LA Times mini crossword
Play the current puzzle free at latimes.com. It is a daily 5×5, ads included, with an optional account for streaks. The date picker covers about two weeks.
| Field | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Grid | 5×5 | 2 sources |
| Answers | About 10 (5 across, 5 down) | 1 source · Daily Games to Play |
| Access | Free with ads; account optional for streaks | 2 sources |
| Archive | About the last two weeks | 1 source · Daily Games to Play, plus a date picker on the game page |
| Constructor | Elizabeth C. Gorski on the current run | 2 sources |
| Platform | PuzzleMe (Amuse Labs) | 2 sources |
| Release time | Midnight US Eastern | 1 source · secondary |
| App | No dedicated crossword app | 2 sources |
| Editor | No source | |
| Launch date | No source |
How this one actually plays
The Los Angeles Times hosts the mini at its own games URL. The page is a PuzzleMe board from Amuse Labs, not the Times player and not a downloadable crossword app. You can open today’s grid in the browser. An LA Times account is optional and is tied to streaks and achievements, not to the right to see the current puzzle. That split, free grid versus optional account, is the access story. I am not calling the whole site ad-free. The research notes ads on the free play.
Elizabeth C. Gorski’s name is the one attached to the current run, including the 3 November 2026 byline on Daily Crossword Links. A 5×5 with five across and five down is the size Daily Games to Play describes, along with a solve that often lands between one and five minutes. I am not turning that range into a promise of a two-minute puzzle.
How far back you can go
The game page has a date picker. Daily Games to Play says the picker reaches about the last two weeks. I will not stretch that into a complete archive. If you need a puzzle from March, this is the wrong shelf. The Times mini archive, by contrast, is a subscriber product. The Guardian keeps a long free series. Los Angeles is the short free window.
A secondary page says the puzzle turns over at midnight Eastern. The Los Angeles Times page we could read did not print that clock, so the midnight line stays a single secondary source. There is no sourced launch year in the notes I kept, and no named editor separate from Gorski, so those cells stay empty.
If you want a 5×5 that does not depend on their date picker, the grid on our home page is a different puzzle with its own clues. It will not match Gorski’s entries.
Questions
Is the LA Times mini free?
The current puzzle is free in the browser. An account is optional and is for streaks and achievements.
How many old puzzles can I open?
About two weeks, according to a secondary write-up of the date picker. Not the full history.
Is there an LA Times crossword app for the mini?
No dedicated crossword app showed up in the sources. The mini plays in the browser. The LA Times app is a news app.
Sources
Public-source check: 2026-11-04. Pages from the same publisher count as one source.