Is the shuffle actually fair, or just Math.random?

Fair. We run the Fisher-Yates (a.k.a. Knuth) shuffle, which is the textbook unbiased algorithm: every one of the N! possible orderings is exactly equally likely. The randomness comes from crypto.getRandomValues — a cryptographically-secure RNG — and we use rejection sampling to map it onto each index range, so there's none of the modulo bias that creeps in when you write Math.floor(Math.random() * n) for non-power-of-two ranges. The naive shuffle (sort with a random comparator) that many sites use is provably biased; we don't do that.

Can the same item be drawn more than once?

Only in "Pick N random" mode, and only if you turn on the "allow repeats" toggle — then each pick samples the whole list independently, like drawing with replacement. Shuffle, Group, and single-winner Draw never repeat an item; each appears exactly once. The default for Pick N is no repeats (drawing without replacement), which is what people usually mean by "pick 3 winners".

How is this different from a random number generator?

A random number generator hands you numbers in a range. This works on your actual list of strings — it shuffles, partitions, and selects the lines you paste, preserving the text. If you only need numbers, use the random number generator; if you have a list of names, options, or tasks and want to reorder or pick among them, this is the right tool.

Will the share link give my friend the same winner?

No — and that's intentional. The link reproduces your input list and chosen mode, but the random result (shuffle order, picks, groups, winner) is rolled fresh every time someone runs it. Baking a "winner" into a shareable URL would let whoever made the link rig the outcome. Each participant gets a genuinely independent draw.

Pick a raffle or giveaway winner live

Running a Twitter giveaway or a Discord raffle and need a winner nobody can accuse you of rigging. Paste one entrant per line, switch to "Draw winner", turn on the reveal animation, and hit draw on stream. Because the draw uses crypto-grade randomness rolled at the moment you click — not a result baked into a link — you can screen- record the whole thing as proof. Want three winners instead of one? Switch to "Pick N", set N to 3, leave repeats off, and you get three distinct names in one pass.

Split a class or workshop into project teams

You have 27 students and want 6 balanced project groups. Paste the 27 names, choose "Split into groups", set K to 6, and the tool deals them round-robin into 6 buckets — sizes 5,5,5,4,4,4 — after a fair shuffle so nobody can predict their group from the order on the roster. Copy each group block straight into Slack or a whiteboard. Re-roll until the mix feels right; every roll reshuffles from scratch.

Randomize a chore or on-call rota

Four flatmates, four weeks of dish duty, and a standing argument about who got stuck with the worst week last time. Paste the names, hit "Shuffle", and the resulting order is the rota — order 1 takes week 1 and so on. The unbiased shuffle means no name is more likely to land in any given slot, which is exactly the neutrality you want when feelings are involved. The same trick works for on-call rotations and code-review assignment.

Break a decision deadlock

Five restaurants on the list, a group chat that's been "idk, you pick" for twenty minutes. Paste the five options, "Draw winner", one click, done. Using a verifiably fair RNG instead of one person's "let's just go to X" keeps it neutral — no one can claim the chooser steered it. Works for picking a movie, a sprint demo presenter, or which feature to build first.

Sample rows for a spot check or QA pass

You exported 800 support tickets and your manager wants you to read a random 25 for a quality audit. Paste the ticket IDs, "Pick N", set N to 25, repeats off. You get 25 IDs drawn without replacement — a proper simple random sample, not "the first 25" or "every 32nd one", both of which can hide systematic bias. Copy the sample and pull those tickets.

List Randomizer — Shuffle, Pick, Group, Draw

Shuffle a list, pick N at random, split into K teams, or draw one winner — fair crypto randomness, browser-only

Runs locally
Category Text
Best for Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.

List (0 items)

Paste a list above, then choose a mode and run.

What this tool does

A no-nonsense list randomizer that does four jobs well: shuffle a list into a fair random order, pick N random items (with or without repeats), split a list into K evenly-sized groups, and draw a single winner with an optional reveal animation. Paste one item per line — names, raffle tickets, todo items, lunch options — and pick a mode. Unlike the `Math.random()` toys most "random name picker" pages ship, every shuffle and draw here uses an unbiased Fisher-Yates pass driven by `crypto.getRandomValues`, the same CSPRNG browsers expose for security work, so there is no modulo bias and no order that is quietly more likely than another. The list lives in the URL query so a shareable link reproduces the same starting list (the random result itself is regenerated each run, never baked into the link — fairness for everyone who opens it). Your last mode and options are remembered in localStorage. Everything runs in your browser tab: no list, name, or draw is ever sent to a server.

Tool details

Input: Text + Numbers; The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
Output: Live result + Copy; The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
Privacy: Browser-side processing; The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
Save / share: Shareable URL state; Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
Performance budget: Initial JS <= 10 KB; No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
Best fit: Text · Content Creator; Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.

