Best NumGrid Openers

The opener decides how many candidates you face on turn 2. A great opener gets you to under 50; a sloppy opener leaves you with 200. Below is a ranked list of the ten openers worth memorizing, each tagged by digit sum, parity, and the day it works best on.

What makes a great opener

Five distinct digits. Repeated digits return ambiguous feedback under Wordle rules.
Parity match. If the day’s hint says “odd”, lead with odd digits.
Digit-sum range match. Pick an opener whose own sum is close to the day’s hint — it tells you whether the right digits are present.
Keypad coverage. Touch digits across the keypad so a single feedback pattern is informative about the structure.

The top 10

14793 (sum 24, odd)
Mixed parity, mid-range sum, all distinct digits, spans the keypad. Best default when you have no information about the day.
13579 (sum 25, odd)
All odd digits. Use when the day's parity hint is "odd" — confirms every position can hold an odd digit.
02468 (sum 20, even)
All even digits. Use when the day's parity hint is "even" — mirror of 13579.
01234 (sum 10, even)
Small-digit cluster, sum 10. Use when the digit sum hint is under 15.
56789 (sum 35, odd)
Large-digit cluster, sum 35. Use when the digit sum hint is above 30.
12345 (sum 15, odd)
Classic low-range opener. Sum 15 is the median for 5 distinct small digits. Use when sum is 12-18.
67890 (sum 30, even)
High-range mirror of 12345. Use when sum is 27-33.
04826 (sum 20, even)
Alternative all-even opener that scrambles position. Use when 02468 results have felt too predictable.
95173 (sum 25, odd)
Permuted all-odd opener. Same digit set as 13579 but scrambled positions — useful when greens from 13579 are misleading you.
24680 (sum 20, even)
Reversed-flow even opener. Cosmetically different from 02468 but identical information value.

How to pick today’s opener

Look at the day’s digit-sum hint (a number between 0 and 45) and parity hint (odd or even). Then:

Sum under 12, parity even: use 01234 (sum 10).
Sum 12-18, parity odd: use 12345 (sum 15).
Sum 19-23, parity even: use 02468 (sum 20).
Sum 24-26, parity odd: use 13579 (sum 25) or 14793 (sum 24).
Sum 27-32, parity even: use 67890 (sum 30).
Sum 33+, parity odd: use 56789 (sum 35).

When digit sum and parity disagree (e.g. sum 25, parity even — meaning the final digit is even but the other four sum to 25 minus an even number), pick the opener whose final digit matches the required parity. Position 5 is the parity anchor.

What to do after the opener

Mentally tag every gray digit as eliminated, every green as a confirmed position, and every yellow as a confirmed digit in the wrong slot. Combined with the digit sum, you can typically narrow to under 30 candidates after the first guess. Your second guess should test the remaining ambiguity — usually by moving yellows to plausible new positions and testing one or two untested digits that still fit the sum.

For the full method, see the NumGrid strategy guide or the deep dive on digit-sum strategy.

FAQ

What is the single best NumGrid opener?

If you only memorize one: 14793. It uses five distinct digits, mixes parity (three odd, two even), has a mid-range digit sum of 24, and spans the full keypad. This combination maximizes the information you extract from turn 1 regardless of what the day's puzzle is.

Should the opener change based on the day's hints?

Yes — that is the entire point of the hints. If the parity hint is "odd", lead with all-odd-digit openers like 13579 to confirm every odd digit position. If the digit sum is below 15, lead with small-digit openers like 01234. If the sum is above 30, lead with 56789. Matching the opener to the hints typically saves one guess per puzzle.

Is using repeated digits in the opener a bad idea?

Almost always yes. Repeated digits give ambiguous feedback under Wordle rules (only one of your two matching digits lights up per occurrence in the answer). Save repeated-digit guesses for turn 2 or later, after you already know which digits are present.

How much does a great opener reduce the candidate set?

With the hints already applied, you start with roughly 1,000-3,000 candidates. A well-chosen opener with 5 distinct digits typically narrows the set to under 50 candidates by the end of turn 1. A poorly chosen opener (e.g. with repeated digits, or all extreme digits) might leave you with 100-200 candidates — costing you a guess on average.

Pick an opener and try it now — play today’s NumGrid puzzle →