Team maker
Randomly split a list into teams by count or size.
Twenty people, four tables, and everyone waiting for someone to decide who sits where. Picking teams by hand invites arguments and quietly reproduces the same groupings every week.
Paste your list, choose how to split it, and the tool shuffles and deals out the names for you.
How it works
Setting it up
Type or paste names into the box, one per line. Blank lines and stray spaces are ignored, so pasting from a spreadsheet column works without cleanup. You need at least two names.
Then choose how to divide them with the Split by dropdown:
- Number of teams — you set how many groups you want, and the tool decides how many people go in each.
- Members per team — you set the group size, and the tool works out how many groups that produces (rounding up, so nobody is left out).
Press Make teams for a result, and press it again for a completely different arrangement.
How names are assigned
The list is shuffled with a Fisher–Yates shuffle driven by the browser's cryptographic random source, then dealt out one at a time in rotation — first name to team 1, second to team 2, and so on. That round-robin step is what keeps sizes balanced: no two teams ever differ by more than one person.
Because the shuffle happens first, the order you typed names in has no effect on where anyone lands. The tool has no notion of skill, seniority or history, so if you need balanced ability rather than balanced numbers, run it within groups you have already separated.
Terms explained
- Split by
- Chooses whether your number means how many teams to create or how many people belong in each team.
- Members per team
- A target group size. The number of teams is derived from it, rounded up so every person is placed.
- Fisher-Yates shuffle
- A standard algorithm that reorders a list so every possible arrangement is equally likely.
- Round-robin distribution
- Dealing names to teams in rotation, which keeps group sizes within one person of each other.
- One per line
- The expected input format — each name on its own line, which is how a pasted spreadsheet column arrives.
Frequently asked questions
What happens when the number of people doesn't divide evenly?
Names are dealt out in rotation, so the extra people are spread across different teams. Group sizes end up differing by at most one person.
Can I get a different result without retyping the list?
Yes. Press "Make teams" again and the list is reshuffled from scratch, producing an independent arrangement each time.
Does the order I type names in affect the teams?
No. The whole list is shuffled before anyone is assigned, so typing order carries no information into the result.
Can it balance teams by skill level or seniority?
Not directly — it only balances headcount. A common workaround is to run it once per tier, for example splitting experienced members and newcomers separately, then combining the results.
Are the names I paste stored or sent anywhere?
No. The shuffling happens entirely in your browser and nothing is uploaded. Closing the tab discards everything.
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