FPL Free Hit Guide 2026/27: When to Play It & How to Pick Your Team

The FPL Free Hit is the chip that lets you field a completely different team for one gameweek and then get your old squad back. That makes it different from every other chip: it does not improve your team, it replaces it for seven days. Played in the right gameweek it can be worth fifteen or twenty points more than your normal squad would have scored. Played in the wrong one it is worth three.

This guide covers exactly how the Free Hit works in Fantasy Premier League 2026/27, how many you get and when, the gameweeks where it earns its place, and how to build a Free Hit team with predicted points instead of guesswork. For how the Free Hit fits alongside the Wildcard, Bench Boost and Triple Captain, read our FPL chip strategy guide.

What is the Free Hit in FPL?

The Free Hit gives you unlimited free transfers for a single gameweek. At the next deadline your squad automatically reverts to the fifteen players you had before you played it. Nothing you do on a Free Hit is permanent, which is the whole point of the chip.

The normal squad rules still apply while it is active: fifteen players in the usual 2-5-5-3 shape, no more than three from one club, and you can only spend what your current squad is worth plus whatever you have in the bank. Points hits do not exist on a Free Hit week, because every transfer is free.

Because your real squad comes back untouched, the Free Hit is the one chip where the long term does not matter. You are optimising for one set of fixtures and nothing else.

How many Free Hits do you get in FPL 2026/27?

You get two Free Hits in FPL 2026/27, one for each half of the season. The official game data lists the first Free Hit as playable from Gameweek 2 to Gameweek 19 and the second from Gameweek 20 to Gameweek 38. A first-half Free Hit that you have not played by the Gameweek 19 deadline is lost; it does not roll over.

The same two-halves structure applies to the Wildcard, Bench Boost and Triple Captain, and you can only play one chip in any single gameweek. That last rule matters for Free Hit planning: if a double gameweek is also your Bench Boost week, it cannot be your Free Hit week. Our FPL chip planner lays out every chip window against the fixtures so you can see where each one fits.

You cannot play the Free Hit in Gameweek 1 — before the first deadline you can already make unlimited changes, so there would be nothing for it to do.

When should I play my Free Hit in FPL?

Play your Free Hit in the gameweek where your normal squad is weakest relative to the best team you could pick — almost always a blank gameweek in which several of your players have no fixture. A good rule of thumb is that the chip starts to earn its place when four or more of your starting eleven are blanking and transfers cannot fix it without points hits.

The three situations where a Free Hit is the right call:

A big blank gameweek. Cup weekends and rearranged fixtures can leave a handful of Premier League clubs without a game. If your squad leans on those clubs, the Free Hit fields eleven players who are actually playing, and next week your real team is back for the clubs that return.
A big double gameweek, when your Wildcard is gone. A Free Hit squad stacked with double-gameweek players can outscore a normal team by a wide margin. If you have a Wildcard left, the Wildcard is usually the better tool for a double, because the players you buy stay with you afterwards.
A one-off clash of injuries, suspensions and rotation that would otherwise need three or four points hits — but only when the problem genuinely lasts one week. If those players are out for a month, a Free Hit just delays the transfers you still have to make.

Blank and double gameweeks are not fixed in advance; they appear as cup draws and postponements land. Our guide to FPL double and blank gameweeks explains how they arise and how to track them, and the FPL fixture schedule shows every club's gameweek count as soon as a change is in our data.

Is it better to Free Hit a blank or a double gameweek?

For most managers the Free Hit is better spent on a blank gameweek. The blank is the week your squad cannot cope with on its own; a double is a week your squad can be prepared for with a Wildcard and normal transfers, keeping those players afterwards.

The exception is the manager whose Wildcard is already used and whose squad has few double-gameweek players. Then the Free Hit can be the cheapest way to own a full double-gameweek team for one week. Before deciding, compare the two outcomes in points: your squad's predicted score in the blank versus in the double, and the best Free Hit team in each. The larger gap is where the chip belongs.

