Words With Friends letter values compared with Scrabble
Every letter's value in Words With Friends set against its value in Scrabble, with the difference calculated for each one. 12 of the 26 letters are priced differently between the two games. The Words With Friends values are the ones the solver on this site scores with, taken from the Zynga rule book; the Scrabble values follow the published English distribution.
| Letter | Words With Friends | Scrabble | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | 1 | same |
| B | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| C | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| D | 2 | 2 | same |
| E | 1 | 1 | same |
| F | 4 | 4 | same |
| G | 3 | 2 | +1 |
| H | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| I | 1 | 1 | same |
| J | 10 | 8 | +2 |
| K | 5 | 5 | same |
| L | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| M | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| N | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| O | 1 | 1 | same |
| P | 4 | 3 | +1 |
| Q | 10 | 10 | same |
| R | 1 | 1 | same |
| S | 1 | 1 | same |
| T | 1 | 1 | same |
| U | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| V | 5 | 4 | +1 |
| W | 4 | 4 | same |
| X | 8 | 8 | same |
| Y | 3 | 4 | -1 |
| Z | 10 | 10 | same |
| One of each | 96 | 87 | +9 |
The Words With Friends column is the value table the solver on this site scores with, which follows the Zynga rule book. The Scrabble column is the published English-language distribution. The difference column is calculated from the two beside it, so it cannot disagree with them.
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Which letters are priced differently
B, C, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, U, V and Y carry a different value in the two games, which is 12 of the 26 letters. Most of the gap runs one way: Words With Friends charges a point more for the mid-frequency consonants B, C, G, M and P, and for L, N and U, which are one-pointers in Scrabble.
Only two letters go the other way. H and Y cost four in Scrabble and three in Words With Friends, which makes short H and Y words a slightly weaker play there than habit suggests. J is the biggest single jump: eight in Scrabble, ten in Words With Friends, putting it level with Q and Z.
Add one of every letter together and Words With Friends comes to 96 against Scrabble's 87. Raw scores in Words With Friends therefore run higher for the same word, and comparing a score from one game against a score from the other is meaningless without this table.
Why the same rack plays differently
A rack that favours L, N and U is worth measurably more in Words With Friends, because those three letters are worth two there and one in Scrabble. A rack heavy in H and Y is worth slightly less. That is enough to change which of two candidate words is the better play, even before the board is considered.
The bonus for using all seven tiles differs too. Scrabble pays fifty, Words With Friends pays thirty-five, and in Words With Friends the letter and word multipliers are applied before the thirty-five is added rather than after. A bingo is worth chasing in both games, but it is worth marginally less in one of them.
The boards are not the same either. Words With Friends uses its own arrangement of premium squares on the same fifteen by fifteen grid, so opening theory and the value of a given square do not carry across. Only the letter values in this table do.
Word lists and legality
Values decide what a word scores; a word list decides whether it can be played at all. Words With Friends uses its own dictionary, which accepts a set of words that Scrabble's TWL and Collins lists do not, and rejects some that they accept. A word being legal in one game is not evidence that it is legal in the other.
That is the usual reason a play is refused when the score looked right. If a word is rejected, the problem is the list rather than the tile values, and there is nothing in this table that will predict it.
The solver on this site scores every result both ways, so you can see what a word is worth in each game side by side before you commit to it.
Frequently asked questions
Are Words With Friends letter values the same as Scrabble?
No. 12 of the 26 letters are priced differently: B, C, G, H, J, L, M, N, P, U, V and Y. The other 14 match, which is why the two games feel similar until a close play turns on one of the letters that does not.
Which letters are worth the most in Words With Friends?
J, Q and Z at ten points each, then X at eight, then K and V at five. Scrabble prices J at eight and V at four, so both are dearer in Words With Friends.
What is the bingo bonus in Words With Friends?
35 points for playing all seven tiles in one turn, against 50 in Scrabble. The multipliers on the play are applied first and the 35 is added afterwards.
Why is my Words With Friends score higher than the same word in Scrabble?
Because more letters cost more. One of every letter comes to 96 points in Words With Friends and 87 in Scrabble, so most words score a little higher there before the board is taken into account.
Can I reuse this comparison on my own site?
Yes, under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Credit Unscrambly, https://unscrambly.net and you are free to copy, adapt and republish it, commercially included. The embed on this page keeps the credit in place for you.
Sources
- Words With Friends 2 rule book (Zynga support), for the Words With Friends letter values, the 35-point bonus and the order bonuses apply in.
- Scrabble letter distributions (Wikipedia), for the Scrabble column, the English-language point values.
SCRABBLE is a registered trademark of Hasbro in the United States and Canada and of Mattel elsewhere. Words With Friends is a trademark of Zynga. Unscrambly is an independent reference and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them.