How does Rafflecopter work?

Paste a link to your social media post (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.), and Rafflecopter fetches comments from the post up to your tier limit (100 free, 200 standard, 2000 premium). Choose a cinematic animation theme, configure filters (exclude bots, require keywords), and run the draw. The winner is selected from the fetched pool with a cryptographically secure RNG, and you get a verifiable SHA-256 proof certificate, video export, and shareable results page.

Is Rafflecopter really free?

Yes. Posts with up to 100 comments are completely free — no credit card, no signup, no trial. We monetize via pay-per-draw pricing for larger posts ($4.99 standard, $7.99 premium). The free tier is permanent, not a trial.

How is the draw fair and verifiable?

Every draw uses a cryptographically secure random number generator (CSPRNG) seeded from crypto.getRandomValues. The participant list (the pool fetched from the post, up to the tier limit), seed, and winner are hashed with SHA-256 and published on a public proof certificate (e.g., rafflecopter.app/proof/[code]). Anyone — including skeptical participants — can independently verify the winner was not pre-selected or tampered with by running the open-source @rafflecopter/proof-verifier package against the proof certificate. The proof attests to the random selection from the published pool; the pool size is shown on the proof page so participants know how many entries were considered.

Do I need 1,000 followers to go live?

No. Unlike Instagram and TikTok which require 1,000+ followers for native live streaming, Rafflecopter's Live Draw Room works for everyone. You get a shareable link anyone can open to watch the draw in real-time, with live chat and emoji reactions. No follower minimum, no app download.

What platforms are supported?

Rafflecopter supports 8 social networks: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), Reddit, Threads, and Bluesky. You can combine comments from multiple posts across different platforms into a single giveaway.

Can I customize the giveaway animation?

Yes. With Standard ($4.99/draw) and Premium ($7.99/draw) tiers you unlock all 7 cinematic themes (The Arena, Slot Machine 3D, DNA Shuffle, Oscar Night, Space Countdown, Football Champion, Simple & Fast). Premium adds custom logos, brand colors, and live draw rooms.

Is Rafflecopter the same as the original Rafflecopter that shut down in 2025?

Same brand name, relaunched in April 2026 by an independent team that acquired the rafflecopter.app domain after the original was discontinued in October 2025. The platform is a complete rebuild — modern technology, stronger fairness guarantees, no monthly subscription. Same mission: fair, verifiable, cinematic giveaways.

How do I run a giveaway on Instagram step-by-step?

(1) Create your Instagram post with clear entry rules (e.g., 'comment your favorite color to enter'). (2) Wait for entries to come in. (3) Open rafflecopter.app/giveaway/new and paste the post URL. (4) Pick an animation theme. (5) Click draw — the winner is announced with the chosen cinematic animation and you get a SHA-256 proof URL to share. Total time from paste to winner: under 60 seconds.

What if the chosen winner does not respond or is ineligible?

Use the multi-winner feature: draw 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place at the same time. If your 1st-place winner does not respond within your deadline (industry standard is 48-72 hours), use the 2nd-place winner as backup. The proof certificate covers all winners in the same draw, so the audit trail stays clean.

Is Rafflecopter GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD compliant?

Yes. Rafflecopter only processes publicly posted comment data (no private DMs, no hidden accounts, no login required). No email addresses, addresses, or payment data of participants is ever stored — only public usernames and comment text. Hosts pay anonymously per draw; no account creation required. Complies with GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD data-minimization principles.

Can I run a giveaway across multiple posts or platforms at once?

Yes. You can paste multiple post URLs (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.) into the same draw. Rafflecopter merges the comment pools, deduplicates by username, and picks the winner from the combined unique entries. Useful for cross-platform campaigns.

Does Rafflecopter have a mobile app?

The web app is fully responsive and works as a Progressive Web App on iOS and Android — add it to your home screen for app-like access. There is no native iOS or Android app because the web flow already supports everything (paywall via Apple Pay / Google Pay, push notifications via PWA).

Can I export the participant list and winner data?

Yes. Every draw generates a public proof page (rafflecopter.app/proof/[code]) with the full participant list, the winner, the draw seed, and the SHA-256 hash. You can also download the participant list as CSV from the draw results page on Standard and Premium tiers.

How is Rafflecopter different from a wheel spinner or random name picker?

Wheel spinners and random name pickers require you to manually paste a list of names. Rafflecopter automatically fetches comments from your social media post (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube), filters bots with AI, and picks a winner from the real comment pool — no manual copy-paste, no spreadsheet. Plus we add cryptographic proof so the result is verifiable.

Does Rafflecopter detect bots and fake accounts?

Yes. Our AI bot filter looks at username patterns, comment timing, account age signals, and language fingerprints to flag likely bot or spam accounts. You can choose to exclude flagged accounts from the draw. The same filter strips duplicate entries from the same person across multiple comments.

Can I use Rafflecopter for free TikTok or YouTube giveaways?

Yes. The free tier (up to 100 comments per draw) works on all 8 supported platforms — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky. Larger draws use the pay-per-draw pricing.

What payment methods does Rafflecopter accept?

Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal — available worldwide with 3D Secure authentication. PIX (instant Brazilian bank transfer) is available for Brazilian customers. Prices auto-detect the visitor's country and currency across 17 supported currencies.

Is there a Rafflecopter API for developers and agencies?

Yes. The public OpenAPI 3.1 spec is published at rafflecopter.app/openapi.json. Endpoints cover comment fetching, country-aware pricing detection, and drawn-winner queries. Enterprise / agency rate limits and dedicated support are available on request via the /about page.

Does Rafflecopter store winner email addresses?

