What is the “Free Hit” Chip in Premier League Fantasy Football?

What is the “Free Hit” Chip in Premier League Fantasy Football?

Ever looked at your FPL team and thought, “This team needs divine intervention”? That’s when the Free Hit chip saves the day. It lets you rebuild your entire squad for one Gameweek, unlimited transfers, no point hits.

But once the week ends, your dream team disappears, and your old lineup returns. In 2025/26, you get two Free Hits, one before Gameweek 19, one after. Two chances to play fantasy god. Use them wisely.

How Free Hit Works

Free Hit active 🫣

Literally no bench cover pic.twitter.com/Jcaro8ECvA

— FPL Moyes (@FPL_Moyes) October 3, 2025

Here’s how you do it, and what technicalities you must watch out for.

Activating the Free Hit

13. Go to your “Transfers” tab during a Gameweek.
14. Pick your new squad (as many transfers as you like).
15. At the confirmation stage, you’ll see an option to use Free Hit. Hit it. Once confirmed, it cannot be undone. You’re locked in.

If you had already made one or more transfers earlier in that Gameweek, those are just absorbed into your Free Hit squad (you won’t get penalised for them).

What You Don’t Lose (And What You Do)

Do you keep any banked free transfers from before activating Free Hit? Actually… no. If you had more than one free transfer saved, those extras are wiped. Your free transfers reset to standard 1 for the next week.

Price changes do affect your original squad (the one you revert to). Suppose Player A was in your original squad and rises by £0.1m during the Free Hit Gameweek; you’ll benefit from that price bump when your old squad returns.

But any price movement for players you temporarily bring in is irrelevant; you don’t carry them forward.

Limits, Order Rules, and Pitfalls

You cannot use two chips in the same Gameweek (e.g. Free Hit + Bench Boost).

You can’t play Free Hit in both Gameweek 19 and 20, because the “reversion” system doesn’t allow a back-to-back use. Be careful; once you activate it, you can’t cancel. So if you jump in without thinking, you’re stuck.

When to Use Free Hit

Free Hit GW4? 🤔

... Operation target newly-promoted sides pic.twitter.com/sCVCYTkZxx

— Fantasy Football Hub (@FFH_HQ) September 1, 2025

You don’t want to pull the lever too early or miss the magic moment. Let’s break down ideal situations with mini case studies.

Blank Gameweeks (BGWs)

What is it? Some Premier League teams don't have a fixture in that round (due to cup competition, postponements). Suddenly your squad might only have 7 or 8 active players.

Why Free Hit helps: you can swap in players from clubs that do have matches, field 11, and avoid panicking midweek.

Suppose in GW34, Arsenal, Villa, City and Palace are all blank. Many managers will lose their stars. Top managers almost universally used Free Hit that week to load up on assets from active teams.

If your own lineup is down to 7 players or fewer, Free Hit is a strong play. If you can scrape 10–11 via small transfers, maybe save it.

Double Gameweeks (DGWs)

What is it? Some clubs play twice in one Gameweek (rescheduled matches catch up). That gives players two chances to score points.

Why Free Hit helps: You can stack your squad with double-fixture players for that week without messing with your long-term squad.

Say Chelsea and Tottenham each have two games in Gameweek 33. Use Free Hit to bring in their top players that week only, generate a haul, then revert your squad the next week. That’s textbook chip warfare.

This approach often pairs with playing Bench Boost or Triple Captain in a DGW, but you can’t stack them all in one round because of the one-chip-per-week limit.

Fixture Collisions and Injury Chaos

Sometimes the schedule sucks. Your marquee midfielders are facing each other, or a couple of your key forwards are sidelined. Or worse, your bench is full of players who also don’t play.

Why Free Hit helps: You get a fresh, one-week team optimised for that round. It’s damage control and opportunity all in one.

Imagine Manchester City vs Liverpool in GW11. If both your stars are in that matchup, Free Hit lets you avoid the collision and instead tilt your squad toward teams with softer matches.

How Not to Use Free Hit

You’ve got power, but it’s dangerous in inexperienced hands.

• Wasting it too early. Gameweek 5 or 7 might seem bad, but blanks and doubles often cluster later. Use your first Free Hit only if there's a strong reason.
• Losing your base squad value. A common error: getting carried away with your Free Hit team’s performance, forgetting it disappears. Don’t panic next week when the “good” players vanish.
• Overloading on premium players. A free hit isn’t a free pass to stack 4 big forwards and hope. Always consider rotation risk, fixture difficulty, and backup options.
• Misreading your board. If your squad can field 10–11 after modest changes, Free Hit might be overkill. Sometimes a few smart transfers (and a -4) are better.

Suggested Slots in 2025/26 & Timing Ideas

🍟 BEST FPL CHIP USAGE WEEKS 🍟

🃏 WILDCARD: GW7, GW8, GW13

🎯 FREE HIT: GW4, GW11, GW13

🪑 BENCH BOOST: GW1, GW2, GW9

👑 TRIPLE CAPTAIN: GW6, GW9, GW14

✅ Like, Retweet and Bookmark 🔖 pic.twitter.com/E913jmXStv

— Brandon (@FPL_Brandon) August 7, 2025

Here are empirically good windows (and warnings) for 2025/26:

• Gameweek 2–5: Some managers use Free Hit early to dodge sticky matchups or start strong. But it’s risky because many blanks/doubles come later.
• Around GW11: When big clashes like City vs Liverpool come, it’s a good time to pivot if your stars are locked in those fixtures.
• Later half/post-GW19: The second Free Hit (for the second half of season) is especially valuable for blank/double sequencing.
• Between doubles & blanks: The golden rule many top managers follow is: use your Double in one week, then Free Hit in the blank week after. Example: in 2024/25 many used Free Hit in GW34 after a heavy double in GW33.

Also, don’t forget: your first Free Hit must be used before the GW19 deadline or it expires.

Walkthrough: Example of Using Free Hit

Let me show you a mini scenario:

• Your original squad (pre-Free Hit):
• GK: Alisson, GK backup: ___
• Defenders: van Dijk, Zinchenko, …
• Mid: Salah, Bruno, blank
• Forwards: Haaland, Watkins
• (bench full of mixed players)
• In Gameweek 34, many of your original players are on blank. You decide to Free Hit.
• You bring in 11 players who are playing, say Mitrovic, Bowen, Darwin Núñez, etc.
• That week, your Free Hit team scores 85 points. Everyone’s impressed.
• But at the end of GW34, your original squad (with Salah, Haaland etc.) is restored. The 85-point haul doesn’t carry forward except in your total points tally. The squad you fielded temporarily is wiped clean.
• If any of your “original” players changed in value during GW34, that change remains. E.g. maybe Bruno goes from £8.3m to £8.4m; that bump carries.
• Your free transfers reset, saved transfers are lost, and you move into GW35 with your restored squad and regular 1 free transfer again.

That’s the full lifecycle.

Conclusion: Free Hit is Your “One-Week Bomb” —use it smartly

The Free Hit chip is a potent tactical weapon, not a miracle cure. It lets you rebuild for a Gameweek when the schedule turns against you (blank weeks, double weeks, injury chaos), then sends you back to your original squad.

In 2025/26, with two Free Hits available, you’ve got a second chance to strike, but only if you don’t waste the first one.