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GivenTool

Spinner wheel: pick a random name or option

Spin a wheel of names or options: up to 200 entries, remove winners after each spin, keep a history and share the wheel by link.

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Put one entry per line in the box and the wheel redraws itself with a slice for each: names for a classroom, prizes for a giveaway, restaurants for Friday night. Press "Spin the wheel" and the winner is announced under the wheel and added to the history list.

The winner is chosen before the wheel moves, with the same cryptographic random source used for passwords, and the animation is then aimed at that slice. The spin is only a display; it cannot be nudged or timed. If your system asks for reduced motion, the wheel jumps straight to the result.

Turn on "Remove the winner" for draws without repeats, such as picking the order of presentations. "Copy share link" puts the entries into the page address so someone else opens the same wheel; the link is capped at about 1,800 characters, and the page tells you if some entries did not fit.

How to use it

  1. Type or paste your entries, one per line (up to 200). Blank lines are ignored.
  2. Optionally shuffle or sort them, and tick "Remove the winner" if each entry should win only once.
  3. Press "Spin the wheel". The winner appears below the wheel and is read out by screen readers.
  4. Spin again as often as you like; earlier winners stay in the history list until you clear it.
  5. Use "Copy share link" to send the same wheel to someone else.

Frequently asked questions

Is it really random and fair?

Yes. Draws come from your browser's crypto.getRandomValues, the cryptographically secure generator defined by the W3C Web Cryptography API, rather than Math.random. The widget turns 32-bit random numbers into a choice with rejection sampling: values from the small top slice of the range that would favour some options are thrown away and redrawn, so every option has exactly the same probability.

Does the position where the wheel stops depend on how I click?

No. The winning slice is drawn first, then the wheel is rotated five or more full turns to land on it. Click timing, speed and the previous position have no effect on who wins.

Can the same name win twice?

Yes, unless you tick "Remove the winner from the wheel after each spin". With that option each winner is deleted from the entry list, so the next spin only picks from the people who have not won yet.

What if I enter the same name twice?

Each line is its own slice, so a name entered twice has twice the chance. That is useful for weighted draws; remove duplicates if you want everyone to have equal odds.

Are my entries uploaded when I share the wheel?

No. The entries are written into the link itself (after "?e=") and the page decodes them in the browser. There is no server-side copy; anyone with the link can read the entries, so do not put private data in a shared wheel.

Why are labels missing on a very full wheel?

Above 72 entries the slices are too thin for readable text, so labels are hidden. The wheel still works with up to 200 entries and the winner is shown in full below it.

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