Triggering a bonus feature is often one of the most exciting parts of playing slots, but it can take quite a while before you actually land the bonus symbols you need. This is why bonus buy slots have become so popular. They give you the option to instantly purchase one of the game's features without waiting for it to land on a regular spin. But are they worth it? Do they improve your chances of winning, or are you better off ignoring them? We've tested several bonus buy slots to find out.
What Are Bonus Buy Slots?
Bonus buy slots, also known as feature buy or bonus purchase slots, let you pay a set amount to unlock the game's bonus round or extra feature straight away. One of the most popular slots with this option is Gates of Olympus 2500. Normally you'd have to keep spinning until you land at least 4 scatter symbols to unlock its free spins with extra multipliers. With the bonus buy, you skip that wait.
Buying a bonus is always optional, and you decide before each spin. Depending on the game, the features you can buy include:
- A round of free spins.
- A bonus round with multipliers.
- Hold and win features.
- Enhanced bonus rounds with upgraded multipliers or a different RTP.
Not every slot has a bonus buy, and it isn't available everywhere either. The UK banned bonus buys in 2019, for example, so you won't see the button at UK-licensed casinos. Some online casinos list all their bonus buy games in a separate category.
How Do Bonus Buys Work?
Activating a bonus buy is easier than you'd think. Most of the time, it goes like this:
- Game selection: you sign up at a casino and choose the game you want to play.
- Bet selection: choose how much you want to wager per spin.
- Find the "bonus buy" button, usually next to the reels or right beside the bet selection.
- Bonus buy options: choose one of the options that fits your budget and confirm the purchase.
- The bonus: some games start the round automatically, while others need you to press spin. On that spin, the bonus symbols land and the feature is triggered.
Expert's tip: When you buy a bonus, you only pay for the trigger. It doesn't guarantee a winning bet.
How Much Do Bonus Buy Slots Cost?
There's no single answer to this one, as each slot sets its own rules for the bonus buy. Instead of a fixed price, the cost is a multiple of the stake you're playing with.
For example, if a bonus costs 10x your stake, it costs $10 at a $1 stake. If you raise your bet to $2 per spin, the same bonus costs $20.
The multiplier varies between slots. Gates of Olympus 2500, for example, prices its bonuses like this:
- Free Spins 1: 100x your stake
- Free Spins 2: 250x your stake
- Super Free Spins 1: 500x your stake
- Super Free Spins 2: 1,250x your stake
For the popular slot Wanted Dead or a Wild, the prices are:
- The Great Train Robbery: 80x your stake
- Duel at Dawn: 200x your stake
- Dead Man's Hand: 400x your stake
Expert's tip: Before you buy a feature, ask yourself if you'd be happy to spend that much on a single bet. Since it doesn't give you a guaranteed win, it's not a good fit for players on a tight budget.
Typical bonus buy prices
In general, the price of a bonus is a multiple of your stake, and that multiple varies between slots. In Gates of Olympus 2500 the options run from 100x to 1,250x, while other games have bonuses priced anywhere from around 10x to 100x your stake.
Why do some bonus buys cost more?
The best bonus buy slots often offer several options at different prices. The difference usually comes down to what the feature unlocks or the rules it plays by. These are the most common reasons one bonus costs more than another:
- Different bonus features: free spins, sticky symbols or full features with minigames all come at different prices.
- Some slots offer enhanced versions of their standard bonus round, with higher potential multipliers or a different RTP.
- More expensive options can change how the feature starts, for example with extra multipliers already in place or more high-paying symbols.
Expert's tip: A higher price doesn't tell you which option offers better value.
Does Buying a Bonus Improve Your Chances of Winning?
