Frequently Asked Questions

Pick a Winner helps you run fair giveaways on Facebook and Instagram. Paste a link to your post, set eligibility rules, and draw random winners with one click. Every entry is recorded so your audience can verify the draw was legitimate.

Creating a user profile is completely free. Drawing winners for contests with up to 300 comments is completely free, too. No account fees, no trial period, no credit card required. For larger contests (300+ comments), there's a one-time fee based on the number of comments. No subscriptions, no recurring charges. See the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Yes. Pick a Winner uses a "bring your own app" model — you create a free Facebook App at Meta's developer portal and enter your App ID and Secret in your profile. This means you stay in full control of your data and API access at all times.

Go to your profile settings, enter your Facebook App credentials, then click "Connect Facebook". You'll be redirected to Facebook to authorize access. Once connected, all your managed Pages appear automatically.

Yes. You can connect Instagram Business or Creator accounts and run contests on Instagram posts, Reels, and IGTV. You can connect via your Facebook Page (for business accounts linked to a Page) or directly via Instagram Login.

Yes. Your payment card details never touch our server. All payments are processed on Lemon Squeezy's secure, PCI-compliant checkout page. We never see, store, or have access to your card number, CVV, or billing address. Our server only stores transaction metadata (order ID, amount, and status). Webhooks from Lemon Squeezy are verified with HMAC-SHA256 signatures to prevent tampering.

Click "New Contest", select your Page, paste the Facebook or Instagram post URL, set the number of winners (1-12), add prize descriptions, define your contest period, and configure any entry rules. That's it.

For Facebook: require post likes, shares, page follows, friend tags (1-20), specific keywords, and time windows. You can also exclude page admins, previous winners, and specific users. For Instagram: tags, keywords, and time windows work the same way, but like/share/follow verification isn't available through Instagram's API.

Only one entry per person is counted. If the same user comments multiple times, their latest comment is kept but they still get just one chance to win.

All comments are fetched from your post, filtered through your rules, and winners are selected randomly from the eligible pool. The entire entry list is preserved so anyone can verify the draw.

Yes, up to 12 winners per contest, each ranked by position — ideal for tiered prizes like first, second, and third place.

Usually seconds to a few minutes, depending on the number of comments, but for tens of thousands of comments, it can last a lot of minutes, and for 100K+ comments, it can last several hours (just relax, and wait for the drawing to finish). The draw runs in the background with real-time progress updates, so you don't stare at a loading screen.

Yes. When creating a contest, set a "scheduled draw" time. The system will automatically start the draw at that time — no need to be online. You can also let the draw trigger automatically when the contest end time passes.

You can redraw any specific winner position with a reason (e.g., "didn't respond within 48 hours"). The original winner and the reason are recorded in the audit trail for transparency.

Yes. While the draw is processing, you can click cancel. The contest returns to pending status so you can adjust settings and try again.

Yes, but only while it's in pending or failed status. Once a draw is in progress or complete, the contest is locked to preserve the integrity of results.

Yes. Click "Duplicate" on any existing contest to create a new one with the same rules, prize descriptions, and settings. Just update the post URL and dates.

The main difference is API limitations. Instagram's API doesn't expose individual likers, sharers, or follower lists, so those filters can't be automatically verified. Tag counting, keyword filtering, and time windows work the same as Facebook.

Instagram doesn't provide a messaging API, so winners must be contacted manually via DM. For Facebook contests, winners with email addresses can be notified automatically.

Not necessarily. If your Instagram account is a Business account linked to a Facebook Page, it appears automatically when you connect Facebook. You can also connect directly via Instagram Login, which doesn't require a Facebook Page at all.

Each completed contest gets a shareable results page with a unique link. It shows all entries, winners, and prize descriptions. You choose whether to share the link — it's not indexed by search engines.

Yes. Download a CSV file with all entries including participant names, profile IDs, emails, comments, winner status, and disqualification reasons.

For Facebook contests, you can send email notifications to winners who have email addresses on file. For Instagram, winners must be contacted manually via DM since Instagram doesn't provide a messaging API.

Contests with up to 300 comments are free. Above that, there's a small one-time fee based on comment count. There are also optional tier upgrades that permanently raise your account's comment limit. See the pricing page for details.

After. We fetch all comments first and show you the exact fee. You only pay if you want to proceed with the draw.

No. There are no recurring charges at all. Per-contest fees are one-time, and tier upgrades are permanent — pay once, keep forever.

Every account starts with a free tier (up to 1,000 comments per contest). If your contests regularly exceed that, you can upgrade to a higher tier (Knight, Hero, Titan, Legend, or Godlike) with a one-time payment. The higher limit applies to all future contests permanently.

Credit/debit cards and PayPal, processed securely through Lemon Squeezy.

We access your Facebook Pages and read comments on contest posts using the official Graph API. We never see or store your Facebook password. Access tokens are encrypted and stored securely.

Yes. Go to your profile settings and click "Export Data" to download a JSON file with your full account data — contests, entries, audit events, and connected pages. This is also useful for GDPR compliance.

All your data is anonymized: your name becomes "[deleted]", emails and comments are cleared, Facebook pages are disconnected, and contest entries are anonymized. This cannot be undone.

Only you can see your contests while they're in progress. After winners are drawn, each contest gets a public results page — but only people with the unique link can access it.

Facebook Page tokens don't expire. Instagram Login tokens expire every ~60 days. The app automatically tries to refresh tokens before they expire and sends you an email reminder if reconnection is needed.

Check the error message on the contest page. Common causes: expired token (reconnect from your profile), deleted post (update the URL), or Facebook API rate limit (wait a few minutes and retry). Failed contests can always be retried.

This means fewer people passed your filters than the number of winners you requested. Try relaxing some entry rules (e.g., reduce the required tag count) or lower the number of winners.

The post has more comments than your current tier allows. You'll be prompted to upgrade your tier. This is a one-time purchase that permanently raises your limit for all future contests.

Go to your profile and click "Reconnect" next to the affected platform. For Instagram Login accounts, this needs to happen every ~60 days. Facebook Page tokens typically don't expire.

Pick a Winner fetches all comments via the official API, including replies. Duplicate comments from the same person are merged into one entry. The count you see is unique participants, not total comments. Facebook may also hide some comments due to spam filters, which the API cannot access.