Giveaway winner picker

Copy the comments from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube or a spreadsheet and paste them, one per line. With Only the first word of each line ticked, only the username (like @emma.miller) counts, and the rest of the comment is ignored. That way, "@jake_brown Count me in!" and "@jake_brown" are recognized as the same person.

Duplicates can be handled three ways:

• Count once (case-insensitive): @Emma.Miller and @emma.miller are the same entry. This is the usual choice for "one entry per person" giveaways.
• Remove exact matches only.
• Every line is an entry: use this if your rules give an extra entry per comment or per tagged friend.

The counter shows how many valid entries remain and how many duplicates and excluded lines were removed.

List the accounts that can't win, one per line or separated by commas: your own brand account, employees, judges, partners or last month's winners. The @ sign is optional and capitalization doesn't matter. Excluded entries are removed before the draw and counted in the record.

Choose up to 100 winners and up to 100 alternates. Alternates are drawn in order after the winners, so if a winner doesn't respond or isn't eligible, the first alternate takes their place, then the second, and so on. Deciding this in advance, and saying so in your rules, avoids arguments later.

Each draw starts from a 256-bit random seed made by your browser's cryptographic generator. The winners are picked from the cleaned list with a deterministic method (HMAC-SHA-256 in counter mode with unbiased sampling and a partial Fisher–Yates shuffle). The result shows the seed and a SHA-256 fingerprint of the final entry list.

With the same list, the same filter settings and the same seed, the Verify box reproduces exactly the same winners. Anyone you give the list and the seed to can check that the winner wasn't swapped after the fact. The PDF drawing record includes the giveaway name, the sponsor, the date and time, the counts, the filter rules, the winners and alternates in order, the method, the seed, the fingerprint and lines for signatures, and optionally the full entry list as an appendix.

This tool handles the drawing; it doesn't replace official rules. In the US, giveaways (sweepstakes) generally need written rules covering who is eligible, how to enter, the entry period, the drawing date, the prize and its value, and how winners are notified. A common requirement is that no purchase is necessary to enter. Social platforms have their own promotion guidelines too; Instagram, for example, expects promotions to make clear they aren't sponsored by Instagram. Rules vary by state and by platform, so check them before you launch. Your entry list is processed in your browser and never uploaded.