How to Make a Spin Wheel
A useful spin wheel starts with a good list, not an elaborate animation. The options need to be clear, feasible and suitable for the people using them. This guide takes you from a rough shortlist to a reusable wheel, explains when weighting or winner removal makes sense, and shows how to share a copy without confusing it with a live collaborative document.
By SpinAndDecide · Updated November 4, 2026
1. Decide what one spin should mean
Write a short sentence describing the job: choose one meal, select one volunteer or draw the next numbered prompt. A wheel that mixes people, prizes and actions can create an ambiguous result. Decide whether the chosen label identifies a participant, a reward or a next step. For shared activities, make sure participants understand the task before choosing the entries. A random result cannot resolve a disagreement about what the game actually is.
Keep consequential decisions outside this process. Randomness can settle which equally acceptable board game to play; it cannot establish whether an investment, medical treatment or important personal choice is appropriate. Remove options that are unavailable, unsafe or unacceptable before giving them a chance to be selected.
2. Put one actual option on each line
Open the custom wheel maker and replace the examples. Short labels are easier to distinguish on mobile, especially when several options begin with the same words. Use the editor to add or delete lines. To move a particular option, cut and paste the complete line; Shuffle and Reverse provide quick ways to reorder the whole list. Blank lines are ignored.
Check for accidental duplicates. The selection algorithm sees entries, not people or meanings. If Alex appears twice, Alex has two tickets. If ‘Pizza’ and ‘Order pizza’ both appear, the same practical outcome may have more representation than you intended. Decide whether those duplicates are legitimate before spinning.
3. Choose equal chances or explicit weights
Equal mode gives one ticket to every entry. Position, label length and segment color do not add an advantage. If your group wants different relative chances, enable weighted mode and use the format ‘Option | 3’ on every line. Positive whole-number weights from one to one thousand are supported.
A weight of three against a weight of one means three chances out of four, not a promise to win three times in every four spins. Weighted selection describes the probability of each new draw. It does not distribute outcomes evenly over a short session. Show the weights to participants when fairness depends on their informed agreement.
4. Set a rule for what happens after the reveal
Leave removal off for independent draws. This suits dice, repeated yes/no questions or games where an outcome may recur. Enable remove winner when you want a sequence without selecting the same entry again. That mode is useful for drawing a speaking order or allocating distinct tasks.
Removal operates on one line. If one person has several tickets, their other tickets remain eligible. If a prize label has weight five, removing that line removes it entirely; the weight is not a stock counter. Match your list representation to the rule you intend, and keep any person-level or inventory records outside the wheel.
5. Name, save and test your configuration
Use a descriptive title that will make sense next week, such as ‘Friday game choices’ rather than ‘Wheel 2.’ Pick a high-contrast display theme, check the entries and try the interface before presenting it to a group. Sound is optional, and reduced-motion preferences shorten the animation. The written winner makes the outcome available without reading colors.
Save stores a configuration locally in the current browser. Up to twenty saved wheels are retained; saving the same title replaces the earlier copy with that title. Browser storage can be unavailable or cleared, so it should not be the only copy of information you cannot afford to lose. Saving a wheel does not preserve an identical sequence of future random outcomes.
6. Share a snapshot responsibly
Copy wheel link encodes the current title, entries and supported settings into the URL fragment. Opening it restores that snapshot. It is not a server-hosted collaborative wheel: changing your copy later does not update a link somebody already has. New spins on the shared copy produce new outcomes.
Anyone receiving the link can inspect its entries. Avoid private rosters and sensitive notes, and shorten very long labels if the tool reports that a link would be too large. To share a completed team allocation or winner, copy the result text instead of assuming a wheel link will reproduce the same draw. Before a public activity, open your link in another tab and check the displayed title and entries.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account to make a wheel?
No. Editing, spinning, local saves and share links work without an account. Local saves belong to the current browser profile and do not automatically synchronize across devices.
Can I edit the wheel after sharing it?
You can edit your own copy, but the old link remains a snapshot. Copy a new link after changing the entries if you want others to receive the updated configuration.
Should I test by repeatedly spinning until every entry appears?
That is not a reliable fairness test for independent draws. Instead, check the list, weights and removal setting. Short runs can contain repeats and missing entries even when every selection is unbiased.
Where should I begin with a ready-made setup?
Use the name picker for people, the decision wheel for alternatives, or the custom maker for your own format. Each provides editable entries, so you can start with the closest preset and adapt it.