Flip a Coin

What Is This Coin Flip?

This is a free online coin toss. Flip it for heads or tails, or switch it to Yes or No and ask it a question. You can flip once, or play best of 3 or best of 5 when one flip feels too sudden.

Unlike a real coin, this one has no favourite side. A large study of real coin tosses found they land on the side they started from slightly more often than half the time. Here the side is picked by your browser's cryptographic random number generator before the coin leaves the table, so where it started makes no difference. You can test that further down the page.

How to Use It?

A flip takes about two seconds. Here is each step, with the part of the page it happens in.

1. Type your question

   If you are deciding something, type it in the box, such as “Should we go to the beach today?” This is optional. For a plain heads or tails, skip it.

   

2. Choose what the sides mean

   Leave it on Heads or Tails for a classic toss, or pick Yes or No so heads means Yes and tails means No. Then choose to flip once, best of 3 or best of 5.

   

3. Flip the coin

   Press Flip, press Space on your keyboard, tap the coin, or swipe up on it to toss it. The coin spins up into the air, falls back and lands with a clink.

   

4. Read the result

   The coin settles face up and the card below shows the result with your question. In best of 3 or best of 5, a row of markers fills in after each flip until one side wins.

   

Heads or Tails, or Yes or No

The coin has two modes, and they use exactly the same 50/50 toss.

• Heads or Tails. The coin shows H and T, for calling a toss, starting a game or settling who goes first.
• Yes or No. The faces read Yes and No, and the result card answers your question directly. Heads is always Yes.

Pick the mode before you flip. Deciding which side means what after you see the result defeats the point.

Best of 3 and Best of 5

A single flip can feel too abrupt for something that matters a little. Best of 3 keeps flipping until one side has won twice, and best of 5 until one side has won three times. A row of markers under the coin fills in after each flip so everyone can follow the score.

Best of 3 does not change the odds. Each side still has exactly an even chance of winning the series. It only stretches the moment out, which gives your reaction more time to show.

Tap or Swipe to Toss

On a phone, flick your finger upward on the coin to toss it, like flicking a real coin off your thumb. A quick tap on the coin flips it too, and on a computer you can click it or press Space.

The swipe is for feel only. The side was picked before the coin moved, so a harder flick cannot steer it.

Share Results

After a flip, press Share result to turn it into an image with your question and the result. On a phone it opens your share menu, and on a computer it downloads. The image is drawn in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

When to Flip a Coin?

Choosing between two options

When two choices are equally good, a coin is the fastest fair way out. Order in or go out, this film or that one, left or right.

Deciding who goes first

Board games, card games, kick-offs and turn order. Everyone can watch the same screen, so nobody can claim the toss was rigged.

Probability lessons

Teachers use coin flips to show how chance behaves. Ask the class to predict how often three heads in a row will happen, then flip and count. The fairness test above makes a ready-made demonstration of how big samples settle down.

When you cannot make up your mind

If you are stuck on a yes or no decision, switch the coin to Yes or No and flip. The next section explains why the result can help even if you do not follow it.

How to Get a More Useful Answer

Assign the sides first

Say out loud which option heads stands for before you flip. If you decide afterwards, you are not really flipping, you are just picking.

Let heads mean change

In economist Steven Levitt's study, people who were stuck on a decision flipped a virtual coin, more than 20,000 times in all, where heads meant make the change. On important decisions, those who made a change reported being substantially happier six months later. So when one option is the bolder move, let heads stand for it.

Watch your reaction

Psychologists Jaffé, Reutner and Greifeneder found that flipping a coin made people's feelings about the result stronger, and that people often decided by that feeling rather than by the coin. If the result disappoints you, you were hoping for the other side. Both studies are explained in full on the Yes or No Wheel page.

Coin Flip Games

A shared screen and a loud clink turn a coin into a party game. Three that work well:

1. Call it. Everyone calls heads or tails before each flip. Wrong calls are out, and the last player standing wins.
2. Streak challenge. Each player flips until the side changes. Longest streak wins. A streak of 5 happens about 1 time in 16, so expect a few surprises.
3. Best of 5 showdown. Two players take a side each and play best of 5. The markers under the coin keep score.

How to Share the Coin with Friends?

Type your question, flip, then press Ask a friend on the result card. Your friend gets a link that opens this page with your question already filled in, ready to flip for you.

The question travels inside the link after a # sign. Browsers never send that part of a link to a server, and the page removes it from the address bar as soon as it opens.

Need Another Way to Make a Decision?

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