Random Group Generator – Split a List into Random or Balanced Teams
Free random group generator. Enter one name per line, choose the number of teams or people per team, and get random teams instantly. Add a skill number to each name to make balanced teams with matching totals, then copy or share the result.
What is the Random Group Generator?
The Random Group Generator divides a list of names into as many teams as you need, at random, the moment you press a button. It is made for the times you would otherwise be cutting up paper slips or playing rock-paper-scissors: PE lessons and recreation days, five-a-side or basketball scrimmages, breakout groups in a workshop, or a gaming night. You can set either the number of teams or the number of people per team, and when the numbers do not divide evenly, team sizes never differ by more than one person.
Choose Balanced by skill and the number after each name is treated as a skill rating, so the teams end up with totals that match as closely as possible. The tool first deals players out in a snake order from strongest to weakest, then keeps checking whether swapping members between teams narrows the gap, so the strongest players never all end up on the same side. Everything is calculated in your browser, and the names you enter are never sent to a server.
How to make random teams
- Enter the members, one per line Type the names on separate lines. Blank lines are ignored, so you can paste a list straight from a roster or spreadsheet. Anywhere from 2 to 500 people can be split.
- Set the number of teams or people per team Number of teams splits everyone into that many teams, while People per team makes teams of that size. Ten people in groups of three gives four teams of 3, 3, 2 and 2.
- Choose the method Random assigns people blindly, like drawing names from a hat. For Balanced by skill, enter each line as a name and a number, such as Alex,5. Higher numbers are treated as stronger.
- Make the teams and share them Press Make teams to see the result. If you do not like it, press again for a fresh split. You can copy the teams into a group chat or share them on X or LINE.
Tips for getting more out of it
- Rate everyone on the same scale, such as 1 to 5. Scores, win rates or any other number where higher means stronger will work.
- Paste two columns straight from Excel or Google Sheets, name and skill, and the tab between them is read as the separator.
- Got the same line-ups as last time? Just press the button again for a different split. Copy any result you want to keep before you reshuffle.
- If your teams are going to play each other, enter the team names in the Tournament Bracket Maker to draw up the match-ups as well.
When to use a random group generator
PE lessons and recreation
Split a class or a group fairly for dodgeball, relays or sports day events. Because the result appears on screen straight away, nobody can complain the teams were picked unfairly.
Five-a-side and basketball scrimmages
Shuffle whoever turns up so the same people are not always on the same team. Add a number for experience or ability and you get sides that are evenly matched.
Workshops and classroom group work
Break participants into groups of a set size for discussions or projects. If you want to mix departments or year groups, arrange the list in a sensible order before you split it.
Gaming nights and board game meetups
Pair up players at random for team games or split them across tables. Enter ranks or ratings and the matches will be closer.
Random team generator glossary
- Random split
- Deciding who goes on which team purely by chance, like drawing lots. This tool shuffles everyone and then deals them to Team 1, Team 2 and so on in turn, so sizes differ by at most one.
- Balanced teams
- Teams whose total skill ratings are as close to each other as possible. It stops the strongest players from clustering on one side and keeps games competitive.
- Snake draft
- Ranking players from strongest to weakest and dealing them to teams in the order 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1 and so on. The team that picks first in one round picks last in the next, which keeps the totals even.
- Skill total gap
- The difference between the team with the highest skill total and the team with the lowest. The closer it is to zero, the more even the split, and the tool shows it next to the result.
Random team generator FAQ
Side Note — Why perfectly fair teams are a hard maths problem
Splitting people into teams whose skill totals are exactly equal sounds simple, but it is a famously hard problem. Deciding whether a set of numbers can be split into two groups with the same sum is known in computer science as the partition problem, and no method is known that always finds the answer quickly for every possible input (it is one of the classic NP-complete problems). Even dividing 30 people into two teams of 15 can be done in more than 77 million different ways.
That is why real-world team picking has always relied on tricks that find a fair enough split quickly rather than a perfect one. The best known is the snake draft, where players are ranked and teams take turns picking in an order that reverses every round. Fantasy sports leagues use exactly this system, so that the team with the first pick in one round has to wait longest in the next, which stops talent piling up in one place.
This tool starts with a snake-order split, then repeatedly checks whether swapping one member between two teams would bring their totals closer, and tries several different starting points before keeping the most even result. It cannot promise the mathematically perfect split every time, but for groups of a few dozen it almost always finds one where the gap is practically zero, in the blink of an eye.