Crossword constructors are paid a flat fee per published puzzle, and the fee depends on the outlet. The New York Times pays the most of any newspaper: $500 for a weekday puzzle and $1,500 for a Sunday for your first two, then $750 and $2,250 (Nieman Lab, February 2026). Most other outlets pay roughly $100 to $500 per puzzle. Acceptance is selective and nothing is paid for a rejected puzzle, so for nearly everyone constructing is a hobby that occasionally pays, not a living.
Every figure below carries a date and a source. Rates change, and the sources don't always agree. Where they conflict, we say so. Check the outlet's own guidelines before you rely on a number.
How are crossword constructors paid?
Almost always per puzzle, on acceptance or publication. There is no salary, no royalty and no payment for puzzles that get rejected. A few points that hold across outlets:
- Size matters. A 21×21 Sunday pays more than a 15×15 daily, often two to three times as much.
- Experience can matter. The NYT pays more from your third published puzzle onward.
- Rights. Outlets typically buy the puzzle outright. The NYT's guidelines say the puzzle must never have been published anywhere, and the Times takes full rights to what it buys.
- One outlet at a time. Submitting the same puzzle to two places is not done.
The few people who earn a living from crosswords usually combine several sources: staff editing jobs, regular slots, indie subscriptions, books and custom commissions.
How much does the New York Times pay?
| NYT puzzle | 1st and 2nd published | 3rd onward | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday to Saturday (15×15) | $500 | $750 | Nieman Lab, Feb 26, 2026; Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 |
| Sunday (21×21) | $1,500 | $2,250 | Same |
These rates took effect January 1, 2019, after a raise announced in December 2018. Before that, the Times paid $300 for a weekday and $1,000 for a Sunday (from January 2014), with a small bump to $360 and $1,200 for constructors with ten or more NYT puzzles from January 2017 (XWord Info). Reports from 2021, 2022 and 2026 all give the 2019 rates, so we found no raise since.
Conflict to know about. Current sources put the higher tier at your third puzzle. A December 2018 FiveThirtyEight item described the threshold as ten. Confirm on the Times's guidelines page.
The NYT also offers a Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship for people who have not yet been published by the Times. Its fifth round opened to applications in June 2026 (PuzzCulture, June 11, 2026). It is mentorship, and we found no source describing a stipend.
For the step-by-step process, see the NYT crossword submission guide.
What do other outlets pay?
| Outlet | Reported pay | Source and date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Times | $150 daily / $350 Sunday | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 | Cruciverb's undated page lists $125 / $300. Guidelines are on editor Patti Varol's site. |
| Wall Street Journal | $200 daily / $500 weekend | WSJ crossword spec sheet, mikeshenk.com (undated) | Communicrossings lists a response time of about 8 months, marked uncertain. |
| The New Yorker | $750 per puzzle | Constructor quoted in The New Republic, Aug 5, 2022 | One secondhand quote. We found no current submission page. |
| Universal (Andrews McMeel) | $150 15×15 / $350 21×21 | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026; Communicrossings (undated) | Editor David Steinberg announced $110 / $260 in early 2019, so the rate has risen since. |
| USA Today | $150 | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 | Erik Agard cited $100 in The New Republic (Aug 2022); the sheet is newer. |
| Newsday | $100 Mon to Fri / $150 Sat / $300 Sunday | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 | Older Newsday guidelines (revised Jan 2014) listed $50 / $200; confirm current terms before submitting. |
| AVCX (American Values Club Crossword) | $400 (15×15) / $500 (21×21) | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 | Indie outlet; check its current terms. |
| Apple News+ | $500 | Crossword Publication Specs sheet, Oct 2026 | Response time about 2 months, per the same sheet. |
One of these figures is more than three years old and secondhand (the New Yorker's). We include it because it is the latest published number we could find, not because we know it is current. The NYT figures above are as reported by Nieman Lab (Feb 2026) and the specs sheet (Oct 2026); we could not verify them with the Times directly.
Can you make money from indie crosswords?
Some constructors sell puzzles directly through Patreon, Substack or their own sites. Income here is the number of paying subscribers times the price, minus platform fees (Patreon takes a commission; Substack takes 10%).
