For years, the only way to reach a slot’s free spins round was to keep spinning and hope for the scatter symbols to land. Bonus buy slots changed that. Instead of grinding through the base game, you pay a set price and the bonus round starts right away. The feature has become one of the most talked-about additions to online slots in recent years, and https://thebonusbuyslots.com currently lists 300 titles that include it. This guide covers what a bonus buy is, how the pricing works, what it does to volatility and RTP, and who should and should not use it.
Bonus Buy Basics
A bonus buy (also called a feature buy or bonus purchase) is an option inside a slot that lets you bypass the base game and go straight to the bonus feature. Usually that feature is a free spins round, but some titles sell access to pick-and-click games, hold-and-win rounds or enhanced versions of the free spins with extra multipliers. Providers such as Pragmatic Play, Nolimit City and Hacksaw Gaming have built the feature into most of their recent releases.
The option normally sits on the main game screen, and it shows the price up front. That price is expressed as a multiple of your current bet, so it rises and falls with your stake. Once you confirm, the game deducts the cost from your balance and triggers the feature on the next spin.
Not All Buys Are the Same
Early bonus buy slots offered a single option: pay the price, get the free spins. More recent releases often offer several, and the differences are worth understanding before you choose.
The standard buy gives you the same bonus the game would trigger naturally, at the same starting conditions. The enhanced buy begins the feature with something extra already in place: a higher multiplier, more spins, guaranteed wild symbols or a bigger grid. It costs more because the expected payout is higher. Some games add a mystery or random buy, where the price is lower but the game decides which tier you receive, and a few allow you to buy a boosted base game instead, where the bonus triggers far more often for a fixed number of spins.
Each option carries its own price and, in most games, its own published RTP. A frequent pattern is that the most expensive tier has the highest return and the mystery option the lowest, but this is not a rule, and the only reliable way to know is to open the information screen and read the figures.
How a Bonus Buy Works, Step by Step
- Set your bet size first. The buy price is calculated from it, so adjust the stake before you open the buy menu.
- Open the bonus buy menu and read the price and, where several options exist, the differences between them.
- Confirm the purchase. The amount leaves your balance immediately, rather than after the round ends.
- The game plays a triggering spin that guarantees the scatters, then the feature starts.
- Your winnings from the feature are credited to your balance when it ends, exactly as they would be after a naturally triggered bonus.
A point worth stressing: the purchase is a single outcome. You are not buying a set number of spins at a guaranteed return; you are buying one shot at the feature, and that shot can return a fraction of the price or many times it.
How Much a Buy Costs
The typical price for a basic free spins buy is around 100x the bet. At a stake of 1 EUR, that translates to 100 EUR for one feature. Games with several tiers can go much higher: enhanced bonuses that guarantee a higher multiplier or extra wilds are often priced at 500x or more.
The multiplier is not arbitrary. Mathematically, it approximates how many base-game spins you would expect to play on average before the bonus triggered naturally, adjusted for the wins you would have collected along the way. That is why the price differs from game to game: a slot where the feature triggers, say, every 150 spins will sell it more cheaply than one where it triggers every 400.
Because the cost scales with the bet, the minimum buy is set by the game’s minimum stake. On The Bonus Buy Slots the lowest bet on most bonus buy titles is 0.20 EUR, which puts the cheapest standard buy at 20 EUR.
Bought Bonus or Natural Trigger?
Imagine two players at the same stake on the same game. The first spins normally and reaches the bonus whenever it happens to land. The second buys it every time. Over a long enough stretch, their total return lines up with the respective RTP figures, so neither has a structural edge unless the buy RTP differs from the base RTP.
What separates them is the shape of the session. The first player sees many small wins, long dry spells and an occasional bonus. The second sees nothing but bonuses, each one either a dud or a win, with nothing in between. Over an hour the first player might have risked a few hundred bets in total; the second could have risked the same sum in ten clicks. Same game, same maths, entirely different experience.
What Happens to RTP and Volatility
Two numbers shift when you buy the bonus, and each of them matter.
The first is RTP. Many providers publish a separate return figure for the bought feature, and it is not necessarily the same as the base-game RTP. In some games the buy RTP is marginally higher, in others it is lower, and occasionally it is identical. The figure is normally listed in the game’s information screen next to the regular RTP, and it is worth reading before you spend anything.
The second is volatility, and here the effect is far bigger. A naturally triggered bonus arrives after dozens or hundreds of base spins that smooth out your results. A bought bonus strips all of that. Every purchase is one large bet on a single high-variance event, so a session of ten buys can swing far more than a thousand regular spins at the same stake. The theoretical return may be similar; the path to it is not.
