while Gumdo and Kapap reach Astronaut.
• Specific beats general. On launch #20, "Name an insect" accepted Webspinner as One in a Galaxy, while Ant and Bee are Tourist.
• Do not stall. A rejected answer costs nothing but seconds, but 25 seconds go fast. If your clever idea is not accepted after one try, switch to something you know is a real, specific member of the category.
• Think about the spread. Each prompt's list has only a handful of One in a Galaxy answers, so a solid Astronaut-level answer is a good target and the top rank is a bonus. You can review Cosmillion answers for October 16 to see the very first board.

For how the game compares with its closest relative, read Cosmillion vs Krillion or browse games like Krillion. Who runs this site is on about Cosmillion Online.

Updated November 4, 2026.