Flip a coin
Heads or tails in one tap, with a running tally.
Press the button and the coin lands on heads or tails, each with an even chance. Every flip is added to a tally so you can see how the run is going — useful when you are settling something best of three.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your text is never uploaded — open DevTools, Network tab, and you will see zero requests while you use this tool.
How to use it
- Press Flip the coin.
- Read the result and the running tally underneath.
- Press Reset tally to start a new session.
What this tool does
Each flip draws from your browser cryptographic random source and maps the result to heads or tails with exactly even odds. There is no animation lag hiding a predetermined answer and no server deciding for you — the outcome is computed on your device at the moment you press.
The tally counts heads, tails and total flips for the current session. It resets when you press Reset tally or reload the page; nothing is stored between visits.
Examples
| Situation | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Two people, one decision | Assign heads and tails out loud first, then flip once |
| Best of three | Flip 10 times and read the tally, or flip three times in a row |
| Teaching probability | Flip 10 times repeatedly and watch how far the split wanders from 50/50 |
When you need it
- Settling a small argument with somebody in the room.
- Deciding who goes first in a game when no dice are handy.
- Breaking a genuine tie between two options you are equally happy with — if you feel disappointed by the result, that is useful information about what you actually wanted.
- Showing a class that ten flips rarely come out five and five, but a thousand come close.
Why a virtual coin is fairer than a real one
A real coin is not perfectly fair. Physicists at Stanford showed a flipped coin lands slightly more often on the face it started on, and spinning a coin on a table is more biased still because the rim is not symmetrical. The effect is small but measurable across thousands of trials.
A virtual flip has no rim, no starting face and no wrist. It draws a number and splits the range exactly in half, which is as close to a genuine 50/50 as you can get.
Doing it without this tool
An actual coin works and everybody trusts it, which is its real advantage.
Google. Typing flip a coin into the search box shows a built-in flipper.
Spreadsheet. =IF(RAND()<0.5,"Heads","Tails"), recalculated with F9.
What you get here instead: a tally across flips, and a page that keeps working with the network off.
Privacy: nothing about your flip leaves the browser
The result is generated on your device. No request is sent when you press the button, nothing is logged and no history is kept after you close the tab. Turn your connection off and the coin still flips.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Each flip draws from the browser cryptographic random source and splits the range exactly in half, so heads and tails are equally likely.
That is ordinary. In ten flips, a run of five or more of the same result happens more often than people expect — roughly one session in five.
No. Each flip is independent, so a run of heads does not make tails more likely on the next one.
Press Flip 10 times to run ten flips and add them all to the tally at once.
Only for the current session. Reloading the page or pressing Reset tally clears it, and nothing is stored on a server.
Yes, once the page has loaded. Nothing about the flip needs a connection.