RandomBasis

Let it decide

Yes or No Generator

Get a random yes or no — add a maybe, or choose between your own options.

Runs locally in your browser. Nothing you enter is ever sent to a server.

Press "Answer" and let it decide.

Answers

About this yes or no generator

Press Answer and you get Yes or No, with an equal chance of each. Add Maybe if a middle answer would help, or switch to Custom and let it choose between options you type in yourself.

Yes, no, or maybe

The two-answer mode is a straight coin flip in words. Adding Maybe changes the odds to one in three for each, which suits questions where "not yet" is a real answer rather than a dodge. The mode is a single press away, so you can switch depending on the question.

Choosing between your own options

Custom mode turns the tool into a decision maker: type the things you are choosing between, one per line, and one is picked at random. Every option has the same chance no matter where it sits in the list, and your list is kept on your own device for next time.

When a random answer is genuinely useful

Randomising works well for decisions where the options are close enough that more thinking will not separate them — where to eat, which task to start, who goes first. It also has a quieter use: noticing how you feel about the answer. If the coin says stay and you are disappointed, you have learned something the deliberation was not giving you.

Common uses

What to do when you dislike the answer

This is the most useful thing the tool does, and it has nothing to do with randomness. Ask the question, get the answer, and pay attention to the half-second before you think about it. Relief means you wanted that outcome. Disappointment means you wanted the other one, and you now know something that no amount of further deliberation was going to tell you. At that point the answer has done its job whether or not you follow it.

Decisions worth randomising, and ones that are not

Randomising works when the options are genuinely close and the cost of thinking longer exceeds the cost of choosing wrong - where to eat, which task to start, who goes first. It works badly when one option is clearly better and you are hoping to be let off deciding, or when the stakes are high enough that you would override the answer anyway. If you already know you would ignore a no, you are not asking a question, you are looking for permission.

Adding maybe changes the odds, not just the wording

With two answers each has a one in two chance. Adding maybe makes it one in three each, so yes becomes noticeably less likely than before. That is worth knowing if you are running the same question repeatedly - the middle answer is not free, it takes probability from both sides.

How the randomness works

The answer is drawn from your browser's cryptographic random source, with values outside a clean multiple of the number of options discarded and redrawn. That keeps every answer exactly equally likely, and it means the result is not influenced by anything you did before.

How does the yes or no generator work?

Press Answer and you get Yes or No, drawn at random with an equal chance for each.

Can I add a maybe?

Yes. Switch the mode to include Maybe and the three answers become equally likely.

Can I choose between my own options?

Yes. Switch to Custom, type your options one per line, and one of them is picked at random.

Is it really fifty-fifty?

Yes. Each answer is drawn with your browser's cryptographic random source using rejection sampling, so neither answer is favoured.

Should I use this for real decisions?

It works best for choices where either outcome is fine and you just want to stop deliberating. If you feel disappointed by the answer, that reaction is the more useful signal.

Does it remember my options?

Yes. Your custom list is kept on your own device so it is still there when you come back.

Is a yes or no generator the same as a coin flip?

Mathematically yes, in the two-answer mode. The difference is that words are easier to assign than heads and tails, so nobody has to remember which side meant what.

Should I actually follow the answer?

Only if you would have been happy with either outcome. If the answer makes you want to run it again, that reaction is the more useful result.