Random name picker

Who will be picked?

Spin the wheel to pick winners from your list, or split everyone into fair teams.

Draw

Spin the wheel to pick a winner

Names

One per line. 6 in the list.

Winner

Nothing picked yet

How to use

Type or paste your names, one per line.
Choose how many winners you need and press Spin (or Space). Press again while the wheel turns to spin it faster. The winner shows in big letters when it stops; use full screen to show it to a room.
Switch on Remove winners from the draw to run a raffle where nobody wins twice.
To make groups instead, switch to Teams, choose how many teams and press Make teams.

How it works

Every name has exactly the same chance, one in the number of names. The winner is chosen first, by your device's secure random generator, and the wheel is only turned so that it stops on that name. Pressing Spin again only makes it turn longer: it still stops on the same name. The spinning is for show; it never decides anything.

To pick several winners without repeats, the list is shuffled like a deck of cards with the Fisher–Yates method (Durstenfeld, 1964; Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, vol. 2) and the first few are taken, so every possible group is equally likely. Teams use the same shuffle, then deal the names out one by one like cards, so team sizes differ by at most one.

Everything happens in your browser, and your names are not sent anywhere. A short list is added to the page link so you can share it; a long list is left out of the link on purpose. For a legal draw or a public giveaway, follow the rules that apply to you.

Frequently asked questions

Is the pick really random?

Yes. It uses the secure random generator built into your browser, the same kind used for encryption keys, and every name is equally likely. Nobody, including this page, can steer the result.

Can I pick several winners at once?

Yes. Choose how many winners you need and everyone drawn is different. The wheel stops on the first winner and all of them are listed in the result.

What if a name is on the list twice?

Then it has two chances, because every line is one entry. Delete the duplicate line to give it a single chance.

Can the same person win in the next draw?

Yes, unless you remove winners from the draw. A new draw otherwise includes every entry again.

Can teams have exactly the same size?

Only when the number of entries divides evenly by the number of teams. Otherwise some teams have one extra person.

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