Random wheel: spin to pick a name or a choice

A random wheel that picks a name or a choice

This random wheel picks one winner from the lines you type: names, meals, dares, raffle numbers. You spin it, it turns for about four seconds, then stops on a result shown in large.

Use it as a wheel of names for a prize draw, as a random name picker in the classroom, or to settle a choice nobody wants to make. It is free, needs no account and runs in your browser.

How to spin the wheel

1. Type your entries in the box labelled "Your entries, one per line". The wheel is redrawn as you type, one slice per line.
2. Click "Spin the wheel", or click the wheel itself. You need at least two lines.
3. Read the winner under "Result".
4. To draw again without that winner, click "Remove from the wheel" and spin once more.

"Shuffle" reorders the slices and "Clear all" empties the list.

Ways to use it

Giveaways, raffles and prize draws

Paste the list of entrants, one per line. For a social media giveaway, record your screen or share it live so that everyone sees the full list, then the name that comes up. With several prizes, remove each winner before the next spin. A competition open to the public has rules of its own: check them before you announce it.

In the classroom

The wheel chooses who answers next, with no hint of favouritism. For presentation order, remove each name as it is drawn: the order in which names come out is the running order. The same trick builds groups: with a class of 30, the first five names drawn form group 1, the next five group 2, and so on up to group 6.

With friends or family

Pizza or sushi, comedy or thriller, who does the washing-up tonight: write the options down and let the wheel decide. Agree on the list before you spin, and that there is no second go.

Team meetings

Who speaks first in the stand-up, who takes the notes? Set the wheel up once with the team's names and paste its link into the meeting invite, so it is ready every time.

Parties, dares and streaming

Fill the wheel with forfeits, quiz topics or challenges sent in by viewers. Keep the labels short: beyond 22 characters, text is cut off on the wheel.

Is the draw fair?

The winner is chosen by your browser's cryptographic random number generator before the wheel starts to move; the animation only reveals it. Every line has exactly the same chance. With 25 names, each one has a 1 in 25 chance, or 4%.

To give an entry better odds, write it on several lines. Add two more lines for one of those names and the list has 27 lines: that name now has 3 chances in 27, about 11.1%, while each of the others has about 3.7%. Repeating lines is the only way to weight the wheel.

Frequently asked questions

How many entries can I add?

Up to 60. Blank lines are not counted, and you need at least two entries to spin.

How do I share my wheel?

Click "Copy the link to this wheel": whoever opens that link sees the same wheel. The list travels inside the address itself and is not stored on the server.

Do I need to sign up?

No. No account to create and nothing to pay.

Is my list saved?

Yes, on your device: come back with the same browser and your last list is still there. On a shared computer, click "Clear all" before you leave.