Random Team Generator
Paste your list of names, choose how many teams you need or how many people per team, and press Generate teams. The teams are balanced so their sizes never differ by more than one.
Tip: put * in front of a name (e.g. *Alex) to spread starred players across teams, one per team where possible. With captains on, starred players become captains.
Teams are shuffled in your browser with a cryptographically secure random generator. Names are never uploaded.
How to use the Random Team Generator
- Enter the names, one per line or separated by commas. Use Sample names to try it out.
- Choose how to split: a number of teams, or a number of people per team.
- Pick options: team name style, captains, and whether to remove duplicates. Put * before key players to spread them out.
- Press Generate teams. Each team appears as a card with its members.
- Press Shuffle again for a new draw, or use Copy teams, Download TXT or Download CSV to share the result.
How teams are balanced
When n people are split into k teams, every team gets either ⌊n ÷ k⌋ or ⌈n ÷ k⌉ people. The number of larger teams is the remainder n mod k. With a team size s, the number of teams is ⌈n ÷ s⌉ and the same balancing rule applies.
| People | Setting | Teams | Team sizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 3 teams | 3 | 4, 4, 4 |
| 10 | 3 teams | 3 | 4, 3, 3 |
| 10 | 4 per team | 3 | 4, 3, 3 |
| 23 | 5 per team | 5 | 5, 5, 5, 4, 4 |
| 30 | 4 teams | 4 | 8, 8, 7, 7 |
Why the Fisher–Yates shuffle?
A fair team draw needs every ordering of the names to be equally likely. The Fisher–Yates (Knuth) shuffle does exactly that: it walks backwards through the list and swaps each name with a randomly chosen name at or before it. Simpler tricks, like sorting by a random number, can be subtly biased. This tool draws its random numbers from crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling, which avoids the small bias you get from taking a remainder of a random number.
Ideas for using it
- Classrooms: make random study groups or project teams in seconds, and shuffle again for the next activity.
- Sports and games: pick five-a-side football teams, pub quiz teams or board game partners. Star the strongest players to spread them out.
- Work: form breakout rooms, workshop groups or secret-santa style pairings (choose 2 people per team).
- Tournaments: use the CSV download to import teams into a spreadsheet or bracket tool.
Frequently asked questions
How does the random team generator work?
It shuffles your list with the Fisher–Yates algorithm, using your browser's cryptographically secure random number generator, and then deals the names one by one to the smallest team. Every possible arrangement is equally likely, and the result cannot be predicted.
Are the teams balanced?
Yes. Team sizes never differ by more than one person. For example, 10 people in 3 teams gives one team of 4 and two teams of 3, and 10 people with a team size of 4 also gives 3 teams (4, 3 and 3) rather than a lonely team of 2.
What is the difference between number of teams and people per team?
With Number of teams you choose how many groups you want and the tool works out the sizes. With People per team you choose the ideal size and the tool creates as many teams as needed (the total divided by the size, rounded up), then balances them.
How do captains work?
Tick Pick a captain for each team and one member of every team is chosen at random and listed first with a Captain badge. If you mark names with a star (*Alex), starred people are spread one per team and become the captains of their teams.
Can I balance teams by skill?
Mark your strongest players with a * in front of their name. They are dealt to different teams first, before everyone else is shuffled in, so no team gets all the stars.
Is my list saved or uploaded?
Your list is never uploaded. It is remembered only in your own browser so it is still there next time you open the page; press Clear to remove it.