How the draw is made
Each line of the text box is trimmed and blank lines are discarded, and what remains is the entry list (the counter below the box shows how many). When you press Pick, the tool builds a list of positions, shuffles it with a Fisher-Yates shuffle driven by crypto.getRandomValues, and takes the first k positions as winners. Fisher-Yates gives every ordering the same probability, so every entry has, for practical purposes, a chance of k out of N, and the winners are listed in the order they were drawn. The number to pick is capped at the number of entries.
Worked example
With the default list (Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dana, Elliot) and one winner, each name has a 1 in 5, or 20%, chance. Ask for two winners and each person has a 2 in 5 (40%) chance of being among them, and any particular pair has a 1 in 10 chance. Tick Remove winners after picking and the winners vanish from the box, so a second click draws from what is left. That is the way to award first, second and third prize in separate clicks without anyone winning twice.
Running a giveaway people can trust
- Decide the entry rule before drawing. If someone earns three entries, paste their name three times. The tool counts lines, not people, so a duplicated name has three times the chance, and with several winners the same person can appear more than once unless you de-duplicate first.
- Freeze the list. Publish or screenshot the final entries and the pick count before pressing the button, so nobody can say the list was changed afterwards.
- Pick backups. Draw one or two extra names in the same click, so if the first winner does not respond you can move down the list without a re-draw.
- Record the result. A screen recording or screenshot of the result is the only audit trail, because the page keeps no history and the next pick replaces the displayed winners.
Limits and edge cases
- Entries are matched by position, not by text. Two lines that read identically are two separate entries.
- Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed, but differences in capitalisation or spelling are not merged, so "dana" and "Dana" are two entries.
- Removing winners only edits the text box. Reloading the page restores the default list.
- Platform rules still apply: many social networks require that you run a giveaway under their terms, and some countries regulate prize draws, so check local rules before offering prizes.
If you only need a number rather than a name, use the random number generator. For a quick two-way call, the coin flip is simpler.