Random Number Wheel

The random number wheel picks one number from the range you set, with every number given an equal chance. Type a Min and a Max, or press a preset such as 1–6 or 1–100, then click the wheel. The number it lands on is the answer, and it stays in the Results tab so you can look back at the whole session.

How to pick a number with this wheel

1. Choose a range. Press a preset pill (1–2, 1–6, 1–10, 1–20, 1–100 or 1–1000) or type your own Min and Max. The wheel redraws straight away with one slice per number.
2. Set a Step if you need one. Step 1 is the default and gives every whole number. Step 2 gives every second number, Step 5 every fifth, counting up from Min.
3. Spin. Click anywhere on the wheel, press the Spin hub in the middle, or use Ctrl + Enter. Spin time can be Short, Normal or Long.
4. Read the number in the result window, then Spin again or Close. The Results tab keeps every number from this session in order, with a Copy button.
5. Turn on Don't repeat numbers already drawn when each number should come up once. Drawn numbers appear under the options and leave the wheel until you press Clear.

If you type a Min that is larger than the Max, the wheel quietly swaps them, so 10 to 1 and 1 to 10 give the same ten slices. Decimal values are rounded to whole numbers. Everything else on the page, including sound, confetti and full screen, works exactly as it does on the wheel spinner home page.

Which range should you use?

The right range depends on what the number stands for. A coin has two sides, a die has six, a bingo cage holds 75 balls, and a stack of raffle tickets might run to several hundred. The table below lists the common cases and the one setting that matters for each.

In a classroom the range usually matches the exercise. Times tables want 1–12, so type Min 1 and Max 12 rather than using the 1–10 preset. Choosing who goes first in a game of twenty students works best when each student has a number and the range is 1–20. A "pick a number" guessing game is the reverse: spin before the class arrives, note the number from the Results tab, and let students guess it.

Two of these deserve a word more. For a pair of dice, spin the 1–6 wheel twice and add the results; a single 2–12 wheel gives every total the same chance, which real dice do not, because there are six ways to roll a seven and only one way to roll a two. For raffle tickets, number the tickets first and set Max to the last number sold, so the wheel cannot pick a ticket nobody holds.

1 or 2: the quickest coin flip

The 1–2 preset turns the wheel into two equal halves, which makes it a coin flip you can watch. It is useful when the two options are already understood by everyone in the room: who kicks off, who goes first in a board game, which of two films to watch. Say out loud what 1 and 2 mean before the spin so nobody can argue afterwards.

If you would rather see words than numbers, the yes or no wheel gives the same even odds with Yes and No on the slices and a Best of 3 option. The number wheel is the better choice when the two things being chosen between have no natural yes or no, or when you want to extend the same idea to three or four options by changing Max.

Don't repeat numbers: bingo, raffles and turns

Most number games need each number only once. Bingo is the clearest case: once 42 has been called, calling it again breaks the game. Turn on Don't repeat numbers already drawn and every number that comes up is taken off the wheel, so the next spin can only land on a number that has not been called yet.

The drawn numbers are listed in the panel in the order they came up, which doubles as a call sheet. The Results tab holds the same list, newest first, and its Copy button gives you one number per line to paste into a document. Press Clear next to the Drawn list to put every number back on the wheel and start a new game.

The same setting handles taking turns. Give each person a number, set the range to match, switch on no-repeat, and spin until the wheel runs out. When fewer than two numbers are left the wheel stops and asks for at least two entries; the last number standing is the last turn, so you do not need to spin for it.

What happens with a big range

Up to 64 numbers, each slice is labelled and you can read the whole wheel. From 65 to 200 numbers the slices are too thin for text, so the wheel is drawn as coloured stripes and the number appears only in the result window. Above 200 numbers the page switches to a rolling picker: the numbers flick past at speed, slow down, and stop on the winner. The odds do not change in any of these modes. A number wheel with 1,000 numbers gives each one exactly a 1 in 1,000 chance, whether you can see the slices or not.

Step is the way to keep a big range readable. Set Min 10, Max 100 and Step 10 and the wheel has ten clean slices for 10, 20, 30 and so on. For a price-is-right style game, Min 100, Max 1000 and Step 50 gives nineteen round amounts. The hard limits are generous: Min and Max can be anything from -10,000 to 10,000, and the wheel holds up to 10,000 numbers at once.

Negative numbers work too. A -5 to 5 wheel is handy for teaching number lines or for a game where you can lose points as well as gain them.

Is the number wheel random?

Yes. The winning number is chosen the moment you click, using the same cryptographic random number source the browser uses for security, and the animation only carries the wheel to that slice. The position the wheel was in before, how long it spins and when you click do not affect the result. Every number on the wheel has the same chance, and the number of slices does not matter: 1 in 10 on the default wheel, 1 in 1,000 on the roller.

The only thing that changes the odds is the no-repeat switch, which removes numbers you have already drawn, and that change is visible in the Drawn list. The full explanation, with a simulator you can run yourself, is on is the wheel spinner random.

The number wheel is one of several fixed-list wheels on this site. For word games, the random letter generator spins A to Z with the same no-repeat option. For a straight two-way call, the yes or no wheel spins without any setup. And for any list of your own, the wheel spinner on the home page takes names, options or anything else you type, one per line.