How to use the wheel spinner
- Add entries: type names, prizes, tasks or options, one per line (2 to 200). The wheel redraws as you type.
- Spin: press Spin or tap the wheel. It turns for about four and a half seconds and stops with the pointer on the winner, which is announced below it.
- Keep going: Remove takes the winner off for the next spin; Spin again keeps everyone in. The last ten results stay listed under Recent picks.
- Save or share: the list is kept on this device for next time, and Copy share link gives you an address that opens the same wheel elsewhere.
Is it fair? How the pick is made
The animation does not decide anything. When you press Spin, the tool first draws the winner with crypto.getRandomValues(), the browser's cryptographic random number generator, and only then works out how far to turn the wheel so the pointer comes to rest inside that entry's slice, at a random point between its edges. Every entry gets a slice of the same size and exactly the same chance: a plain random number divided by the number of entries would slightly favor some entries whenever the count does not divide 232 evenly (7, for example), so the tool throws away the few values at the top of the range that cause that bias and draws again.
We tested the tool's own functions on October 14, 2026: 600,000 picks over six entries and 120,000 over seven, plus 20,000 simulated spins checking that the slice under the pointer matched the announced winner. The pointer matched every time (0 mismatches). With six entries each one won between 16.59% and 16.72% of the time against an expected 16.67%, a chi-square of 3.78 on 5 degrees of freedom, well inside what pure chance produces (the 5% cut-off is 11.07); seven entries gave 14.11% to 14.41% against 14.29% (chi-square 7.79, cut-off 12.59).
| Six entries, 600,000 picks | Wins | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Entry 1 | 99,562 | 16.59% |
| Entry 2 | 100,335 | 16.72% |
| Entry 3 | 100,195 | 16.7% |
| Entry 4 | 100,087 | 16.68% |
| Entry 5 | 99,832 | 16.64% |
| Entry 6 | 99,989 | 16.66% |
Removing winners, shuffling and sharing
Remove is what makes the wheel useful for turn order, raffles with several prizes and classroom cold-calling: each name comes off after it is picked, so nobody is called twice until you put the list back. Shuffle reorders the slices with the same secure random source and Sort A to Z puts them in order; neither changes anyone’s odds, which are always one in the number of entries.
The list is saved in your browser’s local storage on this device only. The share link carries the list in the part of the address after the #, which browsers keep to themselves rather than sending to the server, so the names never reach us; anyone you send the link to can read them, though, so leave out anything private.
Ideas
Picking who presents next, splitting chores, choosing a lunch spot, drawing giveaway winners on a stream, assigning topics, or settling a tie. For a number instead of a name, the Random Number Generator does ranges and bulk draws; for timed turns, pair the wheel with the Countdown Timer.
Sources
Checked on .
Frequently Asked Questions
Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools