Random Winner Generator

How the random winner generator draws a winner

Each non-empty line is one entry. Press Pick a winner and one line is drawn, each with the same chance: with 40 entrants, 1 in 40. A name that appears on two lines has two chances, as with two tickets in a raffle.

For more than one prize, press Remove winner and draw again. The winner is taken off the list and added to the previous winners, and a new draw is made among the rest, so nobody can win twice.

Reset list restores the original entrants. Each pick is an unbiased draw from the browser's cryptographic random generator, as described in how our randomness works.

Example: three prizes among 20 entrants

A club raffles three prizes among 20 members. The first draw is 1 in 20. The winner is removed, so the second draw is 1 in 19 among the rest, and the third 1 in 18.

Drawing without putting winners back is a simple random sample: every member ends up with the same 3 in 20 (15%) chance of winning one of the prizes. The chart shows that for one run of 100,000 draws.

How to run a fair prize draw

• Close the entries and fix the list before you draw. Do not add or remove names between prizes other than with the button.
• Decide beforehand what happens if a winner cannot be reached, for example drawing again after 48 hours.
• If viewers should be able to follow the draw, share your screen, or use the wheel, which shows every entry.

To give every entrant a raffle number first, use the random number generator with names. To put the whole list in a random order, use the random order generator.

The draw runs in your browser and leaves no public record. For promotions that the law requires to be independently supervised, this tool is not enough.