Is Old School RuneScape free to play?

Yes. Old School RuneScape costs nothing to download or play. Steam lists it as "Free To Play", Jagex calls it a "free to play MMORPG" on its download page, and the App Store lists it as free with in-app purchases.

The free game is the smaller part, though. Most of the world and many of the skills and quests sit behind a paid membership. The rest of this page covers what that adds, what it costs in the UK and how players pay for it without spending money.

Where can you play Old School RuneScape for free?

• PC and Mac: through the Jagex Launcher or on Steam, where Jagex Ltd is both developer and publisher. Jagex's download page also lists Linux.
• iOS: free on the App Store, seller Jagex.
• Android: free to start on Google Play, published by Jagex.

What does a free account miss?

Jagex's membership page says members can:

• train 9 members-only skills, including Sailing, Herblore and Construction
• explore a world four times larger
• complete over 170 quests
• fight over 65 bosses and every raid in the game
• use hundreds of member worlds

Free players stay on free worlds, marked with a silver star in the world list. Jagex Support says members-only areas can't be reached on those worlds at all, even on a member's account.

The Steam listing still gives older figures: 8 extra skills and over 120 extra quests. It doesn't count Sailing, which Jagex's own page and the mobile listings do (both mobile listings say 9 more skills). We've used Jagex's membership page here.

What does Old School RuneScape membership cost?

UK prices from Jagex's post of 10 March 2026, read on 2 November 2026:

Option	UK price	Works out at
1 month	£10.99	£10.99 a month
12 months	£95.88	£7.99 a month
1 bond	£7.49	14 days of membership

Paying monthly for a year comes to £131.88, so the 12-month plan saves £36. Jagex stopped selling 6-month membership on the same date. People on an older monthly rate, started and kept active since before 27 September 2024, keep it for as long as the recurring subscription stays active.

Membership is shared with RuneScape, the separate modern game, so one payment covers both.

Can you get membership without paying?

Yes, with a bond. Jagex describes bonds as in-game items that players can trade and redeem for membership, and one bond gives 14 days. Someone buys one with money, then sells it on the Grand Exchange for in-game gold. Anyone with enough gold can buy it and redeem it, and no real money changes hands on their side.

Jagex's Grand Exchange page showed an Old school bond at about 9.9m coins on 2 November 2026. That price moves with trading. Bonds can only be traded inside Old School RuneScape, not moved across to RuneScape.

For another game where paid currency moves between players, see is Warframe free to play. Guild Wars 2 splits things differently, with a free core game and paid expansions.

How we checked

The free listings come from the Steam store page, Jagex's download page, the App Store and Google Play, all read on 2 November 2026. Membership benefits are from Jagex's membership page, and free-world limits from Jagex Support. UK prices, the end of 6-month membership and the older monthly rate are from Jagex's post of 10 March 2026. Bonds are from that post, Jagex's bonds page and its Grand Exchange listing. Jagex's membership page showed no prices when we read it, so the prices here rely on that post.