FAQs: Everything You Need to Know

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything bar and restaurant owners ask us before signing up — pricing, delivery, hosting, licensing, cancellation. Straight answers. No fluff.

1. How much does a Cheap Trivia subscription cost?

Your first month is $0.99. After that, the Weekly Trivia Subscription runs $15/week — less than hiring a host for a single night. One-off themed packs and bundles are priced individually in the shop. No contracts, no setup fees, cancel anytime.

2. What do I get with every weekly pack?

Every Sunday, you receive a complete trivia night: 4 rounds, 40+ questions, a picture round, a host script, and an answer key. Delivered in both PDF (print-ready) and PowerPoint (projection-ready) formats. Built to run in any size venue.

3. How fast is delivery?

Weekly packs drop in your inbox every Sunday morning. Individual themed packs and bundles are delivered instantly via email the moment your order clears — you can host tonight.

4. How do I cancel?

Log into your account, click Manage Subscription, hit cancel. Done. No phone calls, no retention scripts, no fine print. You can pause or cancel anytime and keep every pack you've already received.

5. I've never hosted trivia before. Can I still run this?

Yes. Every pack includes a host script telling you exactly what to say between rounds. If you can read questions out loud and count points, you can host. Hundreds of first-time hosts run their first night the same day they subscribe.

6. How is this different from free trivia I can find online?

Free trivia is the same 40 questions recycled on every blog for a decade — your regulars have already seen them. Cheap Trivia packs are written fresh every week by real trivia hosts, tested in real venues, and formatted to run a full 4-round night. You get a complete night, not a Google doc.

7. How does a trivia night actually work in my venue?

Teams of 2–6 players, 4 rounds of 10 questions each, a picture round in the middle, scoring between rounds, winner announced at the end. Most nights run 90–120 minutes. Your pack walks you through the whole flow, round by round.

8. Can I use these packs for virtual or hybrid trivia events?

Yes. The PowerPoint format works perfectly over Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams — share your screen and you're live. Many corporate event planners and remote teams use our packs for virtual trivia nights. See our virtual trivia collection for packs specifically built for online play.

9. What's the licensing? Can I charge admission or run this commercially?

Yes. Your subscription includes a commercial license — you can run these packs in your bar, restaurant, brewery, hotel, or any paying venue. You can host ticketed events, charge entry fees, and run weekly trivia nights as part of your business. You cannot resell the packs themselves or upload them to a public site.

10. What topics and categories do the packs cover?

Every weekly pack is a mixed-topic general trivia night — pop culture, sports, history, science, music, geography, wordplay. If you want a specific theme, grab a themed pack. We cover movies & TV, sports, holidays, music, decades, video games, and more.

11. Do you have themed trivia packs?

Over 700 and growing. Browse the full themed pack library — from Harry Potter and Marvel to NFL Draft Night and 80s Music. Themed packs are perfect for special events, promo nights, or a one-off to shake up your weekly schedule.

12. Do you make holiday trivia?

Yes. Our Holiday Trivia collection covers Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, and more. Run a themed night to pull a holiday crowd that wouldn't otherwise come in.

13. What file formats do I need software for?

PDFs open on any computer, tablet, or phone — no software required. PowerPoint files work in Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and LibreOffice Impress. If you can open an email, you can open our packs.

14. I need a host — where do I find one?

You don't. That's the whole point. Our packs are built so the owner, a manager, or any server can host with zero experience. If you still want a dedicated host, any employee who can read out loud can run it with our script. You'll save the $150–$250 you'd otherwise pay an outside trivia host every week.

15. How do I get help if something goes wrong?

Email us at our contact page or hit reply on any email we send. A real human usually responds within a few hours — same day guaranteed. Whether you're stuck on a download, want help picking a pack, or need advice on growing your trivia crowd, we've got you.

16. Can I use the same trivia pack at multiple venues?

Each pack is licensed for a single event at a single venue. If you run trivia at multiple locations, grab the Weekly Subscription (which covers unlimited venues on different nights) or purchase separate packs per venue. If you operate 3+ venues under one ownership, email us at help@cheaptrivia.com — we offer multi-venue operator pricing.

17. What exactly comes with the weekly subscription?

Every Sunday, your subscription delivers: 4 complete rounds (3 text-based + 1 picture round), 40+ fact-checked questions, a host script, a printable answer key with fun facts, numbered answer sheets, and a tie-breaker question. Files arrive in both PDF (print-ready) and PowerPoint (projector-ready) formats. Commercial license included.

