What Summle Is#

Summle is a daily arithmetic construction puzzle by UK developer Nicholas Nicholaou, launched in early 2022. The board shows a target number and a set of number tiles; you combine tiles with + − × ÷, and each intermediate result appears as a new yellow subtotal tile you can feed into later steps. Reach the target in five steps or fewer and the puzzle is yours — every day's puzzle has at least one solution.

The mode ladder is Summle's quiet superpower: Junior sticks to times tables, Kids to addition and subtraction, while Hard and Extreme sharpen the search (Extreme is described as having a single solution — we haven't verified that on-site, so take it as reported). A free Android app exists; on the web it's free with no account.

Play it at summle.net. Summle is its own game by its own makers — NerdleBuddy is not affiliated with it (or with Nerdle); this guide is our independent take.

How to Play Summle#

Work backward from the target as much as forward from the tiles: if the target is even and large, hunt for a doubling; if it ends in 0 or 5, a ×5 is probably load-bearing. Because subtotals become tiles, the real skill is building a useful intermediate — the same instinct Countdown's numbers round trains.

Each tile can be used once, you don't have to use them all, and the step counter is the score. Five steps is the ceiling, fewer is the flex, and the share grid shows your path length without spoiling the route.

Summle vs Nerdle#

What the two share

A daily, free, shareable arithmetic ritual
School-level operations hiding genuinely non-trivial reasoning
Made by an indie developer during the 2022 wave

What changes

Construction, not deduction: nothing is hidden and there's no colour feedback to read
Scored in steps used, not guesses spent
Difficulty comes as modes (Junior to Extreme) rather than one shared board

Summle is the one to hand a family: the same puzzle idea stretches from a seven-year-old's addition practice to an adult's Extreme grind, which nothing in the Nerdle family quite does. Its siblings are Countle and the retired NYT Digits; its complement is a deduction game — and if the deduction itch strikes, today's puzzle and the solver are one tab away.

Our rating:

Sharpen up before you switch. The deduction habits transfer: open with an information-rich guess, read the feedback, eliminate hard. Practise the loop on today’s NerdleBuddy puzzle or let the Nerdle solver suggest a next guess from your current feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Can you reuse numbers in Summle?

Each number tile can be used once — but every intermediate result you create becomes a yellow subtotal tile that CAN be reused in later steps. Chaining subtotals is the whole game.

What are Summle's modes?

Alongside the standard daily there are Junior (times tables), Kids (addition and subtraction), Hard, and Extreme, each with its own daily puzzle — plus a Make 10 mode. It's one of the few daily maths games with a real difficulty ladder for classrooms and families.

Is there a Summle app?

There's a free Android app from the game's creator that collects no data; we couldn't find an iOS version, so iPhone players should stick to summle.net in the browser.

Is Summle like Nerdle?

Different family: Nerdle hides an equation and you deduce it from colour feedback; Summle shows you everything and asks you to construct a path to a target. The daily ritual and the arithmetic are what they share.

Keep exploring: Countle · Numble · NYT Digits · all puzzle games

Bring the habit home

Play today's NerdleBuddy puzzle, or use the Classic Nerdle solver to choose a next guess from your tile feedback.

Today’s Puzzle Nerdle Solver

What Is Summle?