Spin the Wheel – Random Name Picker

How to use the wheel spinner

1. Type your names or options in the box, one per line.
2. Click the wheel or the Spin button.
3. The entry under the pointer at the top wins.
4. Optionally remove the winner automatically to draw several unique winners.

Ideas for using a random wheel

• Classrooms: pick a student to answer, choose groups or decide presentation order.
• Giveaways: draw a winner live on stream or in a meeting.
• Teams: decide who runs stand-up, who reviews the next pull request, or where to order lunch.
• Decisions: can’t choose a movie, restaurant or chore? Let the wheel decide.

Related: Pomodoro Timer, UUID Generator.

Fair random picking

Each spin uses your browser’s cryptographically secure random number generator to choose how far the wheel turns, so every entry has an equal chance no matter where it is on the list. The animation is only for show; the result is decided before the wheel starts slowing down. To give one option a higher chance, add it more than once.

Running a giveaway

• Paste the list of entrants, one per line. You can copy a column from a spreadsheet.
• Remove duplicates first if each person should have only one entry.
• Share your screen or record the spin so participants can see the draw is fair.
• Turn on “Remove the winner after each spin” to draw runners-up without repeats.

Classroom and team ideas

Teachers use spinning wheels to call on students, choose reading partners, pick review questions and assign classroom jobs. Teams use them to decide who presents first, who writes the meeting notes, or which bug to tackle next. Because your entries are saved in your browser, a class list or team roster is ready next time you open the page.

Shuffle and sort

Use Shuffle to randomize the order of your list, for example to create a random presentation order without spinning repeatedly. Sort A–Z makes long lists easier to check before a draw.

Using the wheel on a projector or stream

The wheel scales to the width of the screen, so it works well on a classroom projector, a shared screen in a video call, or as a browser source in streaming software. Click the wheel or press the Spin button; on touch screens, tap the wheel. The winner appears below the wheel in large text so everyone can read it. Switch to dark mode for a high-contrast look on stream.

Tips for long lists

Names longer than about 18 characters are shortened on the wheel so the segments stay readable, but the full name is shown as the winner. With more than 40 entries the segments get very thin; consider splitting the list into groups, spinning once to pick a group and then spinning again inside it.