Random Team Generator
Paste a list of names and split it into random teams, groups or pairs — balanced, instant, no signup, nothing sent to a server.
Teams are drawn with your browser's cryptographic randomness.
Random teams without the arguments
Picking teams by captain is the fastest way to make somebody feel bad. Automatic random assignment takes the social weight out of it: nobody chose you last, the generator did. Paste the list, choose how many teams you need, and every name is assigned at once into balanced groups — no repeated draws, nothing to dispute afterwards. If you would rather reveal names one at a time on a shared screen, the optional wheel above does that too.
Teams, groups and pairs
The two controls cover every version of the same job. Choose Number of teams when the count matters — four project groups, two sides, six tables — and the list is dealt out so no group ends up more than one person larger than another. Choose People per team when the size matters, and the generator works out how many groups that makes. Pairs is simply that second control preset to two people, for partner work, doubles matches, buddy reading and secret-partner draws; with an odd number of people one group becomes a three so nobody sits out.
Where it works best
Sports teams. Split a pickup squad, assign five-a-side sides, or draw doubles partners for a tournament ladder.
Classroom groups. Break a class into project groups without the same friendship clusters forming every single time, and without spending five minutes of lesson time negotiating.
Hackathon teams. Mix strangers into balanced squads at the start of an event, then regenerate if late arrivals change the numbers.
Office project assignments. Rotate who owns the on-call week, who runs retro, or which pair takes the unglamorous ticket — visibly at random, so it never looks like a management preference.
Everything runs in your browser and the list is saved locally, so tomorrow's session picks up with the same names already loaded.
Need an order rather than groups? The list randomizer shuffles the same list into a running order, and the classroom wheel picks one name at a time on a projector. Wondering whether random assignment or ability balancing is right for your situation? Read Random Teams vs Balanced Teams. For recurring meeting routines rather than one-off grouping, the team and work wheel starters cover stand-up order, retro topics and capacity-weighted task assignment.
Frequently asked questions
Paste every name, set Number of teams to 2 and press Generate teams. Everyone is assigned automatically at random in one step, and the two teams never differ by more than one person.
Every participant is placed in exactly one team, so nobody can appear twice. Duplicate lines in your list are treated as two different people, which is useful when two people share a first name.
Yes. Your participant list, split settings and last result are saved in this browser automatically, so the next session opens with the same names already loaded.
Yes. Click any team heading and type a name — Reds, Blues, Table 4, whatever suits. Use Copy all teams to paste the full result into chat, a doc or a slide.
Groups and teams are the same thing here — only the label differs. Set Number of teams to how many groups you need, or switch to People per team to fix the group size and let the generator work out how many groups that makes.
Press Pairs, which is a shortcut for People per team = 2, then Generate teams. With an odd number of participants one group has three people, since nobody is left out.
Related tools
Other WheelOurNames tools people use alongside this one.