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Bonus buy slots: what a feature buy costs and what it changes
Bonus buy slots let you pay a fixed multiple of your stake to trigger the bonus round at once. What it costs, how it affects RTP and where it is not allowed.
- A bonus buy charges a fixed price, commonly 50 to 100 times the stake or more, to enter the bonus round immediately.
- The RTP of the purchase is stated separately in the game rules and is usually close to the base game, sometimes slightly higher.
- It compresses a lot of staking into one click, which is why some regulators do not permit it.
How a feature buy works
In many modern slots most of the return sits in a free-spins or bonus round that triggers rarely. A bonus buy button lets you pay a set price to start that round straight away. Pragmatic Play’s page for Sweet Rush Bonanza, for example, lists three ante bet options and two bonus buy options alongside its free-spins round.
An ante bet is a milder version: you raise each stake by a set percentage, for example 25%, in exchange for a higher chance of triggering the feature naturally.
What it costs
If a feature costs 100 times the stake, buying it at $1 a spin is a single $100 wager. The round then pays whatever it pays, which is very often less than the price and occasionally far more. The price is set so that the long-run return of the purchase is near the game’s RTP.
| 100 ordinary spins | One 100x feature buy | |
|---|---|---|
| Money wagered | $100 | $100 |
| Time taken | Several minutes | Under a minute |
| Bonus rounds played | Usually none | One |
| Spread of results | Narrower | Much wider |
Does buying the bonus improve the odds
Not meaningfully. Where a separate RTP for the buy is published it is typically within a few tenths of a percentage point of the base game. What changes is volatility and speed: you move through money much faster, and each purchase is a large single bet with a wide range of outcomes.
Because the cost is per purchase, a fixed budget supports far fewer decisions. Ten buys at 100x on a $1 stake is $1,000 of wagering.
Where bonus buys are restricted
Rules differ by jurisdiction. In Great Britain the feature has not been permitted on licensed sites since 2019, and games are released there with the option removed. Elsewhere it is widely available, and some markets require the purchase RTP to be shown. If the button is missing, the casino or regulator has disabled it; the rest of the game is unchanged.
If you use it
- Read the rules screen for the buy price and its stated RTP before the first purchase.
- Work out the budget in purchases, not spins.
- Treat a run of low-paying bought rounds as normal. A bonus round that returns less than its price is the most common outcome.
Fast, high-stake features are where spending escalates most easily. Deposit and loss limits set in advance are described in our limits guide.
Common questions
Is a bonus buy worth it?
It does not change the expected return in any significant way. It raises volatility and the speed at which money is wagered, so it is a matter of risk appetite, not value.
How much does a bonus buy cost?
Commonly between 50 and 100 times the stake for a standard feature, with higher prices for enhanced versions. The exact price is shown on the button and in the rules.
Why is there no bonus buy button on my game?
The feature is disabled in some jurisdictions, including Great Britain, and individual casinos can also switch it off.
Sources
Checked 11 November 2026. Rules and published figures change; confirm against the current official page before relying on them.
Publication byline. Prepared with AI assistance and checked against the linked sources; see our editorial standards. This page is information, not advice, and contains no affiliate links.