Everything Gridly offers — organized by what it does for your content, your puzzles, and your classroom.
The input layer: how Gridly understands your teaching material.
Upload chapters in PDF, DOCX, TXT, or paste text directly. Gridly handles formatting artifacts, page numbers, headers, and footnotes automatically so you don't have to clean your files first.
The platform identifies vocabulary words, key phrases, names, dates, and definitions from your chapter. It distinguishes between terms worth testing and filler text, prioritizing content that appears in headings, bold text, and glossaries.
After extraction, review the full term list. Add custom terms the algorithm missed, remove terms that aren't relevant, and edit definitions before the puzzle is built. You have complete control over what goes into the grid.
Gridly works across every discipline: biology, history, literature, mathematics, foreign languages, economics, and everything in between. The extraction engine adapts to the vocabulary patterns of each field.
The construction layer: turning term lists into solvable, balanced crossword grids.
The algorithm arranges terms to maximize intersections, producing puzzles that feel cohesive rather than scattered. Every word connects to at least one other, and the overall grid maintains visual symmetry.
Clues are generated from the source chapter, not from a generic dictionary. When a student reads the clue, it references what they actually studied — making the puzzle a genuine review tool, not a trivia game.
Choose from three difficulty tiers: straightforward definitions for younger students, inference-based clues for middle school, and analytical prompts for high school and university. The grade level shapes both clue phrasing and grid complexity.
Don't like the layout? Click regenerate. Gridly produces a completely new grid arrangement in seconds. You can regenerate as many times as you want until the puzzle feels right.
The export layer: getting puzzles into students' hands.
Every puzzle exports as a cleanly formatted PDF: the student worksheet on the first page, the answer key on the second. Designed to look professional at any print size, from letter to A4.
Download the puzzle grid as a high-resolution PNG for embedding in Google Slides presentations, Canvas assignments, or classroom handouts you're building in another tool.
Generate a shareable link that lets students solve the puzzle in their browser. No app download needed. Responses are tracked so you can see completion rates at a glance.
Every puzzle you create is saved to your account library. Reuse puzzles across semesters, share them with colleagues, or duplicate and modify them for different class sections.
Beta users get full access to everything listed above. No paywalls, no feature tiers, no artificial limits. Upload a chapter and try it all.