What Players Get Wrong
Because the feature is new and costly, it has attracted a lot of folklore. A few claims come up constantly, and none of them holds up.
“The game remembers what you paid.” It does not. Each bought feature is decided by the random number generator on its own, with no record of previous purchases or results. A string of poor bonuses does not make the next one any more likely to hit, and a big win does not leave the game “due” to go cold.
“Buying is always worse value.” Occasionally it is, when the buy RTP is lower the base figure. Often it is identical or slightly better. The claim is unverifiable without looking at the specific game.
“Buying at a low stake is safer.” It is cheaper, not safer. The ratio of price to expected return stays the same at every bet level; a smaller stake simply shrinks both sides in proportion.
The Upside
- Control over spending. The price is visible before you click, so you can decide exactly how many features your budget covers.
- Full feature exposure. If you play slots because of the bonus round, a buy gives you the part you actually enjoy every time.
- Published maths. Where the provider lists a dedicated buy RTP, you know the exact return of what you are paying for.
- Time. You reach the feature in seconds instead of waiting through half an hour.
- Easier comparison. Because you see the bonus repeatedly, you learn how a game’s feature plays much faster than through base-game play.
The Downside
- No base-game wins. You give up every win that would have come from the spins you skipped. The buy price accounts for this, but it is still money that never passes through your balance.
- Pace. Rapid purchases compress a lot of risk into very little time, which leaves it easy to lose track of what you have spent.
- Volatility. As described above, a run of dead bonuses can empty a balance that would have survived hours of normal play.
- Availability. The feature is unavailable in some markets and excluded under many casino bonus terms, so it cannot be relied on everywhere.
- Price creep. Increasing the bet to chase a loss also raises the buy price, which accelerates the downswing.
Who Should Use Bonus Buys?
The feature suits players who know that they are paying for variance, who set a budget per session and stick to it, and who genuinely prefer the bonus round over the base game. It is also handy for anyone evaluating a new slot and wanting to see the feature a few times quickly.
It is a bad fit for anyone on a small bankroll, for anyone who is inclined to chase losses, and for players who enjoy the slow build of anticipation that the base game provides. If a single buy equals a large share of what you are willing to lose in a session, skip it.
What to Look For in a Bonus Buy Slot
With hundreds of titles offering the feature, the choice rests on a few things that take a minute each.
- Buy RTP. Read the paytable and find the return for the bought feature. If it is not listed separately, assume the base figure.
- Hit rate inside the bonus. Some features return something on almost every spin; others rely on one or two big events. Demo play shows this quickly.
- Maximum win. A feature capped at a few hundred times the bet behaves very differently from one that can pay several thousand. The cap tells you how much of the price is riding on rare outcomes.
- Tier structure. Several buy options with clear differences are a positive sign; a single option with a vague description is less informative.
Playing Bonus Buys Sensibly
- Keep the stake constant across every buy so the price stays predictable.
- Decide the number of buys before the session, not the amount of money. Five buys at a fixed price is a concrete limit; “until I hit something” is not.
- Check the published buy RTP and regard a lower figure as a genuine cost, not a rounding error.
- Steer clear of the premium tiers until you know how the standard feature behaves.
- Stop when the planned number of buys is used up, whether the balance is up or down.
Where Bonus Buys Are Allowed
Bonus buys are not available to players in the United Kingdom, where the regulator does not permit the feature. If you log in from one of those regions, the buy button is hidden and the game runs in its standard version only.
At The Bonus Buy Slots, bonus buys are not permitted while bonus funds are in play. Using the feature with an active bonus can void the bonus and any winnings from it, so clear the wagering first or play with real money only.
Bonus Buy FAQ
Does the buy price change with the bet?
Yes. The price is a multiple of the current stake, so raising or lowering the bet changes the cost in proportion.
Can I buy a bonus while a casino bonus is active?
Not at The Bonus Buy Slots: the feature is blocked while bonus funds are active, and using it anyway can void the bonus.
Is a bought bonus the same as a natural one?
In most games, yes: the feature plays out identically. Some titles sell upgraded tiers that start with a higher multiplier or extra symbols, and those are labelled separately in the buy menu.
Is a bonus buy good value?
It depends on what you want from the session. The published RTP tells you the long-run return; the volatility tells you how bumpy the road is. Neither makes a buy good or bad by itself.