How do I pick a giveaway winner fairly?
Last updated
One per line: a handle, an email or an order number.
Entries never leave your browser. The list is read and drawn from on this page, and nothing you paste is sent to us or stored anywhere.
Alternates are backups, drawn in order after the winners.
Paste the entries and say how many winners, then press Draw winners. Nothing is drawn until you do.
What makes a draw fair
A giveaway winner picker draws names at random from a list of entries, so a store running an Instagram giveaway with 240 unique commenters pastes the list, removes repeat comments and draws one winner and two alternates, with every commenter holding the same chance of about 0.42 percent.
Entries never leave your browser. The list is read and drawn from on this page, and nothing you paste is sent to us or stored anywhere.
A fair draw is one where nobody, including you, can influence or predict the result, and where you can show afterwards what was drawn from. These are the parts that make that true.
- Entries
- One per line, up to 20,000: a handle, an email address, an order number. Blank lines are ignored and extra spaces are tidied, so a list copied from a spreadsheet or a comment export works as it is.
- Duplicates
- The same person entered more than once. With removal switched on, repeats are dropped before the draw, ignoring capital letters and a leading @, so @Sam and sam count once. Switch it off only when extra entries were earned under your own rules.
- Winners
- How many names to draw, from 1 to 50. Nobody can be drawn twice in the same draw.
- Alternates
- Optional backups, up to 20, drawn in order after the winners. If a winner does not reply or turns out to be ineligible, alternate one is next in line, which saves re-running the whole draw.
- Chance per entry
- Each line has the same odds of winning, shown before you draw. With duplicates removed that is each person; with them kept, a person with three lines holds three times the chance.
- The randomness
- The draw uses the random source built into your browser for security work, and discards the few values that would favour some positions over others. It runs only when you press the button, so the page cannot show a result in advance.
- Draw record
- The time of the draw, the entry count after cleaning and the ordered list of winners and alternates, ready to copy. Keep it with the giveaway post in case anyone asks how the winner was chosen.
Nudgesmart is available on the Shopify App Store. Browse the template library or see what it costs.
Four entry lists, cleaned before the draw
Invented lists. Each row runs through the same preparation as the picker above, showing how many entries survive cleaning and each entry chance of winning. No row shows a winner: a draw worked out in advance would not be a draw.
| Giveaway | Lines pasted | Duplicates | In the draw | Drawing | Chance per entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram comments, some people commented twice | 244 | 4 removed | 240 | 1 winner, 2 alternates | 0.42% |
| Email entries from a signup form | 862 | 2 removed | 860 | 3 winners, 3 alternates | 0.35% |
| Raffle where extra entries were earned | 93 | kept | 93 | 5 winners | 5.4% |
| Too few entries for the prizes | 4 | 0 removed | 4 | 3 winners, 2 alternates | You asked for 5 names (3 winners and 2 alternates) from 4 entries. Nobody can be drawn twice, so lower the numbers. |
Before you announce a winner
The rules are yours to set and to check
Prize promotions are regulated differently from country to country, and social platforms have their own giveaway terms. Publish clear rules before the giveaway opens and check them against where your entrants are. This page runs a draw; it does not review your promotion.
The draw is only as clean as the list
Fake accounts, staff entries or people outside the eligible area are still in the list unless you remove them first. Clean the list against your own rules, then draw.
Duplicates are matched on exact text
Removal catches the same handle or address typed the same way, ignoring capitals and a leading @. It cannot tell that two different emails belong to one person.
Keep your own record
The page keeps nothing. Once you leave it, the draw is gone. Copy the draw record or capture the screen before you close the tab.
Giveaway draw questions
Is this random picker actually fair?
It draws with the random source your browser provides for security work, not the everyday one, and it corrects the small bias a naive pick introduces, so every line has exactly the same chance. The draw only happens when you press the button, and nothing about it can be seen beforehand.
Can I pick a winner from Instagram or TikTok comments?
Yes. Export or copy the commenters into a list, one per line, and paste it in. Leave duplicate removal on if the rules are one entry per person, so someone who commented ten times has the same chance as someone who commented once.
Should I draw alternates?
Usually yes. Winners miss messages, turn out to be outside the eligible country or do not meet the rules. Drawing alternates at the same moment, in order, means you never have to explain a second draw.
Are the entries uploaded anywhere?
No. The list stays in the page in your browser. It is not sent to Nudgesmart, not stored, and not included in any analytics.
How do I prove the draw was fair?
Record your screen while you paste the list and press Draw, then keep the draw record the page produces. It shows the time, how many entries were in the draw after cleaning and the winners in order.
Can I run the draw again if I do not like the result?
The button will let you, but you should not. Re-drawing until a preferred name comes up defeats the point, and it is the one thing entrants distrust most. Draw once, record it, and use the alternates if you need to.
A giveaway that ends in a draw should start with a signup.
Nudgesmart takes giveaway entries through a capture popup, and games such as spin wheels and scratch cards are among its 13 campaign types.
