What is the weighted wheel?
The weighted wheel is a free online spinner loaded with 5 starter entries, such as Grand prize, Small prize, Small prize, Try again. You can change every slice, add your own items, set odds and keep a record of each result. People also search for it as “weighted wheel spinner”, “weighted random picker”, “weighted wheel of names”.
Because every slice is on screen and the spin plays out in front of everyone, the result feels fair. That matters when people care about the outcome.
How to use the weighted wheel
Make the list yours
Type over the examples, add new lines, or remove what you don't need. Your changes save automatically.
Choose your settings
Set the spin duration and palette, and decide whether winners are removed, counted or drawn several at a time.
Spin the wheel
Hit the big blue button. The wheel ticks, slows and stops, and the result pops up with a receipt code.
Ways to use the weighted wheel
Prize wheels
Make the grand prize rare and smaller prizes common.
Raffles with multiple tickets
Give each person a weight equal to their ticket count.
Habit and reward games
Weight healthy options higher on a reward wheel.
Practice drills
Weight harder topics higher so they come up more often.
Tips for the weighted wheel
- Use + and − on each entry to set its weight from 1 to 100.
- Check the Randomness Audit page to simulate thousands of weighted spins.
- Tell participants the weights in advance for transparency.
Worked examples of weights
Prize wheel: grand prize weight 1, small prize weight 6, bonus spin weight 3, try again weight 10. The total is 20, so the grand prize comes up 5% of the time, small prizes 30%, bonus spins 15% and try again 50%. Class reward wheel: homework pass weight 1, choose the music weight 4, sticker weight 5. Out of ten spins you'd expect roughly one pass, four music choices and five stickers. Raffle: Ana bought five tickets, Ben two and Chloe one. Weights of 5, 2 and 1 give them 62.5%, 25% and 12.5%.
Weights that total 100
A handy trick is to pick weights that add up to 100. Then each weight is the percentage chance, and anyone can read the odds at a glance without arithmetic. For example: 10% off at 60, 20% off at 30, free gift at 9 and the jackpot at 1. If your weights don't add up to 100, the wheel still works; it just divides each weight by whatever the total is.
Weights versus duplicate entries
Typing an entry twice has the same effect as giving it weight 2, but it makes the wheel cluttered and is easy to do by accident. Weights keep one slice per entry, show the exact percentage and can be changed in a single place. If you've pasted a list with repeats, run Dedupe first and then set weights deliberately.
Where weighted wheels shine
Promotions and in-store prize wheels, where rare prizes must stay rare. Classroom reward systems that keep big treats special. Raffles where people hold different numbers of tickets. Game design and tabletop sessions, such as loot tables, random encounters or critical-hit tables. Fitness wheels that favour easier exercises with the occasional hard one. Decision wheels where you want to nudge towards healthier or cheaper choices without banning treats.
Being open about odds
A weighted wheel is fair when people know the weights. Show the percentage column on screen before spinning, or include the odds in your promotion's terms. Some places have rules requiring prize odds to be displayed; showing them anyway costs nothing and builds trust. Hidden weights, even if honest, make results look rigged.
Testing your setup
Small samples are noisy. A 10% slice might hit twice in a row or not at all in twenty spins. To check that the weights behave as expected, run your list through the randomness audit, which simulates thousands of spins and compares results with the expected percentages.
Common mistakes
Forgetting to reset weights after a one-off event. Leaving duplicate lines on a weighted wheel, so some entries count twice. Giving a joke slice a large weight. Believing a big slice is "due" after a run of misses, when each spin is independent. A glance at the percentage column catches most of these before they matter.
Weighted wheel features
Made for modes
Templates, images and colours make it fit your activity.
Odds you control
Change any entry's weight and its slice resizes to match its chance.
No-repeat and multi-winner
Remove winners automatically, or draw a whole set in one round.
Images, colours, sound
Pictures on slices, custom colours, tick and fanfare sounds.
Share, fullscreen, OBS
Send a link, project it, or put it on stream as an overlay.
History and receipts
Every spin is logged with a time and code. Export it to CSV.
Odds on the weighted wheel
With equal weights each of the 5 entries has a 20.0% chance on every spin. Change a weight and that entry's chance becomes its weight divided by the total. Elimination removes winners and recalculates the odds for the rest. Test any setup on the randomness audit.
Weighted wheel FAQs
How is probability calculated on a weighted wheel?
An entry's chance equals its weight divided by the total weight of all visible entries.
Do weighted slices look bigger?
Yes. Slice angles are drawn in proportion to weight, so the odds are visible.
Is a weighted wheel rigged?
Not if everyone knows the weights. It is a transparent way to give approved, different chances.
Is the weighted wheel free?
Yes. The weighted wheel on WheelSpinner is free, with no sign-up or entry limit.
Is the weighted wheel truly random?
Each spin uses your browser's cryptographic random number generator, so with equal weights every visible entry has the same chance.
Can I save and share my weighted wheel?
Entries save automatically in this browser, and Share copies a link with your list included.