What is a wheel spinner?
A wheel spinner is a colorful wheel split into slices โ one slice per item โ that you spin to pick a random winner. Instead of writing names on scraps of paper or drawing lots by hand, you just type the choices, one after another, and press Spin. The wheel accelerates, gradually slows, and stops on a single slice. That slow, suspenseful stop is the whole appeal: it's fun to watch a group hold its breath and see the result together, whether you're on a video call, in a classroom, at a party, or on a livestream. And once you've typed your items, the same list also powers the Marble Race, Capsule, and Order & Teams tabs โ just switch tabs, no re-typing.
Entering items and shuffling
You can separate items with commas, with line breaks, or a mix of both. Pizza, Sushi, Tacos on one line counts as three items, exactly the same as putting one per line. Leading and trailing spaces and empty lines are cleaned up automatically, so you can paste a messy list and it still works.
- Shuffle โ rearranges the item list itself, in place, at random. The order inside the input box changes right away, and the wheel and marble race redraw in the new order.
- Sort โ puts items into alphabetical / numeric order. Handy when you just want to tidy the list up.
When to use it
- What to eat wheel โ hand the eternal what should we get for lunch? question over to the wheel. The What to eat preset above fills in an example instantly.
- Dare wheel / truth or dare โ decide a party dare, the next karaoke song, or a game forfeit. Start from the Dares preset.
- Chores & turns โ settle who does the dishes, who presents first, or whose turn it is โ fairly and without argument.
- Name picker / random raffle โ draw a giveaway winner, a prize recipient, or one student from the class. Type the names, comma or line separated, and spin.
- Random order & team split โ with the same list, hit Set order to fix a presentation order, or split everyone into evenly sized teams.
How each tab works
Type your items once, and the same list drives all four tabs below.
- Wheel: press Spin and the wheel turns, then stops on the winning slice. The slice you see under the pointer and the winner shown below always match.
- Marble Race: each item becomes a differently colored marble that rolls slowly down a long course and races. As they pass triangular pins, bumpers, a branching fork, a speed-boost lane, and a spinning vane, the camera follows the leader and the standings keep flipping. You can pick first to finish = winner or last to finish = winner.
- Capsule: the gacha machine shakes, a capsule rolls out, and it pops open to reveal the winning item.
- Order & Teams: use Set order to number everyone from 1 in a random order, or set a team count to split people so team sizes differ by at most one.
Every tab's result is also shown as text in the result area below, so you can copy it or check it again. Press the button again for a fresh draw each time.
The marble race's long course and camera
The Marble Race is a physics race down a track that's much longer than the screen. The fall is deliberately slow, so a single run lasts roughly 10โ20 seconds, and the whole time the camera follows the leading marble vertically โ zooming out when the pack spreads apart and zooming back in when it bunches up, so you can watch the lead change up close. The vertical bar on the right shows how far the leader has to go, and the badge at the top tells you who's in front right now.
The course is split into several sections. It opens with a field of triangular pins, then a zigzag of bumpers (pink lines) that fling marbles hard left and right. A central wedge creates a branching fork, where one side is a speed-boost lane (green) and the other is a slow-down mud patch (brown), before a funnel below merges them again. Then a spinning vane (purple) rattles the marbles hard, and one last funnel rejoins everyone just before the finish, flipping the order one final time. Because the standings reset at every section, you truly can't tell who wins until the end.
Is the marble race fair?
The physics itself is real, so there is no pre-decided winner. Because of the fork and the boost lane, some starting positions really are luckier than others. To cancel that out, the race reshuffles which name is attached to which marble every single run, using an unbiased FisherโYates shuffle. So even though some positions are physically favored, by name every item converges to an equal 1/N chance of winning. Instead of faking the result off-screen, it randomizes the assignment โ so the race you watch and the winner you get always agree. To keep marbles from overlapping, the marble race supports up to 16 items; beyond that, a note appears asking you to trim the list.
Wheel & capsule โ built for the show
The Wheel uses your browser's random number generator to decide where it stops first, then spins several full turns to land exactly on that spot. That's why the slice you see under the pointer and the actual winner always match. The Capsule draw has the machine rattle and shake, a capsule tumble out, and โ a beat later โ the capsule pop wide open to reveal the winner. Like the coin-op capsule machines outside a corner store, the charm is not knowing the result until the very moment it cracks open.
Both the wheel and the capsule decide the winner before the animation starts, using your browser's secure random numbers (crypto.getRandomValues). The animation is just for show, so no item is biased to come up more often. (The marble race is the opposite โ it trusts real physics, but randomizes the marble-to-name assignment every run, as explained above, to stay fair.) The winning item is also written out as text in the result area once the animation finishes, so it's easy to copy or double-check.
Is it really fair and random?
Yes. The wheel and capsule decide the result first with secure random numbers, then fit the animation to that result. The marble race is a genuine physics race, but it randomizes the marble-to-name assignment every run so that, by name, every item has an equal chance. Set order and Make teams both use the FisherโYates shuffle, a method proven to make every possible ordering equally likely. Feel free to re-spin as many times as you want until you like the result โ the odds are the same every time.
Your items and privacy
Everything runs entirely in your browser. The items you type are never sent to a server or stored anywhere. The one exception: the link created by Copy item link carries the item list in the URL (as a query string), so anyone you send that link to will see the same wheel pre-filled. If sharing real names or sensitive text by link makes you uneasy, use nicknames instead. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Frequently asked questions
How do I use the wheel spinner?
Type the items you want to choose from, separated by commas or line breaks, then press Spin. The wheel spins and slows to a stop, landing on one winning item. Use it to pick a restaurant, decide a dare, break a tie, or choose who does the chores โ anything you want to leave to chance.
How do I enter items?
Separate items with commas, with line breaks, or a mix of both. Pizza, Sushi, Tacos on one line is read as three items, exactly the same as putting one per line. Leading and trailing spaces and empty lines are cleaned up automatically.
What does the Shuffle button do?
Shuffle rearranges the item list itself, in place โ so 1,2,3,4 might become 2,4,1,3 right in the input box, and the wheel and marble race redraw in the new order. If you only want a random running order without changing the list, use Set order on the Order & Teams tab instead.
Is the marble race fair?
Several marbles roll down a long course and genuinely race, and the first (or last) to cross the finish line wins. Because branches and boost lanes make some starting positions physically luckier, the race reshuffles which name is attached to which marble every single run with an unbiased FisherโYates shuffle โ so by name, every item converges to an equal 1/N chance of winning. Even over tens of thousands of runs, no item comes up more often than another.
Does the team generator split people fairly?
It shuffles the names with an unbiased FisherโYates shuffle, then deals them into teams one by one, so team sizes differ by at most one person. Every draw reshuffles, so you can hit the button as many times as you like.
What is the capsule draw?
It's a gachapon mode: the machine shakes, a capsule tumbles out, and it pops open to reveal the winning item. The winner is decided fairly by a secure random number, independent of the animation, and the result is also shown as text in the result area below.