Maze Generator

How to make a printable maze

1. Pick a difficulty. The five levels are starting points: Very easy is a 5 × 5 grid (25 cells) for ages 3–4, Easy 10 × 10, Medium 18 × 18, Hard 30 × 30 and Expert 60 × 60 (3,600 cells, with corridors about 3 mm wide). The slider sets any size from 5 to 60 in between; on a circular maze it sets the number of rings, 3 to 20.
2. Choose the look: a square or circular grid, a heart, star or Christmas tree outline, and who is looking for what. Type a title, or clear it.
3. Hide a message, if you like. Type a word or a short sentence (up to 24 letters) in Hidden message: its letters are spread along the way through and the page gets a row of blanks to fill in.
4. Press New maze until you like the one you see. Each press draws a different maze with the same settings; the number in the footer of the page identifies it.
5. Download the PDF and print it at 100% (“Actual size”). Page 2 is the solution with the path in red, so you can print page 1 for the child and keep page 2 for yourself.

Questions

Is this a free printable maze generator?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit; the maze is made by your own browser, so nothing is sent anywhere. Every download is a PDF in A4 or US Letter (US and Canadian browsers start on Letter) with 12 mm margins, so home printers do not clip the edge, plus a 300 dpi PNG of the page shown if you would rather drop it into a worksheet or print from a photo app.

Which maze size suits which age?

As a rough guide: 5 × 5 for 3–4 year olds who are just learning to hold a pencil on a line, 10 × 10 for 4–6, 18 × 18 for 6–8, 30 × 30 for 8–11, and 60 × 60 for older children and adults. Children differ a lot, so if the first one is finished in a minute, go one level up. The shapes use a few more rows than the square at the same level, because a star or tree outline leaves part of the grid empty. Circular mazes feel harder than square ones of the same size, because the corridors curve and the finish sits in the middle.

Does every maze really have only one way through?

Yes. These are “perfect” mazes: every cell can be reached and there are no loops, so there is exactly one route from the start to the finish and no way to cheat by walking round a wall. They are drawn with the depth-first “recursive backtracker” method, which makes long winding corridors and many dead ends rather than a lot of short stubs. The solution page draws that one route.

Can I make a sheet of mazes for a class or a party?

Tick 4 small mazes on one sheet: you get four different mazes, numbered 1 to 4, on one page, and all four solutions on the next. Press New maze and download again for another four. Each of the four is a quarter of the page, so keep them to Medium or easier: a Medium maze in a quarter gets corridors about 5 mm wide, a Hard one under 3 mm, which is fiddly with a pencil.

Can it make a maze with a hidden message?

Yes. Type a word or short sentence in Hidden message (up to 24 letters; spaces and punctuation are kept for the answer but not placed). The letters go in order on cells of the one way through, spread evenly between the start and the finish, so a child who follows the right path reads them in order. To stop the message being read without solving the maze, about one and a half times as many decoy letters (at least four, where there are enough dead ends) go into dead ends off the path, mostly letters from the message itself, printed in exactly the same type. Under the maze there is a row of blanks, one per letter, with the word gaps, to write the answer in; the solution page draws the path and prints the message in full.

A long message needs a long way through. “MERRY CHRISTMAS” (14 letters) needs at least 14 cells on the path between start and finish. Over 200 test mazes of each kind, every Medium square, heart, star and tree maze had room for all 24 letters (the shortest had 33 path cells), while 5 × 5 Very easy mazes had only 7 to 23 (half of them 11 or fewer), and 10 in 200 circular Medium mazes had fewer than 24. When the maze shown is too short, the page picks the next maze number whose path is long enough and tells you; if no maze of that size is long enough, it says so and prints the maze without the message. On a sheet of four, every maze hides the same message.

Can I solve the maze online instead of printing it?

Yes. Press Solve here above the preview: the maze stays on screen (larger on a tall window), and you draw the way with a finger (or the mouse) from the start picture. The line follows the corridors and will not cross a wall; slide back along it to undo, or press Start again. On a keyboard, click the maze and use the arrow keys. Reach the finish and the line turns green and, if the maze has one, the hidden message appears. On a 390 px wide phone a Medium maze has corridors about 2.5 mm wide, narrower than a fingertip, but the line only ever moves along open corridors, so a finger that slips onto a wall just stops it; Easy (about 4 mm) or Very easy is more comfortable for small children. Nothing you draw is saved or sent: switching view or making a new maze clears the line.