By the SpinWheely editorial team

Spin the wheel with your own names and choices

SpinWheely is a free online wheel spinner for choosing one item from a list you control. Replace the sample entries with names, meals, meeting topics or game challenges, then spin the wheel. You can edit the appearance, change entry weights and remove a winner before the next draw. No account is needed for a basic spin.

A decision wheel is useful when you already have several acceptable answers but do not want to keep debating them. It does not recommend the best restaurant or judge which person deserves a prize. You decide what belongs in the list; the random picker wheel supplies an outcome. That distinction matters more than the animation, especially when other people are taking part.

How to make a custom spin the wheel

1. Replace the sample entries. Paste a list with one choice per line. For a dinner draw, try Pasta, Stir-fry, Tacos and Soup. Remove blank rows and choices you cannot actually use tonight.
2. Check the list before spinning. Look for accidental repeats, ambiguous labels and unequal weights. “Alex — Sales” and “Alex — Support” are clearer than two identical names when those entries represent different people.
3. Customize the wheel. Set a meaningful title, use readable colors and keep labels short. Changes to the look and sound are different from changing weights: weights affect the selection model, decoration does not.
4. Agree on the result rule, then spin. Will the first answer count? Are winners removed? Decide now, not after an inconvenient outcome. Read the result and check the remaining entries before another spin.

For a roster, put one eligible person on each line and keep the original list somewhere safe. The wheel of names is the more focused choice for repeated classroom or giveaway name draws. Here, the custom wheel is just as comfortable with places, topics and objects.

Custom wheel weights: equal entries are not the same as equal labels

Start with the selection model: each distinct entry has a weight, and an option's intended share is its weight divided by the total weight. With four entries at weight 1, each has a one-in-four share. Give Pasta weight 2 and the other three weight 1, and Pasta's share becomes 2/5, not 2/4. The total changes when a weight changes.

Duplicate labels need the same care. If Pizza appears twice and Sushi once, there are three entries but only two different answers. Under an equal-entry model, Pizza has two opportunities to be selected. For people, decide whether your rules allow one entry per person or one per ticket; those are different draws, not interchangeable ways to clean a spreadsheet.

These are mathematical examples of a uniform or weighted draw. They are not a certification that this implementation achieves exact probabilities; the randomness limitations are explained below. Keep participant weights equal unless different chances are an explicit, agreed part of your rules.

Spin without repeats when everyone needs a turn

Leaving a winner in the list allows it to win again. Removing it changes the next draw's pool. Neither approach is automatically better: keep all entries for repeated dinner ideas, but remove winners when choosing a presentation order or assigning one prize per person. Use the result's removal control or the automatic winner-removal setting, then inspect the list before continuing.

For an eight-person stand-up, start with eight distinct names and remove each speaker after their turn. Stop when everyone has spoken, and restore the full roster for the next meeting. A no-repeat draw is not a permanent ban: forgetting to restore yesterday's list quietly excludes yesterday's speakers.

If the task is to form several groups rather than pick speakers one by one, the random team generator fits that job better. A wheel produces a sequence of individual results; group creation needs a full set of assignments.

Use a decision wheel for choices you can accept

For dinner, filter first and randomize second. Remove meals that conflict with allergies, the budget or the ingredients available. If you need inspiration before narrowing the list, the food picker can supply ideas; put only the workable options on your final wheel. Repeatedly rejecting answers is usually a sign the list needs editing.

For a classroom activity, spin between revision topics, writing prompts or discussion questions. Check that every prompt fits the pupils and the time left in the lesson. Give students time to think before selecting someone to answer; randomness is not a substitute for an accessible classroom routine.

For a giveaway, establish eligibility, the closing time, duplicate-entry rules and the policy for an unavailable winner before drawing. Show the final list and the outcome if appropriate, while keeping personal contact details off-screen. A recording documents what viewers saw; it is not an independent audit or proof of legal compliance. Check applicable promotion rules for regulated or paid-entry draws.

If there are only two acceptable options, a coin flip avoids building a list. If the options are ticket numbers in a range, use the random number generator instead of typing every number into a wheel. Choose the format that matches the decision, not the one with the longest animation.

How this random wheel works — and what it does not prove

The current homepage wheel calculates a randomized final rotation in your browser using JavaScript's Math.random, then resolves the entry under the pointer. It is not using crypto.getRandomValues for the main wheel's selection. The latter is a different API that MDN describes as a source of cryptographically strong random values. It would be inaccurate to call this wheel cryptographically audited or suitable for security-sensitive selection just because it displays a random-looking spin.

Equal weights are intended for equal-entry selection; custom weights change that model. A short run will not necessarily balance out. Under an ideal equal-weight four-choice model, picking the same specific option on two successive draws has probability 1/4 × 1/4 = 1/16. A repeat is possible, not evidence by itself of a faulty draw. Conversely, a few balanced results do not prove an implementation is unbiased.

Browser calculation is also not a promise that nothing leaves the device. Signed-in spin history can store your results and entry lists; account saving and sharing have their own data flows. Avoid sensitive details on a public screen or in a shared wheel, and check the privacy policy before using those features. This wheel is for everyday selections, not passwords, confidential allocation or certified prize draws.

Before using the wheel on a shared screen

Test a harmless list on the actual phone, projector or streaming window first. Make sure the longest label and the result are readable. Use initials or neutral identifiers when full names would reveal too much, and retain a private mapping outside the draw. Colors help distinguish slices, but the written label is what identifies the winner.

If the wheel will not start, check that the list contains usable choices and that another spin is not already running. Do not refresh before copying a list you need to keep. The user guide covers the additional controls; the basic routine remains the same: prepare a valid list, agree the rules, spin, then apply the result consistently.