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How to Play Connect Four Online

By the Tavernly team ·

To learn how to play Connect Four, drop discs and make four in a line. Board Game Arena is an existing browser option. We make Four in a Row on Tavernly, a free browser alternative.

The short answer

  • Browser table: BGA has free-account tables, with no Premium required.
  • Phone: we found no app from the owner of Connect Four.
  • With friends or a bot: Four in a Row on Tavernly is free, with no sign-up.

Which way is right for you?

Choose by who will sit opposite you and how you want to learn. Board Game Arena offers browser tables with a free account. Four in a Row on Tavernly offers bots, private tables and a guided lesson. For a phone, the browser is an option.

You want to… Option
Join a browser table Board Game Arena, free account
Play against the computer Four in a Row on Tavernly, Play against bots
Invite a friend Four in a Row on Tavernly, With friends
Learn during a game Four in a Row on Tavernly, Learn by playing

Board Game Arena: play Connect Four online free (free account)

Board Game Arena lists Connect 4 as a browser game for 2 players. Its panel gives a duration of 1 minute and a complexity of 1 of 5. The game is not marked Premium, and the panel also lists a tutorial.

You need: a browser and a free account.

  1. Open the panel. Follow the Connect 4 panel link.
  2. Sign in. Sign in with your free account.
  3. Open or join a table. A free account can do either.

A Connect Four alternative: Four in a Row on Tavernly

Four in a Row on Tavernly: play it free in your browser.

Four in a Row on Tavernly is free, with no sign-up, for 2 players. A game takes about five minutes. You must be 13 or over, and you can choose a bot, invite a friend or learn through a coached game.

You need: a browser.

Play a bot

  1. Open the game page. Follow the cover link above.
  2. Complete the age screen. On your first visit, enter your birth month and year.
  3. Choose your bot. Under Play against bots, set Bots to Easy, Medium or Hard, then press Play now.
The Four in a Row page offers four ways to start: Play against bots, With friends, At your pace and Learn by playing.
The Four in a Row page: play against bots, play with friends, at your pace, or learn by playing.

Play a friend

  1. Open the friend option. Press Start now under With friends.
  2. Create your table. Press Start a private table.
  3. Invite your friend. Press Share invite and send the link.
  4. Start when ready. Wait for your friend, or press Start now: bots take the empty seats.
The waiting room of a private table, with a share link, one host seat and one empty seat that a bot can take.
The waiting room of a private table. Share the link; a bot takes the seat if it stays empty.
  • Press Reserve to arrange a table for later.
  • On the At your pace card, press Find players; a notification tells you when it is your turn.

Play a turn

  1. Point and click. A disc is a round piece: yours are indigo, and the other side has vermilion. When “Your turn: drop a disc” appears, point at a column and click.
  2. Tap twice on a touch screen. Tap a column to lift a disc, then tap it again or press Drop.
  3. Choose with the keyboard. Keys 1 to 7 choose a column; arrow keys move the disc, and Enter drops it. M turns the sound off.
A Four in a Row game on move 9: indigo has three discs along the bottom row and vermilion has blocked both ends.
Move 9: indigo has three in the bottom row, and vermilion has blocked both ends.

At the end

  1. Look for the gold line. It marks the four winning discs.
  2. Choose a rematch. Press Play again, or press Space.
  3. Check the fair start. The end screen shows the seed and its fingerprint under “A fair start”. Verify a game checks who dropped first.
A finished Four in a Row game: a gold line runs over four vermilion discs in a row, and the banner says Four in a line: Vermilion wins.
The end of a game: a gold line marks the four discs that won.

Learn by playing

  1. Start the coached game. Press Learn by playing under Beginner.
  2. Follow the coach. Drop in the named column when asked.
  3. Move through the lesson. Press Next (Space) or Back (B); Skip lesson leaves the lesson.
  4. Play to the end. The coach suggests a column.

How to play Connect Four: the rules step by step

These are the rules of Four in a Row on Tavernly, our version.

  1. Set up the rack. The rack is the upright frame with 7 columns and 6 rows. It starts empty.
  2. Choose who starts. A secret seed decides the first player. In a rematch, the other player starts.
  3. Drop a disc. Take turns dropping one into a column that is not full. It falls to the lowest empty place.
  4. Make four in a line. A line has your discs next to each other across, up or slanted. Four or more wins at once.
  5. Block the other side. A threat is an empty place where one more disc would make four. Block an open end beside three enemy discs.
  6. A full rack is a draw. If all 42 places are filled and nobody has four in a line, neither player wins.
Way What it looks like
Across A horizontal row
Up A vertical stack
Slanted A diagonal line

Tips and warnings

  • Start in the middle. The middle column touches the most lines.
  • Block three with an open end. The other side needs only one more disc there.
  • Watch the space above enemy discs. A disc lands on top of a column, so that space may become a winning place.
  • Look for two threats. Find a drop that creates two places where one more disc would win.

Warning: You cannot pass in Four in a Row on Tavernly; the table drops for you if the 20-second timer runs out.

Questions people ask

Can I play Connect Four online for free?

Yes. Board Game Arena offers Connect 4 tables with a free account, and Premium is not required to open or join them. Four in a Row on Tavernly is a free browser alternative with no sign-up. You can choose a bot or start a private table for a friend.

Do I need to download anything to play Connect Four online?

Board Game Arena and Four in a Row on Tavernly both run in your browser, so you do not need a download. On the Four in a Row page, separate cards start a bot game, a friend game, a game at your pace or a coached game.

Can I play Connect Four with friends online?

Yes. Four in a Row on Tavernly has private tables for you and a friend.

  1. Send the invite. The waiting room shows a six-letter table code and a link you can tap to copy.
  2. Check your seat. It is marked “(you)” and “host” before you start.

Can I play Connect Four against the computer?

Four in a Row on Tavernly lets you play against a bot. Medium is the default difficulty, with Easy and Hard also available. Bots take empty seats within five seconds and are always marked “bot”. You can also start a private table with a bot in the empty seat.

Can I play Connect Four on my phone?

Four in a Row on Tavernly works in a phone browser, with touch controls for choosing and dropping a disc. You can tap the same column again to confirm your drop. We found no app from the owner of Connect Four in the App Store search.

How many players?

Four in a Row on Tavernly is for 2 players, with 21 discs for each side. You can face a friend or a bot. Board Game Arena also lists Connect 4 for 2 players. In Four in a Row on Tavernly, each side's remaining discs appear in a pile beside the rack.

What happens when the rack is full?

In Four in a Row on Tavernly, a full rack of 42 discs with no line of four is a draw. A line of four ends the game at once, so a draw happens only when nobody made one.

Sources

We found no app from the owner of Connect Four in the App Store search, and we did not test any phone app.

Four in a Row is not affiliated with or endorsed by the owner of Connect Four. Connect Four is a trademark of its owner. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you want the physical game, here is Connect Four on Amazon.