Rules, scoring, strategy
How to Play Costcodle: Rules, Scoring, and Shelf Tips
The rules take about a minute to learn. You get one warehouse-club item, six guesses, and a 5% win band. This page covers the full rules, how the green, yellow, and red feedback works, a worked example, and the tips that actually move your win rate. Read it once and you will never lose to a price tag again. Probably.
One puzzle a day
A fresh item appears at local midnight. The daily board is the main event, and the archive is open if you want more rounds.
Six guesses, USD
Type a price, read the feedback, adjust. Cents count, but close is a real strategy, because the win band is 5%.
Three hints, optional
Reveal them one at a time. They cost no guesses. The only marker is a small hint note on your shared result.
The rules
The rules, in plain English
- Every puzzle is one warehouse-club item with a size and a US dollar price. Prices are illustrative, not live store data.
- You get six guesses per puzzle. A guess can be any dollar amount you type, and you can move up or down as often as you like.
- You win when a guess lands within 5% of the actual price, above or below. The round ends on that guess.
- Feedback is color coded: green inside 5%, yellow inside 25%, red beyond 25%. An arrow shows whether the true price is higher or lower than your guess.
- Three hints are available on every puzzle. Hints never cost a guess, and the only record is a hint marker on the result you share.
A worked example
Say the shelf shows a 24-count box of granola bars and the price is $13.49. Your first guess, $12.00, comes back yellow with an up arrow: you are 11% low. You jump to $17.00. That is 26% high, so red, down arrow. Now you know the price sits between $12 and $17. Try $14.75: yellow again, 9% high. Finally $13.25 lands 1.8% below the truth, inside the 5% band. Four guesses, one win, no hints.
How the 5% band works
Percentages are calculated from the actual price, not from your guess. A $20 item wins anywhere from $19.00 to $21.00. A $2 item wins from $1.90 to $2.10, which is only ten cents in each direction. That is why cheap items are sneakily harder than big-ticket ones: the same 5% band is a smaller target in cents. Yellow covers everything from 5% to 25% away, and red is anything beyond 25%. The arrow is separate from the color, because it tells you direction, not distance.
Try it now
Play a practice round
No streak on the line. Learn the arrows, the bands and the corridor with a random archive price.
Costcodle practice puzzle
Finding today's item…
- 01 GUESS — — —
- 02 GUESS — — —
- 03 GUESS — — —
- 04 GUESS — — —
- 05 GUESS — — —
- 06 GUESS — — —
Hints are free. Using one adds a lightbulb to your shared result.
Real price
Practice mode: unlimited random puzzles. Results do not touch your daily streak.
Prefer a never-ending shuffle? Unlimited mode deals a random 100-puzzle pool, keeps a session streak and reshuffles when the pool runs dry.
Play Costcodle UnlimitedGet good
Strategy that actually helps
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01
Anchor with the unit
Before your first guess, read the size line. A price that fits a 12-pack is wrong for a 72-count. Bulk math beats gut feeling.
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02
Guess the middle, then bisect
Start near the middle of a plausible range for the category. Each arrow halves the search space, so six guesses go a long way when you move deliberately.
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03
Respect the cheap stuff
The 5% band shrinks in cents as the price drops. A $2 item gives you about ten cents of room, so treat small prices with big precision.
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04
Slow down on big-ticket items
On a $300 item, 5% is $15, which is much easier to hit. Use round numbers, aim near the middle, and let the arrow do the heavy lifting.
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05
Spend hints on ambiguity
If two very different prices both feel right, open a hint. If you already have a strong range, keep the hint and finish clean.
Want the deep version? The strategy guide goes further, and the 5% rule guide shows the exact math.
Read the strategy guideQuestions
How to play Costcodle: FAQ
Do I need an account to play Costcodle?
No account, no email, no sign-up form. Open the site and the board is ready. Your streak and stats are stored in your browser only, which means nothing syncs between devices. Clearing browser data resets them. That trade is on purpose: fewer steps to play, and nothing personal collected.
Can I play Costcodle more than once a day?
There is one daily puzzle, but the archive has 365 past puzzles and practice mode serves random items. Most players use the extra boards for warm-ups and practice runs once the daily is done. Everything is free, and none of the extra modes need an account.
What happens if I use all six guesses?
The round ends and the real price is revealed, along with the item and a short fact. Your daily streak resets if you had one going. The answer page then shows the item, the price, and the full breakdown. Tomorrow's puzzle arrives at local midnight as a clean slate.
Do hints hurt my streak or stats?
No. Hints do not cost a guess, change your stats, or break a streak. The only effect is a small hint marker on the result you share, so friends can see you had help. That is the whole penalty. If you care about a clean grid, skip them. If you care about learning the shelf, use them.
Why is the price so specific, like $11.99?
Prices mirror how warehouse clubs tag items: odd endings, bulk sizes, and the occasional round number on big-ticket goods. Cents feel fussy, but the 5% band absorbs most of that, so guessing $12.00 on an $11.99 item still wins. We keep the endings because they make the shelf feel real.
Is the 5% rule the same for every puzzle?
Yes. Every puzzle uses the same 5% win band and the same 25% yellow-to-red cutoff, whatever the price. Only the item changes. That consistency is the point. The game is about reading the shelf, not memorizing a shifting rulebook, and the archive follows the same rule.
Ready for the real thing?
Today's puzzle is waiting. Six guesses, one price, no receipt required.