Key facts
- A bonus buy (or buy feature) lets you pay a set multiple of your stake to start the bonus round straight away.
- Real prices from Big Time Gaming: 10 free spins for 100x stake in Extra Chilli More Chilli; Hold and Spin for 35x or free spins for 100x in White Rabbit 2.
- At a 96.4% RTP, each 100x buy costs about 3.6x your stake on average, the same as 100 normal spins. The house edge is the same; the speed is not.
- At $1 stake and one buy a minute, you bet $6,000 an hour, ten times the turnover of 600 normal spins, and the average hourly cost rises tenfold.
- 41 of Big Time Gaming's 91 listed games carry the Bonus Buy tag. Online pokies cannot legally be offered to people in Australia.
What a bonus buy is
A bonus buy is a button that lets you pay a set price, quoted as a multiple of your stake, to start a pokie's bonus round straight away. Makers call it Bonus Buy, Buy Feature or Feature Buy. Instead of spinning until three scatters land, you pay up front and go straight to the free spins or respin feature.
It is common on online pokies. On Big Time Gaming's own games list, 41 of its 91 titles carry the Bonus Buy tag. Hacksaw Gaming's Wanted Dead or a Wild lets you "head straight for one of the spectacular bonus games", and Relax Gaming says players "might be racing to the Buy feature" in Money Train 2.
What the makers charge
These are prices published on the makers' own pages.
| Game | Maker | What you buy | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Chilli More Chilli | Big Time Gaming | 10 free spins | 100x stake |
| White Rabbit 2 | Big Time Gaming | Hold and Spin feature | 35x stake |
| White Rabbit 2 | Big Time Gaming | 12 free spins | 100x stake |
| White Rabbit | Big Time Gaming | Free spins via Feature Drop | Starts at a set price that falls each time a BTG coin lands |
BTG also sells a halfway option in Extra Chilli More Chilli. Power Play costs 5 times your stake per spin and, in BTG's words, "awards Chilli Bonus Respins more frequently". That is not a buy, but it is the same idea: pay more per spin for more feature action.
The maths: same edge, much faster
Makers price the buy from the game's own maths. If the buy carries the game's published RTP, which is the assumption we use here, you lose about the same share of each dollar as in normal play. What you lose per buy is then the price times the house edge.
Worked example at a 96.4% RTP (Extra Chilli More Chilli's published range is 96.39% to 96.45%):
| Stake | Buy price (100x) | Average loss per buy |
|---|---|---|
| $0.20 | $20 | $0.72 |
| $1 | $100 | $3.60 |
| $2 | $200 | $7.20 |
| $5 | $500 | $18.00 |
That $3.60 average loss on a $100 buy is the same as you would expect from 100 normal $1 spins. So far, no difference. The difference is speed.
| How you play at $1 stake | Money bet per hour | Average cost per hour at 96.4% |
|---|---|---|
| 600 normal spins | $600 | $21.60 |
| 1 bonus buy a minute | $6,000 | $216.00 |
Same game, same RTP, ten times the hourly cost, because you are putting ten times as much money through the machine. That is the real price of a bonus buy. Check your own numbers with the pokies calculator.
Why buys feel worse than they are on average
A bonus buy concentrates 100 spins' worth of risk into one outcome. The average return of a feature includes rare big results: a long chain of multipliers, a full grid, a retrigger. Most features pay less than the average, and a few pay far more. So when you buy, the typical result is a loss on that buy, balanced over time by the occasional large win.
That is what high volatility looks like in a single click. With a $200 budget at a $2 stake, you get exactly one buy. With the same budget on normal spins you get at least 100 spins, plus whatever you win along the way. Our pokies volatility guide explains why the same RTP can feel so different.
Pundit tip: set the number of buys before you start, not a dollar target. "Two buys at $1, then stop" is a limit. "Until I get one good feature" is not.
What to check before you press buy
- The total price in dollars. Multiply the quoted multiple by your current stake. A 100x buy at $5 is $500.
- What the buy includes. White Rabbit 2 sells two different buys at two different prices.
- The RTP on the game's info screen. The makers' pages we checked publish one figure or range for the game, not a separate figure for the buy. If the info screen lists a buy-specific RTP, use that.
- Bonus terms. If you are playing with a casino bonus, read its terms before using a buy feature. Use the wagering requirements calculator to see what clearing a bonus actually costs, and our casino bonuses guide for what to look for.
- Your limit. Decide how many buys you will make and stick to it.
Bonus buys and Megaways
Many bonus buy games are also Megaways pokies, because cascades and growing multipliers make for big, swingy features that players want to reach quickly. The buy does not change how the feature plays; it only changes how you get there.
Bonus buy pokies in Australia
Bonus buy pokies are online pokies, and online pokies cannot legally be offered to people in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act. There is no Australian-licensed site offering them. If you play them anyway, you are on an offshore site, without Australian testing, and ACMA warns that regulators cannot help if an illegal operator withholds your winnings.
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LuckyOnes
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Wild Tokyo
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Frequently asked questions
What is a bonus buy on pokies?
It is an option to pay a fixed price, set as a multiple of your stake, to trigger the bonus round immediately instead of waiting for scatters. Big Time Gaming's Extra Chilli More Chilli, for example, sells 10 free spins for 100 times the stake.
Is a bonus buy worth it?
If the buy carries the game's normal RTP, it costs about the same per dollar as normal play on average. What changes is speed and risk: one click puts 100 spins' worth of money on a single outcome, so your losses can arrive much faster.
Do bonus buy pokies have a better RTP?
Not that we can confirm. The makers' pages we checked publish one RTP or a range for the game, not a separate figure for the buy. If the game's info screen lists a different RTP for the buy, that is the number to use.
How much does a pokies bonus buy cost?
It depends on the game and your stake. In the games we checked, prices ranged from 35x the stake (White Rabbit 2's Hold and Spin) to 100x (free spins in White Rabbit 2 and Extra Chilli More Chilli). At a $2 stake, a 100x buy costs $200.
Are bonus buys allowed in Australia?
Online pokies of any kind cannot legally be offered to people in Australia under the Interactive Gambling Act, so there is no legal Australian site offering bonus buys. The studios that make them are licensed overseas, and the games reach Australians only through offshore casinos.
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