Tic tac toe printables
54 printable tic tac toe sheets: plain boards in six sizes, up to sixteen games on one page, seasonal marks instead of X and O, classroom and travel sheets with the score built in, cut out counter sets, and pre-filled positions where exactly one move is right.
54 printable sheets ·
Checked and published by 
Nora Quill
Board sizes: 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 and bigger
The board itself changes the game. A 3x3 grid is the version everybody knows and ends in a draw between two careful players, while a 5x5 asking for four in a row opens up properly and a 7x7 asking for five turns into a long game. Each of these prints one board to a page, sized so a marker pen fits between the lines.
How many games fit on one page
One board per sheet is a waste of paper when a game lasts two minutes. These put two, four, six, nine, twelve or sixteen boards on the same page, all the same size and all numbered, so one print lasts a whole afternoon or a whole table of children.
Themed marks instead of X and O
Same rules, different symbols: hearts against stars for Valentine, pumpkins against ghosts for Halloween, trees against snowflakes at Christmas, plus paws, fish, flowers, rockets and apples. Every one of these sheets prints a legend at the top saying which symbol belongs to which player, and the symbols are drawn line art, so they photocopy cleanly.
Sheets built for the classroom, the car and parties
The game is the same; what changes is the rest of the paper. A classroom worksheet has a name and date line and a score box. A car sheet has a fold line down the middle and tally boxes for each player. A party placemat has room for two names and eight games each. Nobody has to fetch a second piece of paper to keep score.
Pre-filled puzzles with one right move
These are not blank boards. Each position was reached by playing a legal game, X is to move, and exactly one square is correct: win now, block the other player, or make the double threat that wins two moves later. The site proves the answer is unique before the sheet is published, and these are the only tic tac toe sheets here that come with an answer page.
Cut out sets with counters
A board plus the counters to play it with, printed on the same page and cut along the dotted lines. Nothing is written on the board, so the set survives dozens of games, which is what you want for a rainy afternoon or a classroom box. One of them ships with blank counters so children draw their own symbols first.
What is on this page
Fifty four printable tic tac toe sheets, all free PDFs sized for A4 and Letter paper. They are not fifty four copies of the same grid: the sheets are grouped by the thing that actually differs between them, which is the board size, how many games fit on the page, what the two players mark with, what the rest of the paper is set up to do, and whether the board starts empty or half played.
How many of these can I print for free?
Every sheet on this page is a free PDF and there is no limit: print one, print thirty for a class, print the same board again next week. Home and classroom use are both covered by the licence. What it does not allow is selling the sheets or re-uploading the files elsewhere.
Which board size to pick
Three by three is the game everybody learned, and it is worth knowing that two players who both understand it will draw every single time. That is not a flaw in the sheet, it is the game: nine squares are not enough room to hide a plan. It is still the right board for a five year old, who is learning to look at three squares in a line before anything else.
The bigger boards fix the draw problem by giving the line somewhere to go:
- 4x4 with four in a row. The first board where the corners matter and a careless opening loses.
- 4x4 with three in a row. Faster and much sharper, because there are far more places to make a line than there are moves to block them.
- 5x5 with four in a row. The best two player game on this page. Long enough for a real plan, short enough to finish on a car journey.
- 6x6 and 7x7 with five in a row. These stop being tic tac toe and start being a proper connection game, the kind that takes a quarter of an hour.
Boards per page, and the rest of the paper
A game of tic tac toe lasts about ninety seconds, so one board on a whole sheet of paper is mostly waste. The layout sheets carry two, four, six, nine, twelve or sixteen numbered boards at the same size, and the sixteen board sheet still leaves squares of nearly fourteen millimetres, which a pencil fits inside comfortably.
What surrounds the boards is the other half of the job. A classroom sheet prints a name and date line at the top and a small results box at the bottom, so a teacher gets the sheet back with the score on it. A car sheet has a dashed fold line running between the two rows of boards, so it folds down the middle and two children in the back seat get half each, plus tally boxes for eight games apiece. A party placemat leaves room for two names. None of that changes the game, and all of it is the difference between a printable and a picture of a grid.
The pre-filled puzzles are checked before they go up
Nine of these sheets are not blank boards at all. Each one prints four, six or nine positions with marks already on them, X to move, and exactly one correct square. Some ask you to win immediately, some to block the other player, and the hardest ask for the double threat: the move that makes two lines at once, so that blocking one loses to the other.
Those positions are not drawn by hand and they are not scattered on a grid at random. The site plays a legal game to reach every one of them, then proves three things before the sheet is allowed to exist: the position is legal, with X having either the same number of marks as O or exactly one more; nobody has already completed a line; and the answer square is the only correct move in that position. A puzzle with two right answers has no answer sheet, it has an opinion, so it never gets printed. These are the only tic tac toe sheets here that come with a separate answer page, and on it the correct square is circled.
Printing and cutting
Choose actual size or 100% rather than fit to page. Every sheet is laid out as a real A4 page with a 15mm margin, which is also what keeps Letter printers from clipping it. Black and white at normal quality is all any of these need, and the lines are drawn heavy enough to survive draft mode.
The cut out sets print a board and its counters on the same page, along dotted lines a child can follow with round-ended scissors. Counters are between eighteen and twenty six millimetres across, which is big enough to pick up and small enough to sit inside a square on the board they came with. Card stock makes them last longer, but ordinary paper works, and a set that gets bent is a set you print again for nothing.
How to use these sheets
- Pick a sheet and press Print. The file is a PDF sized for A4 and Letter paper.
- Print it in black and white at normal quality. None of these sheets need colour ink except the colour by number pages.
- Keep the answer page for yourself, or print it too if you want to check the work later.
Common questions
Why does 3x3 tic tac toe always end in a draw?
Because nine squares are not enough to hide a plan. Two players who both know to take the centre, answer a corner and block every line will draw every game, and that is the game rather than a fault in the sheet. It is still the right board for a young child. If you want games somebody can actually win, use the 4x4 sheets with three in a row, or the 5x5 with four in a row, where there are more ways to build a line than there are moves to block them.
How many tic tac toe boards fit on one page?
Up to sixteen at a size you can still write in. This page carries sheets with two, four, six, nine, twelve and sixteen boards, all the same size and numbered so nobody argues about which game is which. On the sixteen board sheet each square is close to fourteen millimetres, which an ordinary pencil fits inside.
Do the pre-filled puzzles really have only one answer?
Yes, and it is checked rather than assumed. Every position is reached by playing a legal game, so the number of X marks and O marks always adds up and nobody has already made a line. Before the sheet is built the site confirms that exactly one square answers the question asked, whether that is winning now, blocking, or making a double threat. Those nine sheets are the only ones here with an answer page.
Can I print these for a whole class?
Yes, as many copies as you need, at no cost. Classroom use and home use are both covered. The classroom sheets already carry a name and date line and a small score box, and the tournament sheets carry nine or twelve numbered games with a results table, so a set comes back with the scores on it. The licensing page has the exact wording.
What do I need for the cut out sets?
Paper, scissors and nothing else. The board and its counters print on the same page, and the counters are between eighteen and twenty six millimetres across, cut along dotted lines. Card stock lasts longer, but plain paper is fine, and a bent set costs nothing to print again. The how to print guide covers scaling if the counters come out smaller than they should.
Where do new printables show up first?
On the new and popular printables page, which lists the newest sets on the site next to the ones being printed the most. If you have run out here, the Maze Maker generates unlimited fresh printable mazes with their solutions in the meantime.