Here's what happens between clicking Launch Giveaway and seeing your winners.
How winners are picked, step by step#
- Zetrr reads the comments. It fetches the comments on your post through Instagram's official API, page by page, while you see Collecting entries and a live count.
- It checks each comment. Replies are skipped. Comments missing your hashtag, @mention or minimum @mentions, and comments from blocked accounts, are left out.
- It removes duplicates if you asked. With Remove duplicate entries on, each account counts once.
- It draws the winners. Zetrr counts the eligible entries and picks the number of winners you chose with a cryptographic random number generator. Each eligible entry has the same chance, and no entry can win twice.
- It saves the result. Each winner is stored with their rank, prize and winning comment in Past Winners.
- It plays the reveal. The 10-second countdown is only for show. The winners were already drawn when it started.
If there are fewer entries than winners#
If you ask for ten winners and only six comments qualify, Zetrr picks all six. If none qualify, you'll see No eligible entries.
Very large giveaways#
Big posts take longer to read. Zetrr reads up to 250,000 comments per draw. If a post has more, it draws from the comments it read.
Announcing the winners#
With Announce winners on the post on, Zetrr replies to each winning comment shortly after the draw. Write your own message, and {winner} becomes the winner's @username. Instagram can refuse the reply, for example if comments are turned off. Giveaways never sends winners a direct message.
Can a draw be checked later?#
Zetrr keeps the winners, their comments and the result for as long as you keep your history. The full list of entrant comments is deleted after seven days, so a draw can't be re-run on the same entries later.