One of the most common questions about bonus buy slots is whether they improve your chance of winning. The short answer is no. When you buy a bonus, you only unlock the feature, you're not paying for a win. To come out ahead, the bonus has to pay more than you spent on it. The table below shows what a bonus buy does and doesn't do.
| What it does | What it doesn't do |
|---|---|
| It lets you skip the wait for the bonus to land naturally. | It doesn't guarantee a win, or a win big enough to cover the price. |
| On some games, the bought bonus has its own RTP, which can be slightly higher or lower than the base game. | A higher price doesn't automatically mean a better expected return. |
| It can pay back a little, a lot or almost nothing. | It doesn't improve your odds, as every result is still decided at random. |
Does a bonus buy have a different RTP?
Some studios list a separate RTP for each bonus you can buy. Wanted Dead or a Wild is a good example. Its game rules show a slightly different RTP for each of its three bonus buys, next to the 96.38% of the base game.
Expert's tip: Not every bonus buy slot works this way, and casinos can run lower RTP versions of the same game. Before you buy, check the game rules at the casino you're playing at to see which RTP applies.
What Should You Look For in the Best Bonus Buy Slots?
There's no single answer to this question, as it mostly comes down to what you're looking for. Some players just enjoy the minigames, while others want the biggest chance at a large prize and are willing to risk more for it. To find the best bonus buy slots for you, keep these points in mind.
The bonus buy price
Compare the price of the bonus against your regular stake, and think about what it costs in real money, not just the multiplier. If your budget is $100, a $20 to $50 bonus buy can cut your session short and take away a lot of the fun.
What the bonus round includes
Check the game's rules to see what the bonus feature actually includes. Sometimes it's just free spins with slightly higher multipliers. Other games give you access to an exclusive minigame, with a better chance at high multipliers and sticky symbols than you'd get in the base game.
RTP
Check whether the game lists a separate RTP for the bought bonus, and compare it with the base game.
Volatility
Bonus rounds can make your results swing a lot more than regular play. How much depends on the game's volatility. Bonus buy slots with high volatility can lead to big losses as well as the occasional big win.
Maximum win
Some games offer a huge maximum win, like Gates of Olympus 2500, where the top prize is 25,000x your stake. However, the chance of a win anywhere near that size is incredibly small. At Betaro, we track millions of real-money bets every month to show what these slots really pay. Over the last 30 days we logged 1,430,580 bets on Gates of Olympus 2500 at 17 casinos. Only 587 of them paid 1,000x or more, about 1 in 2,437, while 72% paid back less than the stake.
Bonus Buy vs. Triggering a Bonus Naturally
When you play a bonus buy slot, there are two ways to get into the bonus. The first is to play regular spins, where every spin has a chance of triggering it. The second is to buy it, which usually costs somewhere between 80x and a few hundred times your stake and guarantees the feature starts.
| Bonus buy | Natural trigger |
|---|---|
| You pay a set price to go straight into the feature. | You play regular spins and wait for the trigger. Sometimes that costs more than the buy price, sometimes less. |
| It needs a large payment up front. | There's no separate payment, you just keep spinning. |
| The bonus result is still random. | The bonus result is just as random, and the bonus may not land in your session at all. |
Expert's Verdict: Should You Buy Bonus Features?
After testing several of the best bonus buy slots, I came to the conclusion that it's very hard to get your money's worth. Some of these features cost 100x to 1,000x your stake. That's the same as 100 to 1,000 regular spins, which can be anywhere from a few minutes to well over an hour of play. Not every player is the same, though, so here's my advice for two groups.
- Players on a budget: I'd avoid buying these features. They're often expensive and there's no guarantee you'll win the cost back, so you cut your own playtime short. With regular spins, you still have a chance of unlocking the bonus.
- Players not on a budget: Even then, I wouldn't recommend buying them, as you're not guaranteed a profit. But if you don't want to wait for the feature to land and you're buying it for the fun of it, it can be a great way to see the bonus round.
If you want to see how bonus buy features work without spending anything, try them in our bonus buy slots demo section. You don't need an account to play.
Slots mentioned in this post
Real-money gambling always carries risk, so only play with money you can afford to lose. Where a post uses Betaro data, our methodology page explains where the numbers come from.