How does Rafflecopter work?

Paste a link to your social media post (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.), and Rafflecopter automatically fetches all comments. Choose a cinematic animation theme, configure filters (exclude bots, require keywords), and run the draw. The winner is selected 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.

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.

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.

The 5-minute explainer

What is Rafflecopter?

Rafflecopter is the relaunched giveaway picker for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and 5 more platforms. Paste a post link, get a fair winner in 60 seconds, with cryptographic proof anyone can verify.

The 30-second pitch

You ran a giveaway. People commented on your Instagram post. You need to pick a winner — but you also need to provethe winner was picked fairly so commenters don't accuse you of rigging it.

Rafflecopter (rafflecopter.app) does that. Paste the post URL, and we fetch every comment, deduplicate by username, filter bot accounts with AI, and pick a random winner using a cryptographically secure random number generator. You get a SHA-256 proof URL you can share — anyone can independently verify the draw was fair.

It's free for posts up to 100 comments — no credit card, no signup, no trial. Larger posts cost $4.99 (standard) or $7.99 (premium) per draw. Never a monthly subscription.

“Wait — didn't Rafflecopter shut down?”

The original Rafflecopter ran from 2010 to October 2025 at rafflecopter.com. Over 15 years it grew into the dominant giveaway widget on the web — millions of campaigns, hundreds of millions of entries.

When it shut down in 2025 there was no successor. We — an independent team led by software engineer Lucas Gaviello — acquired the rafflecopter.app domain in late 2025 specifically to rebuild the service.

The platform you're looking at now launched in April 2026. Same brand. Same pay-per-draw spirit. Modern technical foundation: SHA-256 cryptographic proof per draw (the original never had this), AI-based bot filtering, 7 cinematic draw animations, multi-winner podium support, live draw rooms with no follower minimum.

Read the full story: Rafflecopter is back — the 2026 relaunch.

What makes Rafflecopter different

Cryptographic fairness proof

Every draw produces a public SHA-256 certificate. Participants — including the skeptical ones — can verify the winner was picked from the real comment list without manipulation.

Pay-per-draw, no subscription

Free up to 100 comments. $4.99 standard, $7.99 premium per draw above that. You pay only when you actually run a draw — no monthly bill while you're quiet.

7 cinematic animations + audio

The Arena, Slot Machine 3D, DNA Shuffle, Oscar Night, Space Countdown, Football Champion, Simple & Fast. Each with matching procedural audio. Pick the one that fits your brand.

8 social platforms native

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky. You can combine comments from multiple posts across platforms into a single draw.

AI bot filter

Pattern-matches on usernames, comment timing, account-age signals. You can exclude flagged accounts before drawing — so the winner isn't a spam bot.

Live draw room (no follower minimum)

Premium tier. Get a shareable link anyone can open to watch the draw in real-time, with chat and emoji reactions. No 1,000-follower threshold like Instagram or TikTok native live.

How it works in 3 steps

1
Paste your post URL
Copy the link to your Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, Reddit, Threads, or Bluesky post and paste it into rafflecopter.app/giveaway/new.
2
Pick an animation theme
Choose from 7 cinematic animations. Free tier gets Simple & Fast. Standard and Premium unlock all 7.
3
Click Draw
We fetch every comment, deduplicate by username, filter bots, and pick the winner. You get the cinematic reveal, the SHA-256 proof URL, and a video export to post on your story.

Pricing — pay-per-draw

Plan	USD	BRL (PIX)	Comments
Free	$0	R$0	Up to 100
Standard	$4.99 / draw	R$24.90 / draw	Up to 200
Premium	$7.99 / draw	R$39.90 / draw	Up to 2000

Prices auto-detect your country across 17 supported currencies. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal worldwide. PIX in Brazil.

Common questions

Same brand, same mission, complete technical rebuild. The original Rafflecopter (rafflecopter.com) shut down in October 2025. In April 2026 our team acquired the rafflecopter.app domain and rebuilt the platform from scratch — modern fairness guarantees, SHA-256 proof per draw, no monthly subscription.

Free for posts up to 100 comments. $4.99 per standard draw (up to 200 comments). $7.99 per premium draw (up to 2000 comments, includes the live draw room). Pay-per-draw — never a subscription.

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

Every draw uses a cryptographically secure random number generator (CSPRNG). The participant list, the seed, and the winner are hashed with SHA-256 and published on a public proof certificate (rafflecopter.app/proof/[code]). Anyone can verify the result independently — no one, not even us, can predict or manipulate the outcome.

No. Hosts pay anonymously per draw without creating an account. Participants don't need accounts either — they just comment on your social post like normal.

Yes. We only process publicly posted comment data — no private DMs, no participant emails, no contact info. Hosts pay anonymously. Compliant with EU GDPR, California CCPA, and Brazilian LGPD data-minimization principles.

Tools mentioned in this article

Instagram giveaway picker

Pick a random winner from any Instagram post comments.

TikTok giveaway picker

Same flow for TikTok video comments.

YouTube giveaway picker

Pull comments from any YouTube video and draw a winner.

Comment picker

Universal comment picker that works across 8 platforms.

Wheel spinner

Animated wheel for offline lists or live events.

Random name picker

Paste a list of names, get a random winner instantly.

Try Rafflecopter free

Paste a link. Pick a winner. Get a SHA-256 proof. Free for posts up to 100 comments.

No credit card required. Free forever for small giveaways.

Open Rafflecopter