A typical game of solitaire takes about 5 to 15 minutes. The fastest variants — Golf and TriPeaks — usually finish in 2 to 5 minutes, classic Klondike runs about 5 to 15, and longer games like FreeCell or Spider can stretch to 20 to 30 minutes or more. The more familiar you are with a game, the faster you play it.
“How long will this take?” is a fair question, because solitaire ranges from a two-minute coffee-break game to a twenty-minute thinking session depending entirely on which variant you choose. Here is what to expect from each.
Average Solitaire Game Length by Variant
| Game | Typical game length |
|---|---|
| Golf | 2–5 minutes |
| TriPeaks | 2–5 minutes |
| Addiction 7 | 3–8 minutes |
| Klondike | 5–15 minutes |
| Pyramid | 5–15 minutes |
| Yukon | 8–20 minutes |
| FreeCell | 5–20 minutes |
| Spider | 10–30 minutes |
These are casual ranges. Experienced players are faster across the board, and recognizing a lost position early — rather than playing it to the bitter end — saves a lot of time.
What Affects How Long a Game Takes
Three things move the number up or down:
- The variant. This matters most. A single-deck chain game like Golf is short by design; a two-deck game like Spider has twice the cards and far more to manage.
- Your familiarity. The first time you play a game, every move is deliberate. After a few dozen games, you read the board at a glance and play two or three times faster.
- Settings and style. Turn 3 Klondike runs longer than Turn 1. Using undo, deliberating over each move, and cycling the stock repeatedly all add minutes; quick, confident play removes them.
The Quickest Solitaire Games
If you have five minutes, play Golf or TriPeaks. Both are single-decision games — you remove one card at a time based on the current waste card — so there is no long planning phase. Addiction 7 is similarly fast because its deck is only 28 cards. These are the games for a genuine short break.
The Longest Solitaire Games
Spider is the longest standard game, especially at higher suit counts, because you are managing 104 cards across ten columns toward eight complete runs. FreeCell can also run long — not because of card count, but because the best line of play often requires thinking ten or more moves ahead. These are the games for when you want to settle in rather than dip out.
For help choosing based on time and other factors, see Which Solitaire Game Should I Play?