How to use

1. Input

Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
2. Process

Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
3. Copy / Download

Copy the result or download to disk in one click.

How List Randomizer fits into your work

Use it to clean, compare, reshape, or extract plain text before it goes into a document, CMS, spreadsheet, or prompt.

Text jobs

Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.
Making text easier to compare, paste, publish, or feed into another tool.
Working with content locally when the text is private or unfinished.

Text checks

Scan for unintended whitespace, duplicate lines, and lost punctuation.
For long text, test the first few lines before applying the whole change.
Copy the final output only after checking the preview.

Good next steps

These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.

Real-world use cases

Pick a raffle or giveaway winner live
Running a Twitter giveaway or a Discord raffle and need a winner nobody can accuse you of rigging. Paste one entrant per line, switch to "Draw winner", turn on the reveal animation, and hit draw on stream. Because the draw uses crypto-grade randomness rolled at the moment you click — not a result baked into a link — you can screen- record the whole thing as proof. Want three winners instead of one? Switch to "Pick N", set N to 3, leave repeats off, and you get three distinct names in one pass.
Split a class or workshop into project teams
You have 27 students and want 6 balanced project groups. Paste the 27 names, choose "Split into groups", set K to 6, and the tool deals them round-robin into 6 buckets — sizes 5,5,5,4,4,4 — after a fair shuffle so nobody can predict their group from the order on the roster. Copy each group block straight into Slack or a whiteboard. Re-roll until the mix feels right; every roll reshuffles from scratch.
Randomize a chore or on-call rota
Four flatmates, four weeks of dish duty, and a standing argument about who got stuck with the worst week last time. Paste the names, hit "Shuffle", and the resulting order is the rota — order 1 takes week 1 and so on. The unbiased shuffle means no name is more likely to land in any given slot, which is exactly the neutrality you want when feelings are involved. The same trick works for on-call rotations and code-review assignment.
Break a decision deadlock
Five restaurants on the list, a group chat that's been "idk, you pick" for twenty minutes. Paste the five options, "Draw winner", one click, done. Using a verifiably fair RNG instead of one person's "let's just go to X" keeps it neutral — no one can claim the chooser steered it. Works for picking a movie, a sprint demo presenter, or which feature to build first.
Sample rows for a spot check or QA pass
You exported 800 support tickets and your manager wants you to read a random 25 for a quality audit. Paste the ticket IDs, "Pick N", set N to 25, repeats off. You get 25 IDs drawn without replacement — a proper simple random sample, not "the first 25" or "every 32nd one", both of which can hide systematic bias. Copy the sample and pull those tickets.

Common pitfalls

Expecting the share link to lock in a specific winner. It doesn't, by design — the link carries your input list and mode, but each run re-rolls the result. If you need a winner everyone agrees on, draw once live and screenshot it; don't send a link and assume the recipient sees your result.
Leaving "allow repeats" on when you actually want distinct picks. With repeats on, "pick 3" can return the same name twice or three times (sampling with replacement). For raffle winners or a quality sample you almost always want repeats off — that's the default, so only turn it on if you genuinely want with-replacement behavior.
Pasting items separated by commas instead of newlines. The tool splits on line breaks, one item per line, so "alice, bob, carol" on a single line is treated as one long item. Put each entry on its own line — paste a spreadsheet column and it lines up automatically.

Privacy

Every operation — Fisher-Yates shuffle, the crypto.getRandomValues draws, grouping, winner selection — is plain JavaScript that runs inside your browser tab. No list, name, raffle entry, or draw result is ever sent to a server, logged, or used for analytics. The one thing that does leave the page is the URL share state: your input list is encoded into the query string so a shareable link reproduces the same starting list, which means the destination's access log will record those lines if you paste the link somewhere. Random results are never stored in the URL. For a private entrant list, copy the result text manually instead of sharing the link.

FAQ

Tool combos

Folks in your role tend to reach for these alongside this tool.

Content Creator

Browse all tools for this role

List Randomizer — Shuffle, Pick, Group, Draw

What this tool does

Tool details

How to use

1. Input

2. Process

3. Copy / Download

How List Randomizer fits into your work

Text jobs

Text checks

Good next steps

Real-world use cases

Pick a raffle or giveaway winner live

Split a class or workshop into project teams

Randomize a chore or on-call rota

Break a decision deadlock

Sample rows for a spot check or QA pass

Common pitfalls

Privacy

FAQ

Random Number Generator

Multicultural Name Generator

Text Sorter

Text Deduplicator

Password Generator

Chinese Acupoint Locator

Add Line Numbers

AI Eval Planner

AI Model Comparison

AI Token Counter

Arabic 500 Essential Words

ASCII Art Generator