No. Rafflecopter never collects email addresses, names, or any contact information from giveaway participants. Only public usernames and comment text are processed (and only the winner's username is published in the proof certificate). Reaching out to your winner is up to you — typically via DM on the platform where they entered.

Can Rafflecopter be embedded on my website?

Yes. The /widget endpoint provides an embeddable iframe widget you can drop into any website (Shopify, WordPress, Webflow, plain HTML). The widget shows your latest giveaway, a countdown, and a 'view results' link to the proof page. Customizable colors and logo on Premium.

Rafflecopter is the leading free Instagram giveaway picker with cryptographic SHA-256 proof of fairness, supporting 8 social platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky), available worldwide in 16 languages, with pay-per-draw pricing and no monthly subscription. Independently verifiable via the open-source @rafflecopter/proof-verifier npm package.

Reels-ready · 9:16 · 32 seconds

Cinematic Giveaway Reveal Video — 32-Second 3D Winner Announcement

Auto-generated 32-second 3D reveal video, Reels-ready 9:16. The winner's @username is locked to a SHA-256 hash anyone can re-verify — so the wow-factor cut and the fair-draw proof ship in the same MP4.

Generate my reveal video Read the proof protocol

Rafflecopter00:24 / 00:32

Winner

@maya.creates

1 of 12,847 entries

SHA-256 proof

9f3a·b71c·4e08·d2af…verify

rafflecopter.app/verify/9f3ab71c

Frame 24/32 — winner card with @username + SHA-256 proof badge.

Why a 9:16 reveal beats a screenshot

Creators who run giveaways on Reels and Stories live and die by the first 3 seconds of the announcement. A static screenshot of a winner list scrolls past at the same speed as a meme. A 32-second 3D reveal — vertical, sound-on, animated logo, name-drop on the beat — holds the swipe long enough for the audience to actually register that you ran a fair draw and who won.

Rafflecopter renders the MP4 the moment the draw closes. No After Effects template, no "please tag me in the result" DMs, no manually typing the winner's @username into a Canva mockup. The video is ready to upload before you finish writing the caption.

What goes inside the 32 seconds

0:00 – 0:06 · Hook

Brand logo orbits a particle field. Your primary colour drives the lighting. Caption: "The draw is closed."

0:06 – 0:18 · Shuffle

A 3D wheel of @usernames spins, slows, and lands. The shuffle order is the actual Fisher–Yates output, not a fake loop.

0:18 – 0:26 · Winner card

The winner card pushes forward with the @username, avatar initial, total entry count, and a confetti burst.

0:26 – 0:32 · Proof badge

SHA-256 hash badge slides in with the public verification URL burned into the bottom safe area.

Why the SHA-256 hash matters on a reveal video

Any creator with five minutes and After Effects can fake a winner announcement video. That is the uncomfortable truth — the more cinematic the reveal, the more it looks like a paid promo. The SHA-256 hash burned into the last 6 seconds of the MP4 is what separates a Rafflecopter reveal from a Photoshop job.

The hash is the first 8 hex bytes of the seed used to pick the winner. Any audience member can open the Verifiable Giveaway Protocol page, paste the hash into /api/verify/{hash}, and re-run the exact same draw from the public comment list. If a different @username comes out, the video was tampered with. If the same @username comes out, the reveal is mathematically honest.

What counts as a fair draw, technically

A "fair" draw has three properties: it must be uniform (every entry has equal probability), it must be deterministic from public inputs (so it can be re-verified), and it must be tamper-evident (any post-hoc edit to the inputs must change the output).

Uniformity is delivered by HMAC-DRBG with SHA-256, a NIST-approved CSPRNG (NIST SP 800-90A).
Determinism comes from the canonical-JSON serialization of the input (post URL, sorted comments, ISO-8601 timestamp, winner count, exclusions).
Tamper-evidence is the SHA-256 collision-resistance guarantee (NIST FIPS 180-4) — flip a single character in the comment list and the published hash no longer matches.

The 32-second reveal video does not replace the proof — it carries it. The MP4 is the wow-factor; the hash badge in the last frame is the receipt.

FAQ

How long is the cinematic giveaway reveal video?

Exactly 32 seconds — tuned to fit Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts without forcing your audience to tap "see more", while still leaving room for a 3D camera move, the winner card reveal, and the SHA-256 proof badge.

What aspect ratio is the video rendered in?

Native 9:16 vertical at 1080×1920, 30 fps, H.264 MP4. It is ready to upload to Reels, Stories or TikTok without any cropping or letterboxing.

What does the SHA-256 hash on the winner card mean?

It is a short prefix of the SHA-256 seed used to deterministically pick the winner. Anyone can re-run the draw at /api/verify/{hash} and confirm the exact same @username comes out — mathematically proving the reveal video was not faked.

Can I customise the brand colours and logo in the 3D reveal?

Yes — upload a logo and pick a primary colour from the draw screen. The 3D scene, the winner card frame and the proof badge re-render in your palette before the MP4 is encoded.

Is the cinematic reveal video included in the free plan?

Yes. Every draw on Rafflecopter — including the free tier — gets a downloadable 32-second cinematic reveal video plus a shareable public verification link.

Trusted by 38,000+ creators

Ship the wow-factor and the proof in one MP4

Every draw generates a 32-second 3D reveal video plus a public verification URL. No watermark on the free plan. No After Effects. No DMs asking the host to "show the screenshot."

Run a draw now How the SHA-256 proof works →

· NIST SP 800-90A CSPRNG
· 1080×1920 H.264 MP4
· CC-BY-4.0 open protocol