Spin the Wheel
Put your options on a wheel, give it a spin, and let it pick one for you.
Spin the Wheel turns a list of options into a colourful wheel and picks one of them at random for you. Type your entries — one per line, anywhere from 2 to 24 — press Spin, and the wheel turns for a few seconds before easing to a stop with one entry sitting under the pointer at the top. The winning entry is also shown in large text under the wheel, so the result is easy to read out or screenshot.
Type the options, one per line, then spin. The result is drawn first with cryptographic randomness; the wheel then turns and parks that entry under the pointer.
Prefer a plain draw without the wheel? Try the Random Picker for picking winners from a list, or the Random Name Picker for names with elimination rounds.
Quick answers
How does Spin the Wheel pick the winner?
When you press Spin, the tool draws one winning index at random from your entries using crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling, so every entry has exactly the same chance. The wheel animation is then calculated to stop with that entry under the pointer.
The draw happens first and the animation second — the wheel does not “decide” as it slows down. Rejection sampling matters here: a plain modulo of a random number slightly favours some entries, so the tool re-draws any random value in the small biased tail until it falls in the fair range. The spin itself takes about four and a half seconds and covers five full turns plus the precise extra angle that parks the winning slice at the top.
How many entries can the wheel hold?
The wheel accepts between 2 and 24 entries, one per line. Fewer than 2 cannot spin, and past 24 the slices and labels get too cramped to read, so the tool asks you to trim the list.
Twenty-four slices is a practical limit, not an arbitrary one: at that count each label still fits along its slice on a phone screen, which is where most spins happen. If your list is longer, split it into rounds — spin a first wheel to narrow a long list down, then spin the survivors. Removing each winner between spins is built in for exactly that kind of multi-round draw.
Can I spin again without the same entry winning twice?
Yes. After a spin, the Remove winner button takes the winning entry out of the list, so the next spin draws only from what is left. Repeat it and you get a full finishing order, one removal at a time.
That turns the wheel into a simple ranking or turn-order tool: spin, note the result, remove the winner, spin again. The Shuffle entries button works the other way — it reorders the entries around the wheel itself without drawing a winner, handy when you suspect the starting layout is doing someone a favour. It is not, visually, but the option is there.
How to use
- Type your entries in the box, one per line — between 2 and 24 of them.
- Press Spin and watch the wheel slow down; the entry under the pointer at the top is the result, also shown in large text below.
- Use Remove winner to take that entry out and spin again from the rest, or Shuffle entries to rearrange the wheel before the next spin.
- Edit the list at any time — the wheel redraws itself as you type.
About this tool
The result is decided before the animation starts, not by where the wheel happens to slow down. The moment you press Spin, the tool draws the winning index using the browser’s cryptographic random source, with rejection sampling so no entry gets a hidden edge from rounding. The spin animation is then worked out backwards from that result: five full turns plus exactly the extra rotation needed to park the winning slice at the pointer. What you watch is theatre; what decides the outcome is the draw, and every entry has the same chance on every spin.
People reach for a wheel when a group is stuck on a small decision — which of six dinner ideas, whose turn it is to present first, which topic a class discusses, which name comes out of the list for the first round of a rota. A wheel helps because the pick is visible and shared: everyone watches the same spin land, which settles the “but I wanted…” argument faster than one person announcing a choice. If you only need a single name drawn without the show, the Random Picker and the Random Name Picker on this site do the same job in plainer form — the internal links under the wheel take you there.
Everything runs in this page, in your browser. Your entries are never uploaded, sent anywhere or saved, and closing the tab clears them completely. There are no accounts and no history, so a list you would rather keep to yourself stays that way.
Frequently asked questions
Is the spin really random?
Yes. The winning index is drawn with crypto.getRandomValues, the browser’s cryptographic random source, using rejection sampling to remove modulo bias. Every entry has the same probability on every spin, and past results do not change future odds.
Why does the wheel spin for the same length of time every spin?
The spin is an animation built around a result that is drawn the moment you press the button. A fixed duration — about four and a half seconds, easing out at the end — keeps it readable and fair-looking; the rotation distance changes from spin to spin depending on where the winning slice has to stop.
What happens if two entries have the same text?
They are treated as two separate slices, so a duplicated entry effectively gets double the chance. If that is not what you want, delete the duplicate line before spinning.
Can I use the wheel for a class or a team?
That is one of its most common uses — turn order, presentation order, discussion topics, rota picks. The large result text under the wheel is sized to be read out or shown on a shared screen.
Are my entries saved or sent anywhere?
No. The list lives only in this page while the tab is open. Nothing is uploaded, stored or shared, and refreshing or closing the tab wipes it.
Why did the tool refuse to spin?
The list needs at least 2 entries and at most 24. Blank lines are ignored, so count only the lines with text on them — the message under the box tells you how many you currently have when the count is out of range.
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