How do I pick a Free Hit team?

Pick the fifteen players with the highest predicted points for that one gameweek that fit inside your squad value and the three-per-club limit — and then stop. Form, fixtures beyond that week, price rises and long-term value all stop mattering on a Free Hit, because the team disappears at the next deadline.

In practice:

Rank by the single gameweek. A player with one excellent fixture and a terrible run behind it is a perfect Free Hit pick and a poor Wildcard pick.
Spend the bench money on the starting eleven. You are not going to use the bench, so four cheap substitutes free up funds for the players who score.
Check minutes, not just fixtures. A rotation risk in a double gameweek is still a rotation risk. Read projected minutes on FPL player picks and starting probabilities on FPL predicted lineups before the deadline.
Ownership can be ignored. A Free Hit is short enough that template safety barely matters; pick the points.

The fastest way to do this is the FPL optimal team calculator: choose the gameweek you plan to Free Hit and it solves the highest-scoring legal fifteen against live projections. Use it as the starting point and adjust for any late team news.

Free Hit picks in practice: an example from our projections

A single-gameweek ranking looks noticeably different from a long-term one. On 13 October 2026, ahead of Gameweek 7, our model's top projected players for that gameweek included Erling Haaland (6.9 predicted points), Cole Palmer (5.5) and Ryan Sessegnon (5.2) — and Sessegnon was owned by just 0.3% of managers. Over Gameweeks 7 to 12, though, Sessegnon projected 18.5 points against Bruno Fernandes' 32.0, even though Fernandes was below him in Gameweek 7 alone.

That is the Free Hit in one comparison. For one gameweek, Sessegnon is the stronger buy and costs nothing in the long run because he leaves again. On a Wildcard, where you keep him, Fernandes is far better. The numbers move every day, so check the current ones on player picks rather than relying on this snapshot.

Common Free Hit mistakes

Using it to fix long-term problems. If a player is injured for six weeks, the Free Hit covers one of them. The transfer still has to be made.
Playing it in an ordinary gameweek. With every club playing once, the gap between your squad and the best possible fifteen is usually small. Two or three transfers do the job without spending the chip.
Making transfers the week before, and then needing them reversed. Your squad reverts to how it stood at the Free Hit deadline. Plan the gameweek before and after as one sequence.
Letting the first-half chip expire. If no worthwhile blank appears before Gameweek 19, a well-chosen ordinary gameweek beats a chip that is wasted.
Building on reputation. On a one-week team the only thing that matters is that week's predicted points.

Planning your Free Hit with TheFantasyTool

FPL chip strategy planner — every chip window and the gameweeks where each chip is worth most.
FPL optimal team calculator — the best legal Free Hit or Wildcard squad for any gameweek.
FPL team planner — load your own squad, mark a Free Hit in a future gameweek and compare its predicted points with and without the chip.
FPL fixtures and difficulty — spot blank and double gameweeks as soon as they appear.

FAQ

What does the Free Hit do in FPL?

The Free Hit gives you unlimited free transfers for one gameweek, and your squad returns to how it was at the next deadline. It lets you field a completely different team for a single week without any permanent changes.

How many Free Hits do you get in FPL 2026/27?

Two. The first can be played from Gameweek 2 to Gameweek 19 and the second from Gameweek 20 to Gameweek 38. An unused first-half Free Hit expires after the Gameweek 19 deadline.

When is the best time to use the Free Hit?

Usually in a blank gameweek where four or more of your starters have no fixture. A double gameweek can also work, but mainly if your Wildcard is already used.

Can you play the Free Hit and another chip in the same gameweek?

No. FPL allows only one chip per gameweek, so a Free Hit week cannot also be your Bench Boost or Triple Captain week.

Can you cancel a Free Hit in FPL?

No. Once the Free Hit is confirmed it cannot be cancelled, so check team news and your chip plan before activating it. The Bench Boost and Triple Captain, by contrast, can be cancelled before the deadline.

This guide was written by TheFantasyTool.