FPL guide · Updated 13 August 2026 · Pre-season
FPL chips explained (2026/27)
FPL chips are one-use boosts that change how a gameweek scores or how you make transfers. In 2025/26 there were four — Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost and Triple Captain — and each was given twice, split across the season so that the second set unlocked at the Gameweek 20 deadline. The exact 2026/27 chip line-up is confirmed when the game launches (expected early August).
What each chip does
Four chips, four jobs — and every one has a full guide: rules, timing and a data-led plan for playing it.
- Wildcard — unlimited free transfers for one gameweek, letting you rebuild the whole squad without taking points hits. The one chip you can hold and use whenever a rebuild is due.
- Free Hit — a one-gameweek temporary team: make unlimited transfers for a single week, then your squad reverts. Built for blank and double gameweeks.
- Bench Boost — all 15 players score for one gameweek, not just your starting XI. Best saved for a week where your whole squad plays twice.
- Triple Captain — your captain scores triple (×3) instead of double for one gameweek. Points multiply on a premium in a favourable fixture.
When FPL chips reset
Recent seasons have run two sets of each chip: one for the first half of the season, one for the second, with the second set unlocking at a mid-season reset. In 2025/26 that reset fell at the Gameweek 20 deadline (3 January 2026). A first-half chip you never played expired at the reset — it did not carry over. These were the exact windows the Official FPL API published for 2025/26:
| Chip | First-half window | Second-half window |
|---|---|---|
| Wildcard | GW2–GW19 | GW20–GW38 |
| Free Hit | GW2–GW19 | GW20–GW38 |
| Bench Boost | GW1–GW19 | GW20–GW38 |
| Triple Captain | GW1–GW19 | GW20–GW38 |
Note: in 2025/26 Wildcard and Free Hit could not be played in Gameweek 1 (they started GW2); Bench Boost and Triple Captain were available from GW1. The number of chips and the reset gameweek are set by the game each season — the 2026/27 values are pending and re-verified at game launch (see the note at the foot of this page).
How managers actually used their chips in 2025/26
Across all 38 gameweeks of the completed 2025/26 season, 13.1m managers played tens of millions of chips. Triple Captain was the most-played chip of the year; the peak week for every chip landed in the busy second-half run-in. Figures below are final, from the Official FPL API.
| Chip | Total plays 2025/26 | Busiest gameweek | Plays that week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triple Captain | 11,616,415 | GW36 (double) | 1,399,208 |
| Wildcard | 10,219,664 | GW4 | 936,058 |
| Bench Boost | 9,654,929 | GW33 (double) | 823,047 |
| Free Hit | 8,721,205 | GW31 (blank) | 1,344,160 |
Source: Official FPL API, 2025/26 season, all 38 gameweeks settled. “Total plays” counts both the first-half and second-half copy of each chip.
The lesson in the data: chips pay on Double Gameweeks
The two biggest chip weeks of 2025/26 were both Double Gameweeks — and both rewarded the managers who waited. GW33 and GW36 saw the most chips played of any week (2.38m and 2.11m) and returned overall averages of 66 and 65 points. Compare that with GW13, the third-busiest chip week (1.97m), which averaged just 35 — the weakest return of any high-chip week that season.
| Gameweek | Total chips played | Overall average score | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| GW33 | 2,379,580 | 66 | Double Gameweek |
| GW36 | 2,113,706 | 65 | Double Gameweek |
| GW13 | 1,971,925 | 35 | Ordinary week |
The single sharpest example: 1.20m managers Triple-Captained in GW13 (avg 35) against 1.40m in the GW36 double (avg 65). Same chip, near-identical crowd, roughly double the payoff — the difference was fixture timing, not player choice. When a Double Gameweek is confirmed, that is where Bench Boost and Triple Captain belong.
A data-led chip strategy
With two of each chip and a mid-season reset, you have room to be patient in each half rather than spending everything early. A framework that fits the 2025/26 structure:
- Hold the first Wildcard for a real fixture swing. The GW4 usage spike shows the crowd rebuilding early — but a Wildcard is worth most when several of your players hit a run of hard fixtures at once. Time it to the fixture-difficulty table, not to panic.
- Aim your team chips (Bench Boost, Triple Captain) at Double Gameweeks. The data is unambiguous: the payoff weeks were the doubles. Keep at least one team chip live in each half for when the fixtures move.
- Keep a Free Hit for a blank. Free Hit's peak week (GW31) was a blank gameweek — it exists to field a full XI when much of your squad has no fixture.
- Don't let a chip expire at the reset. An unused first-half chip is worth zero after the mid-season boundary. If a chip is still in your pocket approaching GW19, spend it on the best remaining window rather than lose it.
- Sequence the second half around the run-in. Blanks and doubles cluster from late winter into spring; that is when the second set earns its keep.
Best chip windows this season
Bawler pairs the chip rules above with model fixture data to rank the best windows to play each chip. That ranking is driven by our per-fixture win, draw and clean-sheet probabilities — disclosed as model projections, not guarantees, and calibrated on our public record.
Chip-window model · Pre-season
No 2026/27 Double or Blank Gameweeks are confirmed yet — this module activates the moment the fixtures move, ranking chip windows from the live fixture-difficulty model. Until then, see the method behind it on our methodology page and the receipts on the public track record.The 2026/27 rules note
FPL has changed the chip system in recent seasons — a second set of each chip and a mid-season reset arrived in 2025/26. Everything above describes the 2025/26 structure, taken straight from the Official FPL API. The number of chips, which chips are offered, and the exact reset gameweek are set by the game each year and are confirmed only when the 2026/27 game launches. We re-verify this page against the API on launch day and update the windows and figures then.
All figures on this page are computed from the Official FPL API for the completed 2025/26 season. Pure fantasy-points analytics — no betting angle. Start at the FPL hub, or read the chip guides: Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost and Triple Captain.