18. How do I display questions on a TV or projector?

Every pack includes a PowerPoint file formatted for 16:9 TVs and projectors. Open it on a laptop, connect via HDMI to your TV or projector, and run it full-screen. The picture round, logos, and images are all optimized for projection. Works on Windows, Mac, Keynote, Google Slides, and LibreOffice Impress — no specialized software required.

19. Do you have holiday and seasonal trivia packs?

Yes — our Holiday Trivia Collection covers Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, 4th of July, New Year's, and more. Seasonal themed nights reliably pull 2–3x the crowd of regular trivia — timed right, they become your biggest weeknight revenue moments of the year.

20. Can I customize the questions in a trivia pack?

Yes. PDFs can be printed as-is or edited in any PDF editor. PowerPoint files are fully editable — swap out questions, add your venue branding, change the order, or add a custom round about your bar's history or team. Most venues use the packs as-is, but customization is fully supported for owners who want to personalize.

21. How much revenue can a weekly trivia night actually generate?

A well-run trivia night brings in 25–60 extra customers per night at an average tab of $18–$28, generating $450–$1,680 in incremental revenue per night. Annualized, that's $21,000–$69,000 in additional weeknight revenue. Against the $15/week cost of the subscription, most venues see a 20:1 to 40:1 ROI. See our full revenue breakdown for the numbers.

22. What difficulty level are the questions?

Our standard packs follow the 60/30/10 rule: 60% of questions are answerable by most teams (to keep everyone engaged), 30% are medium (to separate the leaders), and 10% are genuinely hard (to reward superfans). Themed packs come in Easy, Medium, and Hard variants where labeled (e.g., Harry Potter packs have all three tiers available).

23. How do picture rounds work?

Picture rounds project 10–20 images on your TV or projector, and teams identify each image on their answer sheet. Types include logos with text removed, celebrity mashups, album covers, movie stills, landmarks, and extreme close-ups of everyday objects. The picture round is typically the most memorable moment of the night and drives huge social media engagement. See our full picture round guide.

24. Is Cheap Trivia good for corporate team building?

Yes — corporate teams use our packs for in-office events, virtual Zoom events, and offsite team-building nights. The content is professionally written, clean, and balanced across knowledge areas so every employee can contribute. Companies that run recurring monthly trivia programs report measurable engagement and retention lifts. See our team building guide for the full playbook.

25. What categories do questions typically cover?

Weekly packs are mixed general-knowledge — pop culture, music, sports, history, science, geography, food and drink, wordplay, and current events. Themed packs focus on one category or franchise (e.g., Harry Potter, NFL, 90s trivia). We avoid politics and religion as categories except for historical facts. Questions are fact-checked and rotated so repeats never appear within a 12-week window.

26. How far in advance should I promote trivia night?

For a brand-new trivia night, start promoting 4 weeks before opening night — social media teasers, Facebook event, in-venue signage, email to your customer list. For a themed or special event (Halloween, Super Bowl), 3 weeks of promotion is the sweet spot. For regular weekly trivia once established, daily rhythm (Monday reminder → day-of Story → Wednesday winner post) is all you need. Full promotion playbook at how to promote trivia night.

27. Do I need to hire a dedicated trivia host?

No. Our packs are designed so any owner, manager, bartender, or server can host using the included script. A great host helps, but is not required — hundreds of our venues run trivia with an existing staff member who reads questions and keeps score. If you want professional hosting, you can hire an outside host ($150–$300/night), but most venues save that money by hosting in-house.

28. What equipment do I need for trivia night?

Bare minimum: a microphone, a Bluetooth speaker or house PA, a TV or projector for the picture round, printed answer sheets, and pens. Most venues already own 80% of this. Total startup cost for a new trivia night is typically $200–$800 — often $0 if you already have a TV and sound system. Full equipment list at our complete equipment guide.

29. Can I try Cheap Trivia before committing to a subscription?

Yes — your first month of the Weekly Subscription is $0.99. Cancel anytime before month two renews and you keep every pack you've downloaded. We also offer completely free trivia packs — no credit card, no email gate, just downloadable PDFs you can host tonight. Most venues start with a free pack or the $0.99 trial before committing to the full subscription.

30. How is Cheap Trivia different from live trivia companies?

Live trivia companies (think Geeks Who Drink, Trivia Mafia, local operators) charge $200–$350 per night and send a host to run the event — great if you have the budget but expensive at $10,000+/year per venue. Cheap Trivia delivers professionally-written packs directly to your inbox for $15/week, which any staff member can host using the included script. You get the same quality questions for roughly 10% of the cost, plus commercial licensing and content ownership.