Do bonus buys have higher RTP? What studio figures for 457 slots show

Bonus buys sometimes have a higher RTP than the base game, but the difference is usually tiny and just as often goes the other way. In our slot database, 457 slots publish a separate RTP for the base game and for at least one bonus-buy option, giving 735 buy options in total. Of those options, 37.7% have a higher RTP than the base game, 31.0% are identical and 31.3% are lower. The median difference is zero, and 670 of the 735 options (91.2%) are within 0.10 percentage points of the base-game figure.

What “bonus-buy RTP” means

A bonus buy (also called a feature buy) lets a player pay a fixed price, usually a multiple of the base stake, to go straight into the bonus round. Its RTP is the bonus round’s average payout divided by that price. Because the price and the bonus round are set separately, the buy option has its own return-to-player figure, which can differ from the RTP of ordinary spins.

The figures below come from three studios that publish RTP per mode: Pragmatic Play (336 slots), Hacksaw Gaming (112) and Print Studios (9). Hacksaw’s figures are for its 96% configuration. Like any RTP, they are long-run averages, not session predictions; our guide to RTP versions explains why a casino may run a different setting.

Higher, equal or lower: the numbers

Counted per slot rather than per option, all buy options match the base game in 138 slots (30.2%), are all higher in 131 (28.7%), all lower in 114 (24.9%) and split both ways in 74 (16.2%).

Where the buy option is higher, the median gain is 0.05 percentage points. Where it is lower, the median drop is 0.03 points. Only nine of the 457 slots have any buy option more than 0.25 points away from the base game. The largest gap we hold is 1.22 points above the base game. The largest drop is 0.38 points.

The studios differ. Of Pragmatic Play’s 493 buy options, 44.2% match the base game exactly. Of Hacksaw Gaming’s 233, 57.5% are higher and only 4.3% identical.

Examples from studio game data

Pragmatic Play’s game pages show the base-game RTP. The bonus-buy RTP is reported in the game information of the demo version embedded on the same page. We checked each figure below against that data on October 10, 2026.

Power of Thor Megaways shows what the largest common gaps mean in money. At 96.97%, a 100-stake purchase returns 96.97 stakes on average over many purchases, an average cost of 3.03 stakes. Spending the same 100 stakes on spins at 96.55% costs 3.45 stakes on average. The difference is 0.42 stakes per 100 wagered, before the much larger swings of individual results.

Why the figures differ at all

A bonus-buy price is a fixed multiple of the stake. In our database, 100 times the stake is by far the most common price: 368 of the 536 slots with a listed price (68.7%). The buy RTP equals the bonus round’s average payout divided by that price, so it only matches the base game when the studio designs and prices it to. The data shows studios keep the two close: 98.8% of options are within a quarter of a percentage point.

Studios do not explain on these pages why a particular buy option is set slightly above or below the base game. We have not found a published rationale, so we do not guess at one.

Variance: the bigger difference

The RTP gap is small. The difference in how results arrive is not. A bonus buy at 100 times the stake puts 100 stakes on a single outcome: one bonus round. The same 100 stakes spent on spins are spread over 100 separate results, including the bonus rounds those spins trigger. Over a session, a buy therefore produces much larger swings in either direction, even when its RTP is a fraction of a point higher. Compare hit frequency, which measures how often spins return anything at all.

Bonus buys in Great Britain

Great Britain’s Gambling Commission has acted against bonus buys. Its guidance to licensing authorities describes an investigation that found six licensees offering “feature buy-in” on slot-style games. One game charged more than £3,000 to enter the bonus feature. After considering Remote Technical Standards 3A and 14A, the Commission instructed the six to remove these products, including games with similar features. It also contacted further licensees and instructed them to remove games with the option to buy a feature. Its January 2020 notice confirmed that all six had removed it.

The same slot can therefore be offered without its buy option in one market and with it in another. Check the rules shown in the game you are actually using.

How to check a specific slot

1. Open the slot’s page in our database and follow the linked studio source.
2. Look for a separate RTP for each mode: base game, ante or bet modifiers, and each buy option.
3. Compare those figures with the game’s own rules or information screen at your casino. The casino may run a lower RTP version.

A higher buy RTP does not make a purchase a good bet. It is still a negative expected return on every purchase, with wider swings than ordinary spins.