Making a fair choice
Picking someone at random sounds simple until you have to do it in front of people who care about the result. Choosing by eye is not random, and asking someone to "pick a number" produces well-documented biases — people avoid the extremes and disproportionately choose seven when given one to ten.
A spinning wheel solves the credibility problem as much as the mathematical one. The audience watches the outcome happen rather than being told what it was, which is why wheels are used in classrooms, live streams and giveaways where a private draw would not be accepted.
How the selection works
The winner is chosen before the animation begins, using your browser's cryptographic random number generator with rejection sampling to eliminate the subtle bias that appears when squeezing random values into a range. The wheel is then rotated to land on that result.
This is how essentially all digital wheels work, and it is more reliable than simulating physics. Every segment has exactly equal probability regardless of its position or the previous result.
The remove-winner option
Enabling this deletes each winner from the list after they are drawn, which changes the operation from independent draws to selection without replacement.
Use it when you are picking multiple distinct people or items — drawing three prize winners, assigning tasks, or working through a class register. Leave it off when each draw should be independent, such as picking who goes next in a game where the same person may be chosen twice.
Where people use this
Teachers picking students to answer, which removes any suspicion of favouritism. Giveaway and competition draws on social media. Deciding turn order in games. Choosing where to eat when nobody will commit. Assigning presentation slots. Selecting a random item from a shortlist when the options are genuinely equivalent and the decision is costing more time than it deserves.
A note on public draws
If entrants need to trust the result, run the spin on screen where it can be seen or recorded. A result generated privately and announced afterwards is unverifiable, however fair the underlying method. For competitions with meaningful prizes, check whether local rules require a documented or witnessed draw.
Runs entirely in your browser
Your list is never transmitted or stored, and the wheel works offline once the page has loaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is every option equally likely?
Yes. The winner is chosen with cryptographic randomness and rejection sampling to remove modulo bias, so segment position and previous results have no effect.
Can I draw several winners?
Yes. Enable the remove-winner option and spin repeatedly to draw distinct winners without repetition.
How many options can I add?
There is no hard limit, though labels become hard to read beyond about twenty segments. The text shrinks automatically as you add more.
Is the result decided before the animation?
Yes, which is how all digital wheels work. It is more reliable than simulating physics and equally fair.
Is my list saved anywhere?
No. Everything stays in your browser and is discarded when you close the tab.