Random group assigner — put people into named groups at random

How to use the random group assigner

1. Type the people or items into People or items, one per line.
2. Type your groups into Group names, one per line. You need at least two.
3. Press Assign groups.
4. Read the roster, which lists each group with its size and members, or use the table below it to copy the result or download it as groups.csv.

What it does and when to use it

Use it when the groups already have names that matter: houses in a school, coloured bibs for a sports day, breakout rooms in a video call, shifts on a rota, stations in a lab session, or tables at a workshop. Because the names come from you, the roster can be pasted straight into an email or a slide.

You can also turn it around. Put tasks such as “washing up” or “bins” in the first box and people’s names as the groups, and every person gets a fair share of the jobs. To give one option a better chance than others, use the weighted random picker instead. For a single winner, the spinner wheel is more fun to watch.

How it works

The tool shuffles the list of people with a Fisher–Yates shuffle driven by crypto.getRandomValues, so every order is equally likely. It then deals the shuffled people into as many piles as there are group names, one at a time, which keeps the pile sizes within one of each other.

Finally, it shuffles which group name gets which pile. Without that step the first names in your group list would always get the bigger piles. Group names keep the order you typed them in the roster.

Worked examples

The sample lists. Twelve people and the groups Red, Blue and Green divide evenly, so each line starts Red (4), Blue (4) and Green (4). One run put Ben, Dev, Hiro and Aisha in Red. Press Assign groups again for a different mix.

An uneven split. Mia, Noah, Omar, Pia and Quinn into Morning and Afternoon: one run gave Morning (3) with Noah, Quinn and Omar and Afternoon (2) with Pia and Mia. Another run may give the three to Afternoon.

Missing input. A single group name returns “Add at least two group names.”, and an empty people box returns “Add the people or items to assign.”

Limits and tips

• Blank lines and spaces around names are ignored; duplicate names are kept as separate entries.
• The tool cannot keep two people apart or together. Re-run, or adjust by hand afterwards.
• To shuffle a list without grouping it, use the list shuffler.
• Names stay in your browser and are not uploaded.