Flip a coin
Heads or tails in one tap. Flip one coin or up to 100, and keep a running tally.
Your tally
Why streaks happen: try it
People expect a fair coin to alternate. It doesn't. Flip 100 times and look at the longest run of the same side. Most people guess three or four; the usual answer is six or seven.
Longest run: 0 (highlighted) · 0 heads, 0 tails
The coin has no memory. After five heads, the next flip is still 50/50: that is what "independent" means. Believing a tails is "due" is the gambler's fallacy. Streaks are simply what randomness looks like, which is also why a wheel or name picker can land on the same option twice in a row.
Over many flips the proportion of heads settles near 50% (the law of large numbers), even though the raw gap between heads and tails often grows. Watch your tally percentage drift towards 50% as you flip.
When to use a coin flip
Any two-way call: who goes first, which of two restaurants, kick-off in a friendly match. For choices with more than two options use the wheel, and for a quick verdict with a "maybe", try the yes or no wheel. A useful trick: flip, and notice whether you feel relieved or disappointed. That reaction often tells you what you wanted.
Questions people ask
Is an online coin flip 50/50?
This one is exactly 50/50. Each flip draws a fair random bit from your browser's cryptographic random number generator. The animation is played afterwards to show the result.
Is a real coin toss 50/50?
Very nearly, but not quite. A 2023 study by František Bartoš and colleagues, covering 350,757 hand-caught flips, found coins land on the same side they started about 50.8% of the time, as predicted by Persi Diaconis's model of wobbling coins. An online flip has no starting side, so it avoids that bias.
I got heads five times in a row. Is it broken?
No. Five heads in a row has a 1 in 32 chance on any given run of five, so it turns up often if you flip a lot. In 100 flips, a streak of six or more of one side is more likely than not. Try the streak simulator below.
Can I flip more than one coin?
Yes. Choose 1, 3, 5, 10 or 100 coins. "Best of 3" and "best of 5" are handy for settling a tie fairly.
Heads or tails: which should I call?
It makes no difference here: both have exactly a 1 in 2 chance on every flip, whatever came before.