Features and mechanics

Bonus buy explained

A bonus buy, or feature buy, lets you pay a fixed price to start a slot's bonus round straight away instead of waiting for it to trigger. It is popular, and it is the fastest way to spend a budget on a slot.

Updated 9 October 20264 min readFigures from the WildmarkSlots catalogue · How we work

Banks of modern video slot machines at the Monte Carlo hotel, Las Vegas — Photo: Tristan Surtel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)

How a bonus buy works

The game offers a button with a price, usually a multiple of your current bet such as 100× or more. You pay it once and the bonus round, typically free spins, starts on the next spin. What the bonus pays is still random: it can return far less than its price or many times more. Some games offer several buy options at different prices.

Bonus buy RTP

Studios often publish a separate RTP for the bought feature, sometimes slightly different from the base game. Even when it is a little higher, the cost does not shrink. A 100× buy at a bet of 1 is a single bet of 100. Ten buys put 1,000 at risk in a few minutes, where spinning would take more than an hour to wager the same amount.

A worked example

Say a game sells its bonus at 100× the bet, the bonus RTP is 96% and your bet is 1. Round numbers make the point clearer:

Price of one buy: 100
Average return of one bonus at 96%: 96
Average cost of one buy: 100 − 96 = 4
Budget 500 → 5 buys

On average each buy costs 4, the same 4% as ordinary spinning. But that average hides the spread. A single bonus can return 20, or 100, or several hundred, and with only five buys in the budget a few poor ones in a row are normal rather than unlucky. In ordinary play the same 500 would be 500 separate spins, each with a small outcome, so the result would sit much closer to the average.

So the maths of buying is not worse than the base game, if the bonus RTP matches. What changes is how few independent outcomes your budget buys, and how fast it is used.

Why it raises the stakes

Each buy is a large bet, so a budget lasts only a handful of buys.
Bonus results vary widely; several poor bonuses in a row are normal.
Speed removes the natural breaks of normal play, which makes it easy to lose track of spending.

Feature buys are not allowed in some regulated markets, including Great Britain. If you use them where they are allowed, decide in advance how many you will buy and stop there.

Slots with a bonus buy

WildmarkSlots records a bonus buy for 205 slots so far, from the games covered by the mechanics data. See them, ranked by RTP, in bonus buy slots, or combine it with other filters in the slot finder. That is 66% of the 309 slots with mechanics data.

Questions to ask before you press buy

What is the price against my budget? If it is more than a tenth of what you set aside, you are making a large bet.
What RTP does the bought bonus have? It is in the rules, and it may differ from the base game.
How would I feel after three poor bonuses in a row? If the answer is tempted to buy a fourth, do not start.
Am I buying because I want to, or because I am behind? Only the first is a reason.

Two of those answers come from the game itself, so check the rules first. The other two come from you, and are the reason limits exist.

Rules to set before you buy

A buy is a large bet made with one click, so the decision belongs before the session, not during it. These rules help:

Count buys, not spins. Divide your budget by the price. A budget of 300 and a price of 100 is three buys, and that is the end of the session.
Lower the bet to buy more outcomes. At a bet of 0.20 the same 100-times price is 20, so a budget of 300 pays for fifteen buys instead of three.
Do not buy to recover. After a loss the pull to buy a bigger bonus is strong; it is the same impulse as chasing losses, and quicker.
Take breaks. Because buying skips the base game, there are no natural pauses. Set a timer.

Speed is part of the cost

A bought bonus plays out in a minute or two. Buying one after another, you can wager in ten minutes what ordinary spins would take an hour to wager, and the average cost scales with the amount wagered. A time limit helps as much as a money limit here: set a timer before the first buy and stop when it rings. If you notice you are buying faster as the session goes on, that is a sign to stop.

Max win, volatility and the buy

Games that offer a buy tend to keep a large share of their return in the bonus, which usually means high volatility and a large max win. A big cap does not make the buy a better deal. The probability of reaching it is still tiny, as explained in max win explained, and the price is paid every time. The volatility guide shows why such games swing so hard.

Alternatives to buying

If you only want to see what the bonus is like, try the game in a free demo with play money, where the studio provides one: see the free demos. If you want to watch your budget, use the session budget calculator to count how many buys you can afford, and set deposit limits in your account. If buying has become the main way you play, or you are spending more than you planned, our responsible gambling page lists free confidential help.

Frequently asked questions

Is a bonus buy worth it?

It does not improve the long-run maths. It turns many small bets into a few large ones, so sessions are shorter and results swing more.

Why can I not see the bonus buy button?

Either the game has no buy option or the market you play in does not allow it, as in Great Britain.

How much does a bonus buy cost?

The price is set by the studio, commonly around 100 times the bet and sometimes several hundred times for premium versions. The game shows it before you confirm.

Does a bonus buy pay more than it costs?

Not reliably. On average a bonus returns less than its price, as every slot feature does. Any single buy can pay far less or far more, and a run of poor results is common.

Is buying the bonus different from waiting for it to trigger?

The average cost per amount wagered is similar if the bonus RTP matches the base game, but buying concentrates the same money into far fewer, larger outcomes and uses a budget much faster.

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