Wheel Spinner

What this generator does

A visual random picker: you supply the list, the wheel draws one entry from it, and the spin animation shows which one. It suits the moment when a group is watching and the draw itself should feel like an event — a classroom, a livestream, a prize draw at a party. If you only need the answer and not the show, the random name picker gives you the same fairness with less ceremony.

How to use this tool

1. Enter your entries, one per line.
2. To make an entry more likely, put a number after it — "Pizza: 3" takes three times the space of an unnumbered entry.
3. Press spin to start the wheel.
4. Read the winning entry when the wheel stops.
5. Optionally remove winners so they can't be picked again.

Understanding the controls

Wheel entries

One entry per line. Blank lines are ignored, and a plain line becomes one equal-sized segment — twelve plain entries means twelve segments, each with a one-in-twelve chance. Putting a number after an entry sets how much of the wheel it takes: "Pizza: 3" gets three times the arc, and three times the chance, of a plain entry. An entry whose own text ends in a colon and a number, like "Round 2: 5", is read as a weighting, so put such a title in different words if you mean it literally.

The list under the wheel

Appears whenever the slices are not all the same size, or when one is too narrow to write a label inside. It names every slice with its number and its share as a percentage, so a slice you cannot read on the wheel is still readable, and the odds are stated rather than eyeballed.

Remove winner after each spin

Off by default, so every spin draws from the full list and the same entry can win twice in a row. Turned on, the winning entry is taken off the wheel after it is drawn, so a series of spins works through the list without repeats — and the odds shift for everyone still on it, because the wheel gets smaller each time.

Worked examples

Picking students one at a time, without repeats

Paste the class list, turn on 'remove winners', then spin once per turn. Each name drops off the wheel after it is drawn, so everyone gets picked before anyone repeats.

Deciding between a handful of options

Four plain entries means four equal segments and a 25% chance each. A bigger segment really is a better chance: the wheel draws its slices from the numbers you give and picks the winner by where the pointer lands, so what you see is the odds.

A takeaway vote where one house rule counts double

Type "Pizza: 2", "Curry: 1", "Sushi: 1". Pizza takes half the wheel and wins half the time; the list under the wheel shows 2 of 4 (50.0%) beside it, so nobody has to take the odds on trust.

Common use cases

• Picking a random winner from a list visually
• Classroom or team decision-making
• Game-night random selection
• Livestream or classroom giveaways

How this generator works

The winner is chosen first and the animation is calculated afterwards. When you press spin, a resting angle on the rim is drawn with your browser's Web Crypto random generator, the slice containing that angle is the winner, and the wheel's final rotation is then worked out backwards so the pointer stops on exactly that point. This is why the spin cannot be nudged, timed, or influenced by when you release the button — and why the reduced-motion mode, which skips straight to the result, is exactly as fair as watching the full spin.

Randomness and fairness

Pressing spin picks a resting point on the rim with your browser's cryptographic random number generator, and the winner is whichever slice that point falls inside. The rotation is then calculated to bring exactly that point under the pointer. Because the wheel is drawn from the same slice boundaries the draw is read against, a segment's size is its chance: an entry taking a third of the wheel wins a third of the time. Holding the button longer, a slow device, or skipping the animation entirely under reduced motion all produce exactly the same distribution of winners.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

• Slice sizes are relative, not percentages. "Yes: 70" and "No: 30" gives seventy per cent because they happen to total a hundred; add a third entry and every share moves.
• The wheel becomes hard to read beyond roughly thirty entries — the labels get too small. For long lists the random name picker shows results more clearly.
• Entries live only in your browser tab. Reloading the page clears the wheel, so keep your list somewhere else if you need it again.

Common mistakes

Adding an entry twice to make it more likely

It does work — two lines means two segments and double the chance — but it is easy to do by accident when pasting a list, and a duplicate looks the same as a mistake. Write it once with a number after it instead: the slice is then one slice of the right size, and the list under the wheel says out loud what share it has.

Expecting 'remove winner' to persist between sessions

The removal lasts only as long as the page is open. Reloading the page, or coming back tomorrow, restores the full list — the wheel keeps nothing between visits, so a multi-day draw needs you to keep track of who has already been picked.

Practical tips

• Beyond about thirty entries the segment labels become too small to read comfortably; the random name picker handles long lists better while drawing just as fairly.
• For a draw people need to trust, spin once and read the result rather than re-spinning until it looks right — re-spinning is of course allowed, but it stops the draw being the fair one you set out to make.

Privacy and your data

The entries you paste in stay in your browser tab. They are not uploaded, not saved to a server, and never appear in the page address, so sending someone the link shares the tool and not your list. Nothing is remembered after you close or reload the page, and analytics records only that a spin happened — never what was on the wheel or who won.

Frequently asked questions

Does the spinning animation decide the winner?

No. The winner is selected using secure randomness before the wheel starts spinning. The animation is a visual flourish that always lands on the pre-selected result — it never influences it.