Random Picker: Choose a Winner From a List

Paste your names or options, one per line, set how many winners you want and press Pick. Every line gets an equal chance.

Runs in your browserFree, no sign-upLast reviewed October 8, 2026

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Quick answers

How do I pick a random name from a list?: Paste the names into the Options box with one name per line, leave How many winners at 1 and press Pick. With five names each has a 1 in 5 chance. Press Pick again for a new draw.
How do I pick more than one winner?: Set How many winners to the number you need before pressing Pick. Winners are listed in the order drawn, so the first line is the first pick. With the repeat option off, you cannot ask for more winners than there are entries.
Does every entry have the same chance?: Yes. Each line is one ticket, and position in the list makes no difference. An entry's chance of being among the winners is the number of winners divided by the number of lines: 3 winners from 10 entries gives each entry a 30% chance.
Can the same name win twice?: Not unless you tick Allow the same entry to win more than once. Unticked, a drawn entry is removed from the draw, like pulling names from a hat. The exception is a name you typed on several lines: each line is a separate ticket.
What happens if a name is in the list twice?: It gets two tickets and twice the chance. The list is not de-duplicated. A name on 3 of 5 lines wins a single draw 60% of the time. Remove duplicates first if every person should have exactly one entry.

Why use Random Choice Picker

This random picker chooses one or more entries from any list you paste: names for a raffle, options for dinner, tasks, teams, numbers or anything else that fits on a line. Each line is one entry and each entry has the same chance of being drawn. Ask for a single winner, or for several at once, in which case they are listed in the order they were drawn so you can treat them as first, second and third place. By default nobody can win twice; tick the repeat option if you want every pick to be made from the full list. The list never leaves your browser.

Example draws from a list

Real results from the tool, taken from separate presses of Pick. A new draw is made on every press, so yours will differ.

One winner from five names

Options: Alice, Ben, Chidi, Dana, Eli (one per line). How many winners 1.

Winner: Dana. Draw panel: Total options 5, Winner drawn 1, Repeats allowed No.

First, second and third place

The same five names. How many winners 3.

Dana, Ben, Chidi

The order shown is the order drawn, so Dana is first place.

Put the whole list in random order

The same five names. How many winners 5.

Alice, Chidi, Eli, Dana, Ben

Setting the winner count to the size of the list turns the tool into a list shuffler, handy for speaking order or turn order.

Decide what to eat

Options: Pizza, Tacos, Sushi, Burgers. How many winners 1.

Sushi

Extra tickets for one entrant

Options: Sam, Sam, Sam, Jo, Lee. How many winners 3.

Sam, Sam, Jo

Sam holds three lines, so Sam can be drawn up to three times even with repeats off.

Six picks from five names with repeats allowed

Alice, Ben, Chidi, Dana, Eli. How many winners 6. Allow the same entry to win more than once ticked.

Dana, Dana, Ben, Dana, Alice, Chidi

Chance of winning by list size and number of winners

With repeats off and one line per entry, the chance that a given entry is among the winners is winners divided by entries.

Entries in the list	Winners drawn	Chance for each entry
2	1	50%
5	1	20%
10	1	10%
10	3	30%
25	1	4%
30	5	16.7%
100	1	1%
100	3	3%
500	1	0.2%

An entrant with several lines has several tickets. For a single winner, the chance is that entrant's lines divided by all lines.

How the list is read

The box is split at line breaks and nothing else. A comma does not separate entries, so "Blue, Navy" on one line is a single option. That is deliberate: it lets an entry contain a full name with a comma, a sentence or a team of several people.

Spaces at the start and end of a line are trimmed and blank lines are skipped, so a list pasted from a spreadsheet column or a chat message usually works without tidying. If your names are in one comma-separated row, put each on its own line first.

Capital letters and spelling are not compared. "sam" and "Sam" are simply two entries. The Total options figure in the Draw panel is the quickest check that the tool has read your list the way you intended: if you pasted 40 entrants and it says 41, look for a stray line.

Running a giveaway or raffle draw people can trust

Close entries and fix the list before you draw. Export or copy the entrants in one go.
Decide the rules first: how many winners, whether extra entries are allowed, and what happens if a winner does not respond.
Remove accidental duplicates unless extra lines are meant to be extra tickets.
Paste the list and compare Total options with your entrant count.
Share your screen or record it while you press Pick once, and treat that single press as final.
Draw a few more winners than you have prizes and keep the extras, in order, as reserves.

What it does not do

There is no spinning wheel or animation. Results appear at once as a list.
Lists are not saved. Reloading the page restores the sample names, so keep your own copy of the entrants.
A draw cannot be replayed or verified afterwards by someone else. For competitions with legal or regulatory requirements, use a draw service that issues a record.
It does not split people into groups. Use the Random Team Generator for that.
The How many winners field goes up to 50. For more, draw 50, delete those lines from the list and draw again from the remaining names.

How to get your result

1
Replace the sample names in Options (one per line) with your own list. Put each name or choice on its own line.
2
Set How many winners to the number of entries you want drawn.
3
Leave Allow the same entry to win more than once unticked for a normal draw, or tick it to pick from the whole list every time.
4
Press Pick. The Winner (or Winners) panel lists the result in draw order.
5
Check the Draw panel to confirm Total options matches the number of entries you meant to include, then copy the winners.

Common questions

Is the draw really random?

It is pseudo-random, as with nearly all software: the list is shuffled by an algorithm starting from a fresh random value on each press, and the top entries become the winners. No entry is favoured by its position. The starting value is one of 1,000,000 possibilities and is not shown, so a draw cannot be reproduced. It is suitable for classroom, office and social media draws, but it is not a certified or audited draw.

Can I use it as a yes or no picker?

Yes. Type Yes on one line and No on the next, then press Pick for a 50/50 answer. Add Maybe on a third line and each answer has a 1 in 3 chance.

How many names can I paste?

The list itself has no set limit. The How many winners field goes from 1 to 50, and with repeats off the number of winners cannot be larger than the number of entries.

How do I give someone a better chance on purpose?

Put their name on more lines. Each line is one ticket, so two lines out of ten is a 20% chance in a single-winner draw. This suits raffles where people buy several tickets or earn bonus entries.

Can I pick random numbers with it?

Yes, if the numbers are specific ones. Put each number on its own line, for example 3, 17 and 42, and pick as usual. For any number in a continuous range such as 1 to 100, a number generator is quicker than typing the list.

Why does it say only a certain number of options were entered?

You asked for more winners than there are lines while repeats are off. Five entries can supply at most five different winners. Lower How many winners, add entries, or tick Allow the same entry to win more than once.

Is my list of names uploaded?

No. The draw is calculated in your browser and the names are not sent to a server or stored. That makes it reasonable to paste class lists or customer names, though you should still follow your own organisation's rules on personal data.

Can I remove a winner and draw again?

Not automatically. Delete the winner's line from the Options box and press Pick again. If you already know how many winners you need, it is simpler to set that number once and take them all from a single draw.