Frequently Asked Questions

Enter names or items into the entries panel on the right, then click "SPIN" or click the wheel itself. The wheel spins with a smooth deceleration and stops on a randomly selected entry. Every entry has an equal probability of being chosen each time you spin.

Yes. The winner is chosen with the browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues) before the animation even begins — the spin itself is purely visual. The target segment is calculated first, and the wheel is animated to land precisely on it. No outcome can be predicted or influenced by how long you watch.

Switch to the "Bulk Edit" tab in the entries panel. You can paste or type a list of names — one per line — and the wheel updates instantly. This is the fastest way to load a large list of participants.

Yes! Open the Options panel (the gear icon on the wheel page) and enable "Auto-remove Winner". The winning entry will be removed from the wheel after each spin, so it can't be picked again — perfect for raffles and contests.

Yes, completely free with no sign-up required. Simply open the page, add your entries, and start spinning. We don't track personal information or require any account to use the core features.

Up to 50,000. Above about 240 entries the wheel starts showing a sample of them, because a wheel only has so much rim: at 50,000 slices each one would be a thirtieth of a pixel wide, which no screen can draw. The draw itself always runs across every entry you have added, and the wheel stops on whichever one wins — so a 50,000-name raffle really is 1-in-50,000. The wheel says "showing 240 of 50,000" whenever it is sampling, so you are never guessing. Note that share links and QR codes cannot carry a list that large; use Export to send a big wheel as a file.

Use the Import button in the entries panel. Your CSV must have one name per column or one per row; the first column or row is used if multiple exist. The names are added to the wheel immediately.

Yes — adding the same name twice doubles its probability, which is equivalent to setting its weight to 2. This is a simple way to give one entry more chances without opening the Weights panel.

You need at least 2 entries to spin. The wheel requires two or more segments to produce a meaningful random pick.

Click the Export button in the entries panel. It downloads a .txt file with one name per line. You can re-import this file on any device to restore your wheel.

Drag to reorder is not supported. Use Shuffle for a random order, or Sort A–Z to arrange entries alphabetically. The order affects only which segment sits where on the rim — the probabilities stay the same.

A weight multiplies an entry's probability. A weight of 3 means that name is 3× as likely to be picked as an entry with weight 1. The wheel calculates the total weight of all entries and assigns each one a proportional chance.

Yes — open the Weights panel and set a numeric weight per entry. Entries without a custom weight default to 1. This lets you run draws where some participants have higher or lower odds.

Yes — a weighted entry gets a proportionally larger segment on the wheel, reflecting its higher probability. You can toggle this in Options: "Weighted Segments" makes slices proportional, while the alternative draws equal slices but keeps the weighted odds.

Yes — any positive number is valid. A weight of 0.5 gives an entry half the probability of a weight-1 entry. This is useful when you want to reduce someone's chances rather than increase everyone else's.

You can use the Share button to copy a URL that encodes your wheel title and names directly into the link. Anyone who opens that URL will see your wheel pre-loaded and ready to spin. No account required.

Absolutely. The wheel is fully touch-friendly. You can tap the wheel or the Spin button on any device. The layout automatically adapts for smaller screens, stacking the wheel and entries panel vertically.

Yes, two ways. Pick a palette in Options — Classic, Pastel, Corporate, Sunset, Forest or Slate — and every segment recolours at once. Or set a single entry's colour directly: each row in the entry list has a colour dot that opens your browser's colour picker, so you can match brand colours for a prize wheel or event. Entries you do not set individually keep the palette colour for their position, which is what guarantees neighbouring segments never share a shade. Custom colours travel in share links and saved wheels.

Yes! Visit the Gallery page to browse ready-made wheels for common scenarios — days of the week, dice, movie genres, countries, and more. Click any template to load it instantly into the spinner.

Forever — the link encodes the entire wheel in the URL itself with no server-side storage, so it never expires as long as the URL exists. Bookmark it, paste it into a lesson plan, or save it in a spreadsheet.

Share links have a URL length limit — very large lists should be exported as a file and shared separately. The QR code has the same limitation. For wheels with more than a few hundred entries, use the Export button to send the list as a .txt file.

Use the Embed tab → copy the script tag → paste into any page that allows HTML. It works with Google Sites, Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and most WordPress installs. The embedded wheel is fully interactive — visitors can spin it directly on your page.

No — embedded wheels are read-only. Students see and spin the wheel but cannot edit the entry list. Only the person who created the embed URL controls which names appear.

data-palette sets the color scheme (classic, pastel, corporate, sunset, forest, or slate), data-rim sets the border style (classic, bold, or none), and data-height sets the frame height in pixels. All options are configured in the embed code before you copy it.

A chain of wheels where the result of one spin determines the entries on the next — for example, spin a subject wheel, and the following topic wheel only shows topics for that subject. This lets you build multi-stage random selections.

On the Linked Wheels page, add a wheel, then add a second wheel and set its entries to "conditional". Map each possible result from wheel 1 to a different entry list for wheel 2. When you spin wheel 1, wheel 2 loads only the entries you mapped to that result.

Yes — use the Share button on the Linked Wheels page to get a URL that encodes the full chain configuration. Anyone who opens the link will see the complete multi-wheel setup, ready to spin through.

Completed chains are saved in this browser only, via localStorage. Use CSV export to keep a permanent record. Clearing your browser data removes the history.

The wheel itself collects no personal data — it stores entries only in your browser's localStorage. However, the site uses Google AdSense and Google Analytics, both of which are consent-gated. For formal COPPA compliance at a school district level, review the privacy policy and consult your administrator.

Only after you accept — Google AdSense and Google Analytics are both opt-in. Decline consent and no cookies are set. The wheel itself uses only localStorage, which is not a cookie.

Your wheel entries are stored only in your own browser. Clear localStorage in your browser settings to delete them. We hold no server-side copy to delete — your data never leaves your device.

Only the email address you provide. It is used solely to send feature updates. See the privacy policy for the full retention and deletion policy.