HandyWheelWhat is a random choice wheel?
A random choice wheel (also called a picker wheel, spinner wheel or decision wheel) is the online version of a prize wheel at a fair. You write your options on the slices, spin, and the slice that stops under the pointer wins. Every slice is the same size, so every option has the same chance. It is one of the quickest ways to make a fair choice that everyone can watch happen, which is why teachers, streamers, event hosts and indecisive friends love it.
How to use the wheel
- Add your choices. Type an option and press Enter or Add. To add many at once, open Bulk edit and paste a list with one choice per line, for example straight from Excel or Google Sheets.
- Edit or remove. Click any choice in the list to change its text, or press × to delete it. Shuffle mixes up the order of the slices, Sort A–Z puts them in alphabetical order, and Clear all (next to the choice counter) empties the wheel in one go.
- Spin. Press Spin, click the wheel, or move to the wheel with the Tab key and press Space or Enter. The pointer at the top shows the winner, which is also shown large on the screen, depending on the option you have chosen.
- Keep going or eliminate. Tick Remove winner after spin and each winner leaves the wheel, so you can draw names one at a time until everyone has had a turn.
- Share. Press Copy share link and send the link. Anyone who opens it gets the same wheel with the same choices. A very big wheel copies its list of choices instead.
- Make it yours. Open the Colors & effects tab to pick a color theme or set your own colors, such as your company or channel brand colors. Text on the slices switches between dark and light automatically so it stays readable, and your colors travel with the share link.
- Celebrate the winner. When the wheel stops, the winner appears big in the middle of the screen with fireworks, with buttons to spin again or close. Prefer it quiet? Turn the effect off in Colors & effects.
- Go fullscreen. Press Fullscreen to show only the wheel, the Spin button and the result. It is made for projectors, big screens and live streams. Press Esc or Exit fullscreen to go back.
- Sound. The wheel ticks softly as each slice passes the pointer and plays a short chime for the winner. Turn it on or off in the Colors & effects tab; your choice is saved in this browser.
How it works behind the scenes
The wheel does not let physics or animation decide. When you press Spin, the winner is picked first using crypto.getRandomValues, the secure random number generator built into your browser, which is the same kind of randomness used for encryption. The wheel then animates so that it slows down and stops on that winner. Because the pick uses rejection sampling, no option is favoured even slightly, whether the wheel has 2 slices or 1,000.
Your choices are saved in your browser's local storage, so they are still there when you come back on the same device. Nothing is uploaded. The share link carries the choices after the # in the address, and browsers never send that part of a link to a web server.
Ready-made example wheels
Not sure where to start? Load one of these wheels with one click, then edit it to suit you. Loading an example replaces the choices currently on your wheel.
- What's for dinner?Can't agree on food
- Weekend plansBeat the Saturday boredom
- Truth or dareParty classic
- Who does the chores?Fair job sharing at home
- Movie genreMovie night, sorted
- Workout of the dayRandom exercise challenge
- Classroom rewardsMotivate the class
- Board game nightPick tonight's game
- Date night ideasSomething new together
- Where should we travel?Dream trip picker
- Yes, no or maybeThree-way decision
- Numbers 1 to 10Number wheel
See more ready-to-spin wheel ideas →
Some wheels have their own page with ready-made lists and tips: the random name picker for classes and raffles, the food wheel for “what should I eat?”, the truth or dare wheel with family-friendly questions and dares, and the prize wheel for spin-to-win games and giveaways. They keep their own saved list, so your wheel here stays as it is.
When a spinning wheel is a good idea
In the classroom
Pick which student answers the next question, choose the order of presentations, assign topics, or let the class spin for a reward. Turning on Remove winner after spin makes sure nobody is picked twice before everyone has had a turn, and the visible spin shows students the choice really was fair. The random name picker is set up for exactly this.
At home and with friends
End the “I don't know, what do you want?” loop: what to eat, which film to watch, which board game to play, who does the dishes, or where to go at the weekend. Put the options on the wheel and let it decide. Nobody can argue with the wheel. For food, the food wheel has ready-made lists for dinner, takeout and more.
Giveaways and events
Paste the names of everyone who entered a giveaway and spin on a big screen in fullscreen mode. Everyone can see the result happen, which builds trust. For several prizes, keep Remove winner after spin on and spin once per prize. The prize wheel page has spin-to-win wheels and tips for a fair giveaway. For a long list of entries, the giveaway picker keeps a numbered list of winners and reserves.
At work
Choose who leads the stand-up meeting, who takes notes, which bug to look at first, or which team member gets the next code review. A neutral wheel takes the awkwardness out of handing out jobs nobody wants. At the office Christmas party, spin the turn order for a White Elephant gift exchange.
For streamers and content creators
A wheel is one of the easiest ways to get chat involved, and viewers trust a result they can watch happen.
- Live giveaways. Paste the names of viewers who entered (from chat or your entry list), tick Remove winner after spin and spin once per prize, so nobody wins twice.
- Challenges and punishments. A challenge wheel, a “what do I play next?” wheel, a random character, weapon or loadout, or house rules chosen by the wheel. See the wheel ideas for ready-made lists.
- Your channel colors. Set your brand colors for the slices in Colors & effects, then save the wheel as a share link: opening it brings back the same branded wheel every stream. In the same tab, Background and buttons sets the background and button colors, including a green or blue screen you can key out in OBS with a Chroma Key filter. Those colors are remembered and used on every tool.
- Getting it on screen. Open the wheel in your browser, press Fullscreen and add a Window Capture of that browser window in OBS or Streamlabs. Or add your share link as a Browser Source, crop it to the wheel (hold Alt while dragging the edges) and click Spin through the source’s Interact option (right-click the source → Interact).
- Fair and transparent. The winner is chosen by the browser’s cryptographic random number generator before the animation starts, so nobody, including you, can influence the result.
When the wheel stops, the winner appears big in the middle of the screen with fireworks, which reads well on stream. In fullscreen a small handywheel.com label shows in the corner.
Tips for a better wheel
- Want one option to be more likely? Add it twice. With “Pizza” on the wheel twice and four other foods once each, pizza has a 2-in-6 chance.
- Keep labels short. Long text is shortened on the slices so the wheel stays readable. The full text still shows in the list and in the result. With more than 60 choices the wheel hides the labels and shows the name at the pointer in large text.
- Save different wheels as links. Make a “dinner” wheel and a “chores” wheel, copy each share link and bookmark it. Opening the link brings that wheel back.
- Two or three options? For two, it is quicker to flip a coin or ask the yes or no generator. To split a big group into teams, use the team generator.