Random Team Generator

What this generator does

Splits one list of people into random teams of roughly equal size. You can work from either end of the problem — say how many teams you want and let the sizes fall out, or say how big each team should be and let the number of teams fall out. It is aimed at the everyday split: PE lessons, workshop breakouts, five-a-side, a quiz night. It divides people at random and nothing else; it has no notion of skill, seniority or who works well together.

How to use this tool

1. Enter participant names, one per line.
2. Choose the number of teams, or the size of each team.
3. Optionally name your teams.
4. Generate to see your random teams, and reshuffle any time.

Understanding the controls

Number of teams

Divides everyone into exactly this many teams. When the list does not divide evenly the remainder is spread one person at a time across the teams, so 29 people into 4 teams gives 8/7/7/7 rather than 7/7/7/8 with one oversized group.

People per group

The other way round: fixes the size of each team and creates as many as the list allows. A final short team is normal here — 29 people in groups of 5 gives five groups of 5 and one of 4, because the alternative would be breaking the size you asked for.

Worked examples

A class of 29 into 4 teams

Teams come out at 8, 7, 7 and 7 — the remainder is spread one per team rather than piling onto the last one.

A workshop split into groups of 5

Choose team size instead of team count. 23 people become 5 groups: four of 5 and one of 3.

Common use cases

• Sports and classroom team splits
• Work exercises and icebreakers
• Game nights needing balanced random teams

How this generator works

The full list of names is shuffled first, using a Fisher–Yates shuffle driven by your browser's Web Crypto random generator — a method that gives every possible ordering the same chance, unlike repeatedly picking a name at random from the list. The shuffled names are then dealt out one at a time around the teams, like dealing cards. Dealing rather than slicing the list into blocks is what keeps the sizes even automatically: the remainder lands one per team, so no team is ever short by more than one person.

Randomness and fairness

The full list of names is shuffled once with a Fisher-Yates shuffle driven by your browser's cryptographic random number generator, then dealt out into teams in order. Because the shuffle produces every possible ordering with equal probability, every person is equally likely to land in any given team, and no position in the list you paste — first, last, or middle — carries any advantage.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

• Teams are balanced by size only. The tool knows nothing about skill, ability, friendship groups or keeping particular people apart — if that matters, treat the result as a first draft and adjust it.
• There is no memory between generations, so running it two weeks in a row can easily produce similar teams. Regenerate if you want a visibly different split.
• Names are not saved. Reloading the page clears the list, so keep your roster in your own document.

Common mistakes

Expecting the teams to be balanced by ability

They are balanced only by headcount. The tool cannot see anything about the people on the list, so a random split will sometimes put the four strongest players together. If that matters, seed the teams by hand first and use this only for the remaining places.

Reshuffling until the teams look right

Every reshuffle is an independent fair draw, but repeatedly redrawing until you like the answer is no longer a random split — it is your choice wearing a random split's clothes. If you need a particular arrangement, it is more honest to arrange it openly.

Practical tips

• Paste directly from a register or spreadsheet column: one name per line is all it needs, and blank lines are ignored rather than becoming an empty team member.
• Naming the teams before you generate makes the result easier to read out loud and easier to photograph for the group.

Privacy and your data

Names are processed entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored between visits, and no name appears in the page address, so a shared link never carries your list. Analytics sees only that a split happened and how many teams were made, never who was on the list.

Frequently asked questions

Are the teams actually balanced?

Team sizes are balanced automatically — if the names don't divide evenly, leftover members are spread across teams so no team has more than one extra person. Who ends up on which team is randomised; the tool doesn't weigh skill or ability.

Can I choose the number of teams instead of team size?

Yes — you can split by number of teams (e.g. "4 teams") or by team size (e.g. "teams of 5"), whichever is easier for your situation.

Can I name the teams?

Yes, you can optionally give each team a custom name instead of using "Team 1", "Team 2", and so on.