Random Team Generator

Paste your names, choose how many teams you want or how many players per team, and press Make teams. You get fair, evenly sized random teams in one click, with an optional captain for each. Your list never leaves your browser.

0 people

0 people.

Split by
Team names

Your teams

Your teams will appear here.

How to use the random team generator

  1. Add the names. Type or paste everyone who needs a team, one per line. Blank lines are ignored, and the count updates as you type.
  2. Choose the split. Pick Number of teams if you know how many groups you need, or People per team if you know the size you want, such as pairs or groups of five.
  3. Optional extras. Name the teams with numbers, colours or animals, and tick the captain option to pick one random leader per team.
  4. Make teams. Everyone is shuffled and dealt out like cards, so the groups are random and as even as possible. Not happy with the mix? Press Shuffle again for a completely new draw, or Copy teams to paste the result into a message.

How uneven numbers are split

When the group does not divide exactly, the teams differ by at most one person. The extra people are spread one per team, and which teams get them is random too.

PeopleTeamsTeam sizes
724 and 3
1034, 3 and 3
1143, 3, 3 and 2
2565, 4, 4, 4, 4 and 4
3048, 8, 7 and 7

If you choose People per team, the number of teams is the number of people divided by the size, rounded up, and the teams are then balanced the same way. Splitting 10 people into groups of 4 gives 3 teams of 4, 3 and 3, not two full teams and a leftover pair.

Worked examples

Four common uses. Press "Load this example" to fill in the form and make the teams straight away.

Split a class into groups

Twelve students, four groups of three, named with colours so groups are easy to call out.

12 names / 4 teams / Colours

Pick sides for a match

Ten players, two sides, no captains arguing over who picks first.

10 names / 2 teams / Team 1, 2

Pub quiz teams of three

Ten people, groups of about three. The tool rounds up to four teams and balances them as 3, 3, 2 and 2.

10 names / 3 people per team / Animals

Project groups with leaders

Nine people in three groups, each with a randomly chosen captain to run the first meeting.

9 names / 3 teams / Captains on

Tips for fairer teams

Random is not the same as balanced for skill. A random draw is fair, but it can still put the strongest players together. If skill matters, split strong and weaker players into separate lists first, make teams from each list, then combine team 1 from each, and so on.

Shuffle again freely. Each press is a completely independent draw. If a result clashes with a rule such as two siblings on one team, just draw again rather than swapping people by hand, which weakens the fairness.

Use one name per line. If two people share a first name, add an initial, such as "Sam K" and "Sam L", so you can tell them apart in the results.

Choose captains after the draw. Picking captains from inside each team, as the captain option does, is fairer than choosing leaders first and letting them draft.

Why the teams are fair

The list is shuffled with the Fisher-Yates method, driven by crypto.getRandomValues, the secure source browsers use for encryption, with rejection sampling so no arrangement is favoured. Every possible ordering of your names is equally likely, and the teams are cut from that order, so every possible split into evenly sized teams is equally likely too.

Nothing is saved or uploaded. Your list lives only in the page until you close or clear it.

Random team generator questions

How does the random team generator split uneven groups?

Teams differ by at most one person. With 10 people and 3 teams you get 4, 3 and 3, and the tool picks at random which teams get the extra person.

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

Yes. Switch to "People per team" and enter the size you want. The number of teams is the group size divided into your list, rounded up, then balanced, so 10 people in groups of 4 becomes 4, 3 and 3.

Will the teams be balanced by skill?

No. The draw is random, so it ignores skill and can put strong players together. For skill-balanced teams, split your list into strong and weaker players first, make teams from each, then combine them.

What happens if I press Shuffle again?

You get a completely new, independent draw. Earlier results have no influence on it, so a pairing you saw before can come up again.

How are captains chosen?

Tick "Pick a captain for each team" and one member of every team is chosen at random after the teams are formed. Each member of a team is equally likely to be captain.

How many people can I split into teams?

Up to 500 names and up to 50 teams. The split happens instantly in your browser.

Is my list of names saved or sent anywhere?

No. Your names stay in the page and are not uploaded or stored. Closing the tab clears them.