Waiting for a slot's free spins round to land on its own can take hundreds of spins, or it may never happen in a session. The bonus buy feature was built for players who would rather skip the wait and jump straight into the part of the game where the biggest wins usually happen. It sounds convenient, but it changes the maths of how you play.
What bonus buy actually is
Bonus buy, sometimes called feature buy, is an option that lets you pay a fixed price to trigger a slot's bonus round immediately, most often the free spins feature. Instead of spinning the base game and hoping to land the required scatter symbols, you pay a set amount and the bonus starts on the next spin. The price is almost always expressed as a multiple of your stake, so the cost scales with how much you would normally bet per spin.
What it costs and what you get
A typical bonus buy costs somewhere between 40x and 500x your stake, with 100x being one of the most common prices. If your stake is one euro and the buy costs 100x, you pay 100 euro to enter the bonus. In return you get the free spins round with all its multipliers and special symbols active. It is worth knowing that many slots have a slightly different RTP when you buy the feature compared to playing normally, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, so the label on the buy button is not the whole story.
The advantages and the risks
The clear advantage is speed and certainty: you get the bonus round every time you pay, without grinding through a long dry spell. For players who mainly enjoy the feature rounds, that is appealing. The risk is that the cost is high and the outcome is still random. Buying a feature does not guarantee a profit, and you can pay 100x your stake and win back far less. Because each purchase burns through your balance quickly, bonus buys can drain a bankroll much faster than standard spins.
When buying a feature makes sense
Bonus buy suits players with a larger bankroll who understand that they are paying for entertainment and a shot at a big round, not a shortcut to guaranteed wins. Before you use it, check the buy price relative to your total budget, look at whether the feature-buy RTP is published, and set a firm limit on how many buys you will make. Treat it as a high-variance choice: the swings are bigger in both directions, so it is not the right tool if you are trying to make a small balance last.