2x2 Rubik's Cube Solver

How to Use the 2x2 Solver

1. Pick up your cube and hold it any way you like. Keep holding it that way until you're done. The side facing you is the front, and the side pointing up is the top.
2. Enter the colors. Pick a color, then click each sticker of that color on the net. On a phone, you paint one face at a time in the large grid: tap a face on the net (or use Next face) to choose it. For the right, back and left sides, turn the whole cube so that side faces you, with the same side still on top. For the top, tip the cube toward you, so the row nearest the back goes at the top of the grid. For the bottom, tip it up, so the row nearest you goes at the top. Each color appears exactly four times; the palette counts down.
3. Press Solve. The solver checks that your cube is possible, then finds the shortest solution.
4. Follow the moves one at a time, holding the cube the same way you entered it. Use ◀ and ▶ to step back and forth, or press Play to watch the whole solve.

No cube in your hand? Press Random scramble to try it, or type a scramble like R U2 F' R U' R2 under Or type a scramble. Typed scrambles start from a solved cube with white on top and green in front.

How to Hold the Cube

A 3x3 cube has fixed center stickers that tell you which side is which. A 2x2 has no centers, so the solver doesn't ask you to hold it a particular way. Instead, it looks at the corner you entered at the back, bottom left and builds the whole solution around that corner. That corner never moves during the solution, and every move turns the right, top or front side. That's why you only see the letters R, U and F.

The one rule: don't turn the whole cube in your hands until you've finished the moves. If you lose track, enter the colors again.

The solver assumes the standard color scheme: white opposite yellow, green opposite blue and red opposite orange. With white on top and green in front, red is on the right.

What the Moves Mean

Each letter is one side of the cube. R is the right side, U the top (up) and F the front. A letter on its own means a quarter turn clockwise, as you look straight at that side. An apostrophe means counterclockwise, and a 2 means turn it twice, in either direction.

The Rubik's Cube notation guide explains every letter, including the whole-cube rotations x, y and z.

"This Cube Can't Be Solved": What It Means

A 2x2 that was only ever scrambled by turning can always be solved. If the solver says yours can't, a color was most likely entered wrong. The message says what it found, and for a corner problem that corner is outlined in red:

• Wrong color count. Some color appears more or fewer than four times. The message names the colors, and the palette shows "too many" under them.
• Impossible corner. One corner shows the same color twice, or two colors that sit on opposite sides of a real cube, like white next to yellow.
• Mirrored corner. A corner has the right three colors, but in an order around it that no real corner has. Two of its stickers were probably swapped while entering.
• Twisted corner. All the colors are right, but one corner is rotated in place. That only happens if a corner was twisted by hand or popped out. Twist it back physically, or re-check its stickers.

Unlike a 3x3, a 2x2 can't have two pieces swapped or an edge flipped: it has no edges, and any two corners can be swapped by turning. A twisted corner is the only impossible case that isn't a typo.

Why the Solutions Are the Shortest Possible

With the back-bottom-left corner held still, a 2x2 has exactly 3,674,160 positions. That is small enough to list every one. When the page loads, the solver works outward from the solved cube, one move at a time, and records how many moves each position is from solved. To solve your cube, it looks up your position and picks a move that brings it one step closer, again and again until it reaches solved. Every step gets one move closer, so no shorter solution exists.

The table also shows the longest any position can need: 11 moves, counting a half turn like R2 as one move. That number is called God's number for the 2x2. Only 2,644 positions need all 11. If every position is equally likely, about half need exactly 9 moves, and the average is about 8.8 moves.

Everything runs in your browser. Your cube's colors are never sent anywhere.

Want to Solve It Yourself?

The beginner method for a 2x2 needs only a few short move sequences. See how to solve a 2x2 step by step, or learn the 2x2 algorithms of the faster Ortega method.

2x2 Solver FAQ