About this tool
Giveaway wheel, explained
A giveaway wheel picks a winner from a list of entries in a way everyone can watch. Paste your entrants or import a CSV, spin, and the wheel stops on a winner drawn by your browser's cryptographic random number generator. The draw runs entirely in your browser.
How to use it
- 1Paste your entrants in the One entry per line box, or click Import CSV to load the first column of a spreadsheet export. The wheel takes up to 500 entries.
- 2Set Winners per draw, and choose whether to remove each winner from the wheel and whether to merge duplicate entries.
- 3Click Spin the wheel (it reads Draw 3 winners when you set three). Big mode fills the screen for a live audience, and Spin sets the pace: Fast, Normal or Dramatic.
- 4Read the winner under the wheel. Every draw is logged in History with the number of entries and the time, ready to copy or download as a CSV.
How it works
How the winner is picked
The winner is chosen before the wheel moves. The tool draws a number with crypto.getRandomValues, the cryptographic generator built into the browser, instead of Math.random. It uses rejection sampling: any draw that would make some lines slightly more likely than others is discarded and drawn again, so every entry has exactly the same chance.
The wheel then turns several full rotations plus the angle that brings the middle of the winning segment under the pointer: 4 turns over 2.5 seconds on Fast, 6 turns over 4.2 seconds on Normal and 10 turns over 7 seconds on Dramatic. The animation shows the result, it does not decide it.
Each non-empty line is one entry. If everything sits on a single line, commas separate the entries instead. Spaces around names are trimmed and blank lines ignored. With Merge duplicate entries on, a name that appears more than once counts once, ignoring capital letters. Names longer than 14 characters are shortened on the wheel only, and above 40 entries the segments are drawn without labels so the wheel stays readable.
With several winners per draw, the wheel spins once per winner, about a second apart, each time from the list as it stands. With Remove each winner from the wheel on, as it is by default, one line with the winner's name is taken off after each spin, so a line cannot win twice while a name entered on several lines keeps its other chances. Import CSV keeps the first column of every row, header included, so delete the header line if your file has one.
When to use it
Ways people use it
Social media giveaways
Paste the usernames of everyone who entered, spin in Big mode while recording your screen, and post the clip so followers can see the draw.
Classrooms and team meetings
Decide who presents first or who takes notes this week from the Names list, or settle a question with the Yes or no and 1 to 10 lists.
Live events and streams
Put the wheel on screen in Big mode with the Dramatic spin, draw several prizes in a row, and download the History as a record afterwards.
In-store prize wheels
Start from the Prizes list, replace it with your own rewards, and let customers spin on a tablet or a screen at the counter.
FAQ
Questions people ask
Is a spin the wheel picker really random?
This one uses the cryptographic random generator in your browser, a generator designed for security uses, and corrects for the small bias a naive draw can have. Each entry on the list has exactly the same chance, wherever it sits on the wheel.
How do I pick a random winner from Instagram comments?
Copy the usernames of the people who entered, paste them one per line, and turn on Merge duplicate entries if your rules allow one entry per person. Then spin, and record the screen if you want to show followers how the winner was picked.
Can I give someone more than one entry?
Yes. Leave Merge duplicate entries off and add their name on as many lines as the entries they earned, for example one extra line for each friend they tagged. Each line is its own segment with the same chance as every other line.
How many names can the wheel hold?
Up to 500 entries. Above 40, the segments are drawn without names to keep the wheel readable, and the winner is still shown in full under the wheel and in the History.
Do I need rules for a giveaway?
Giveaways and sweepstakes are regulated in many countries, and social platforms have their own promotion guidelines. Write down who can enter, how entries count and when the winner is drawn before you announce it, and keep a record of the draw, for example the History downloaded as a CSV.