Ask your question and click the button.
When to Use a Random Decision
At the default setting every answer is a straight 50/50: Yes and No are equally likely each time, no matter what came before. Type your question if you like, slide the odds anywhere from Always No to Always Yes, and click the button. The panel keeps count of your answers, your yes rate and the current streak.
Random decisions work surprisingly well for choices where you have no strong preference. Research shows that when people flip a coin for a decision, they often feel relieved by one outcome over the other: which reveals their true preference. Use this tool to test your feelings: if you get "No" and feel disappointed, the answer you really wanted was "Yes".
What the Slider Does to the Odds
The slider sets the chance of Yes on each ask. Here is what that means over three questions in a row.
| Yes probability | Yes 3 times in a row | At least one Yes in 3 | No 3 times in a row |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 12.5% | 87.5% | 12.5% |
| 60% | 21.6% | 93.6% | 6.4% |
| 70% | 34.3% | 97.3% | 2.7% |
| 80% | 51.2% | 99.2% | 0.8% |
| 90% | 72.9% | 99.9% | 0.1% |
At 0% the answer is always No and at 100% always Yes.
Streaks Are Normal
At 50/50, runs of the same answer are part of randomness, not a sign the tool is stuck. Chance of seeing a run of the same answer (Yes or No) somewhere in a session:
| Questions asked | 5 in a row | 7 in a row | Average longest run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 21.7% | 3.9% | 3.7 |
| 20 | 45.8% | 11.5% | 4.7 |
| 50 | 82.1% | 30.9% | 6.0 |
| 100 | 97.2% | 54.2% | 7.0 |
Using a Random Answer Well
The oldest trick is not to obey the answer but to watch your reaction to it. The Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein put it in a short poem, "A Psychological Tip": while the coin is in the air, you suddenly know what you are hoping for.
Chance can also get you unstuck. In a study published in 2021, economist Steven Levitt asked thousands of people facing a hard choice, such as whether to quit a job, to flip a coin online. People who got heads, meaning make the change, were more likely to make it, and those who did make a change reported being happier on average six months later.
Versus a Magic 8-Ball
A classic Magic 8-Ball has 20 answers on a 20-sided die: 10 positive, 5 non-committal and 5 negative. So it says a clear No only 25% of the time and dodges the question another 25%. This tool always commits.
Answers come from Math.random, the browser's built-in pseudorandom generator, which is fair for everyday choices but not meant for anything with money or security at stake. For two named options, the coin flip works the same way; for more options, use the name picker wheel.