Randomantic How to use the wheel spinner
- Type or paste your entries into the box — one name or option per line.
- Click Spin the wheel (or tap the wheel itself).
- Wait for the wheel to stop — the entry under the pointer wins.
- Optionally click Remove winner and spin again to pick more winners.
What people use it for
Teachers use the wheel to call on students fairly or assign presentation order. Streamers and event hosts use it for giveaways and raffles. Families use it to settle "where should we eat tonight?" debates. Anywhere you need a fair, visible, and fun way to pick one option from many, a spinning wheel beats drawing names from a hat — everyone can see the result was random.
Your entry list is stored only in your own browser. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so it is private and works even on a slow connection once the page has loaded. Want to send this exact wheel to someone else? Click Copy shareable link — it encodes your list right into the URL, so opening it loads the same wheel with no account or setup required.
Why a wheel beats names in a hat
Mechanically they do the same job, but socially they do not. A hat hides the process: someone reaches in, and everyone else takes it on trust that the slips were folded the same way and properly mixed. A wheel shows every entry on screen before it moves, gives each one a visible slice, and lands in front of the whole room. When the result is unpopular — and sooner or later it will be — that visibility is the entire difference between a groan and an argument.
Remove the winner, or spin again?
This is the one setting that changes the maths, so it is worth being deliberate about. Spinning again without removing the winner means every entry stays in the pool and the same name can come up twice in a row — correct when each spin is a genuinely separate question ("who answers this one?"). Clicking Remove winner takes that entry out, so repeated spins deal out an order with no repeats — correct for picking three different prize winners, or working through a class without calling on anyone twice.
If you want to weight the wheel, add an entry more than once. Two lines with the same name is two slices and double the chance. That is a legitimate way to run a raffle where people hold multiple tickets — just say so out loud, because an unexplained duplicate looks like a mistake.
How many entries the wheel can carry
Readability, not arithmetic, is the limit. Up to about fifteen entries the labels are comfortable to read across a room. Past thirty the slices get thin and the text shrinks to the point where nobody can verify their own name is on it, which defeats the purpose. For a few hundred names — a company giveaway, an Instagram comment draw — the lucky draw picker is the right tool: it handles large lists, draws several winners at once, and pulls reserve winners in the same round.
In the classroom
Calling on students at random is well-established practice, and it works because it removes the unconscious pattern every teacher falls into — the same confident hands, the same side of the room. Two things make it land better. Paste the class list once and let the browser remember it, so you are not retyping names in front of thirty people. And decide your pass rule in advance: many teachers let a student pass once and return to them later, which keeps the randomness without turning it into an ambush.
Sharing a wheel without an account
Copy shareable link encodes your entry list into the URL itself, so sending the link gives someone the same wheel with nothing to install and no sign-up. It is useful for handing a prepared wheel to a co-host, or reloading the same list on a different device before an event. Two things follow from how it works: the list is visible in the URL, so do not share a wheel containing anything private, and the link carries the entries only — whoever opens it still spins for their own result.
Everything else stays local. Your entries are kept in your own browser, nothing is uploaded, and the wheel keeps working if the connection drops after the page has loaded.
Other ways to pick
- Many winners from a long list: the lucky draw picker.
- A full running order rather than one winner: the list randomizer.
- Splitting people up instead of picking one: the random team generator.
- A straight yes or no: the yes or no wheel or the coin flip.