Public numbers are rare. One example: Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest Patreon page showed about 1,400 members when we checked in October 2026; the count changes over time. Gaffney is a long-established constructor with a weekly contest running for years, so treat that as an upper-end example, not a benchmark. The Hub Crossword (Joon Pahk and Brendan Emmett Quigley) says Pahk went full-time in 2022, without publishing income. We found no reliable data on what a typical indie constructor earns, and we're not going to guess.
How hard is it to get published?
Hard, at the top outlets. Reported NYT submission volume has grown from about 75 to 100 a week (Will Shortz to NPR, older interview) to more than 200 a week (Shortz in April 2021, per Communicrossings; NUS alumni magazine, 2024; Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Winter 2026). The daily crossword has 365 slots a year, many of which go to returning constructors. Our own rough arithmetic: 200 a week is over 10,000 submissions a year for those 365 slots. The Times publishes no acceptance rate.
The New Republic (August 2022) reported that only a handful of people make a living from crosswords, quoting constructor Will Nediger's estimate of around 20 worldwide. That's the honest baseline: most published constructors earn occasional fees, and most submitted puzzles are rejected.
How can you improve your chances?
Pay only comes if the puzzle is good enough to accept, so the work is in the puzzle:
- Learn the rules of the outlet you're targeting. Grid size, word-count limits, symmetry and theme expectations differ. Start with crossword grid rules.
- Start where acceptance is more realistic. Some constructors debut at other outlets first. One NUS profile describes a constructor's first acceptance at the LA Times in 2009, a year before his NYT debut.
- Clean the fill. Editors reject obscure, crosswordese-heavy grids. See crossword fill tips.
- Write clues with a voice. See crossword clue writing.
- Submit in the required format. The NYT asks for a specific PDF layout through an online form.
Gridsmith handles the mechanical part of construction: automatic 180° symmetry, live numbering, word and block counts, and ranked fill suggestions. It can't make a puzzle acceptable to an editor, and no tool can. You can start building in Gridsmith for free.
Sources
Checked October 18, 2026. Dates are each source's publication date.
- Nieman Lab, February 26, 2026: niemanlab.org
- Crossword Publication Specs (community spreadsheet), updated October 2026: Google Sheets
- The New Republic, Matt Hartman, "Inside the Elite, Underpaid, and Weird World of Crossword Writers," August 5, 2022: newrepublic.com
- The Oaklandside, July 8, 2021: oaklandside.org
- Communicrossings, references and publishing guide: references, publish
- XWord Info, Constructor Value: xwordinfo.com
- WSJ Crossword Specifications (Mike Shenk): mikeshenk.com
- Universal rate announcement, Diary of a Crossword Fiend, January 2, 2019: crosswordfiend.com
- Newsday editorial guidelines, revised January 2014: cruciverb.com
- Patti Varol, About: pattivarol.com
- PuzzCulture, June 11, 2026: puzzculture.com
- Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest on Patreon: patreon.com/mgwcc; The Hub Crossword: patreon.com/hubcrosswords
- Submission volume: NPR transcript, NUS alumni magazine, Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Winter 2026
Frequently asked questions
How much does the New York Times pay for a crossword?
$500 for a Monday-to-Saturday puzzle and $1,500 for a Sunday for your first two published puzzles, then $750 and $2,250 from your third, as reported in February 2026. Payment is only for puzzles the Times accepts.
Which crossword outlet pays the most?
Among newspapers, the New York Times, by a wide margin. The New Yorker was reported at $750 per puzzle in 2022. Most other outlets reported roughly $100 to $500 per puzzle (specs sheet, Oct 2026).
Can you make a living constructing crosswords?
Very few people do. Constructor Will Nediger estimated, in a 2022 New Republic article, that around 20 people worldwide make a living from crosswords, usually by combining editing jobs, regular slots, subscriptions and books.
Do you get paid if your crossword is rejected?
No. Outlets pay per accepted or published puzzle. A rejected puzzle earns nothing, though you are free to submit it elsewhere afterward, one outlet at a time.
How much do indie crossword constructors make?
It varies too much to state a typical figure, and few constructors publish their numbers. Income depends on paying subscribers, price and platform fees.
How often does the NYT accept crossword submissions?
Rarely. Reports since 2021 put submissions above 200 a week, against 365 daily slots a year. The Times does not publish an acceptance rate.