Get Started With A Star Citizen Free Fly

The Star Citizen Free Fly now available and will be available until 10 August 2026 at 2000 UTC (4 PM Eastern / 1 PM Pacific in the US). This Free Fly is part of this year's Foundation Festival event.

If you want to play during the Free Fly, then you first need to set up a free Star Citizen account. The Enlist with Referral page includes detailed instructions for creating a free Star Citizen account with referral code STAR-NTSD-NTKT to unlock the 50000 credit referral bonus and special Foundation Festival referral bonus.

After you create a Star Citizen account, follow these steps to activate the Free Fly for your account:

1. Go to the official RSI website at the link below:
   1. https://starcitizen.com/en/flyfree
2. Scroll down to the section titled "PLAY STAR CITIZEN FOR FREE".
3. Click the "GET FLYING" button.
4. The section title will change to "You're In!", and the "GET FLYING" button will be replaced with a "DOWNLOAD LAUNCHER" button.
5. The Free Fly is now activated for your account!

Now that you've activated the Free Fly, you can follow the directions on our How to Download & Install page to install Star Citizen on your computer.

For the duration of this Free Fly, all players can use five different starter ships for free to explore the Star Citizen universe and different gameplay loops. Those five ships are: the Crusader Intrepid, Drake Cutter, Drake Golem, RSI Aurora MkII, and RSI Salvation.

If you want to play Star Citizen after the Free Fly ends, then you need to need to also purchase a starter pack. 

The Pick a Starter Ship page provides a brief summary of common Star Citizen starter pack topics, including our recommended best Star Citizen starter ship and current starter pack discounts. 

Additionally, Star Citizen has a 30-day refund policy, so you can get a refund during that period if you do not enjoy playing Star Citizen after purchasing a starter pack. Full refund policy terms and conditions are available on the official RSI website. 

A Star Citizen Free Fly is the only way to try the game completely for free because Star Citizen does not have a free trial period that is always available. Every Free Fly is a promotion that allows all players to play the game for no cost as long as they have a free Star Citizen account. There are usually 4 to 5 Free Fly events throughout the year, and each event is only available for a limited time.

A Star Citizen Free Fly is a limited-time event where all players with a Star Citizen account can play Star Citizen for free. A Star Citizen Free Fly happens a few times throughout the year, and each Star Citizen Free Fly is typically 7-10 days in duration. You do not need a starter pack or starter ship to play during a Star Citizen Free Fly because a selection of ships are provided for free to all players to use during each Star Citizen Free Fly.

When the Star Citizen Free Fly ends, you will not be able to continue to play the game unless you have a starter pack. Any progress that you make during the Star Citizen Free Fly will be saved until a wipe is performed.

Yes! You can participate in as many Star Citizen Free Fly events as you like without ever needing to purchase a Star Citizen starter pack.

A Star Citizen Free Fly is not on a set schedule throughout the year, but these other events usually have a Star Citizen Free Fly associated with them:

• Invictus Launch Week (ILW) in mid-to-late May - replaced by Defensecon for 2026
• Foundation Festival in early July
• Ship Showdown in late August-to-early September
• Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE) in mid-to-late November

The next Star Citizen Free Fly after the current Free Fly will happen in late August 2026 or mid-November 2026.

In an unprecedented move, the Star Citizen developers cancelled the Star Citizen Free Fly that was supposed to start when Red Festival started on 28 January 2025. Stability and performance issues with Star Citizen 4.0.1 were the reasons for why the Star Citizen Free Fly was cancelled.