A Secret Santa nobody can peek at

Name of the exchange (optional)

Budget (optional)

Gifts on

Who's in, one name per line (3 to 60 people) Who can't draw each other (optional: one couple or household per line, names separated by commas)

One big loop: nobody swaps gifts with each other

Are you in the draw?I'm not in the draw

A note to everyone (optional, plain text)

Draw names

The names are drawn and sealed in this tab. Our server gets only ciphertext and never sees a name.

This Secret Santa generator draws names in your browser and hands each person a sealed link. Nobody can peek at who has whom: not the organizer, and not us. There's no sign-up and no emails are collected. And if anyone opens someone else's link, the owner of that card sees it was opened before.

Type the names, add anyone who shouldn't draw each other, and press Draw names. You get a page with one link per person. Send each link however you like (a chat, a text, a QR code), or print a folded card for everyone and hand them out at the party.

Why the organizer can't see the draw

Every other Secret Santa site shows the organizer a screen of names. Some promise not to look. This one never puts the pairs anywhere a person could read them.

When you press Draw names, your browser picks the assignment, then seals each person's draw into its own card with AES-256-GCM. Each card gets a fresh random key, and that key goes only into the part of the card's link after the #. Browsers never send that part to a server (here is why), so we store a card we can't open. Then the tab throws the pairing away. What you see next is a list of names and their links, never who drew whom.

Could you, the organizer, open everyone's link and read them all? Yes, the links are on your page until you hand them out. That's why the card keeps a count. Before a card records its own opening, it asks the server how many times it was opened before, and tells its owner: "You're the first to open this card", or "This card was opened 2 times before, first on Nov 30 at 8:14 PM." The owner knows whether that was them. It's the same read receipt without tracking every cipher.ink message has, and a chat app's link preview can't trip it, because a preview can't decrypt the card.

Once every card is handed out, press Forget the links. Your page keeps showing who has opened their card, but it can't open any of them, yours included.

The one gap, said plainly

The draw runs in the organizer's browser for about a second. An organizer who opened their browser's developer tools before pressing Draw names and stopped the code mid-draw could read the pairs. No screen shows them, but the code is in a tab you control.

A fully trustless Secret Santa exists. It's the same mathematics as mental poker, dealing cards over the phone with nobody trusted to shuffle, and it needs every person online taking a turn to shuffle and encrypt. For a family exchange that means herding a dozen people into the same five minutes. We chose the version where one browser draws for a second, and told you about it here.

One more, for completeness. The cards, wishlists and notes are sealed, but our web host's access logs record which IP address made each request and when. Someone with those logs and our database could line up the second a note was posted with the second a card was opened from the same address, and guess who's writing to whom. We don't do that, and nothing in the code does. But "we can't see it" is true of what's stored, not of every trace a web server leaves, so we're telling you.

What each person sees

A card opens on the same sealed lock as every cipher.ink message. Press Open my card and the letters resolve into "You're buying for Bob.", then the budget, the date and your note. Below that:

• Bob's wishlist, if Bob has written one. It's sealed under a key only Bob and his Santa hold.
• Ask Bob anonymously. A short thread between Bob and his Santa. Bob sees "Your Santa asks: what size are you?" and can answer without learning who asked.
• Your own wishlist and your own thread with your Santa, who stays a mystery.
• Unmask, from the gift day on. The Santa can post "It was me, Alice" into the thread. It's a choice, never automatic.

Wishlists and notes are plain text, sealed in the tab before they're saved. The server stores them as ciphertext, next to the time each was written.

Rules you can set

Who can't draw each other. Couples, housemates, siblings who always swap anyway. Put each group on its own line. It works both ways: if Ana can't draw Bob, Bob can't draw Ana. If your rules make a draw impossible, you'll hear exactly why, for example "Ana is excluded from everyone but herself", never a spinner that goes forever.

One big loop. Everyone gives along one chain: Ana gives to Chloe, Chloe to Ed, Ed to Bob, and on until the chain comes back to Ana. Nobody swaps gifts with the person giving to them, and at the party you can do the reveal in a circle.

Are you playing? Pick your own name and you get a card like everyone else. Be honest with yourself about the one gap above, or have someone else press the button.

Every valid draw is equally likely. Pulling names from a hat goes wrong 63% of the time with 10 people, because someone draws themselves. This doesn't. The draw shuffles fairly and throws away any shuffle that breaks a rule, which keeps the result uniform. The mathematics of Secret Santa explains why the obvious fix, "just swap if you get yourself", isn't fair.

Changing your mind

Someone joined or dropped out: on your exchange's page, edit the list and redraw. Every old card stops opening, everyone needs their new link, and wishlists start over. It's over: press End it now and every card, wishlist and note is deleted from the server at once. If you do nothing, the whole exchange deletes itself 30 days after the gift date, and never more than 120 days after you drew it.

Common questions