Wheel Spinner / Decision Wheel
Spin a colorful wheel to randomly pick from a list — perfect for decisions and giveaways.
Written by Anil Gautam · Updated
How does the wheel spinner pick a winner?
Each non-empty line in the Options box becomes one slice, and every slice has the same size and the same chance. When you click Spin, the tool picks the winner first with the browser's Math.random function, then turns the wheel 6 to 9 full times over about four seconds and names the result in the Winner card below it. The number of turns is random as well, but it has no bearing on the outcome, because the winner is chosen before the wheel moves. Spin stays disabled until the list has at least two entries, and the whole draw runs in your browser.
The default list has eight foods, so each slice spans 45 degrees and each food has a 1 in 8 (12.5%) chance. Add Pizza on two more lines and the list grows to ten entries: Pizza now holds 3 of them for a 30% chance, and every other food falls to 10%. Repeating a line is how you weight an option, since each line gets its own slice. The order of the lines makes no difference to the odds.
What should I check before a giveaway spin?
Slice labels show only the first 15 characters of each line, so "Dosa with extra chutney" appears as "Dosa with extra" while the Winner card prints the full text. Put the part that tells entries apart first, such as a ticket number before the name. Colors repeat after ten entries, so on a long list two nearby slices can share a color.
The wheel never removes a winner. For a draw with several prizes, delete the winning line before the next spin. If someone appears twice by mistake, remove the extra line, since each line is a separate chance. The list is not saved either, so a reload brings back the default foods; keep your entries in a text file if you will reuse them.
When does another random tool fit better?
Long lists get crowded. With 50 entries each slice is only 7.2 degrees wide and the labels overlap, although every entry keeps the same chance. Random Name Picker handles big lists more comfortably and can draw several names at once without repeats. For a plain yes-or-no decision, Coin Toss Generator is quicker, and Random Number Generator suits a raffle where tickets are numbered from one value to another.