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Make random groups for your class in seconds
Paste your class list, choose how many groups you need (or how many students per group), and generate. Students are shuffled first, then dealt one at a time across the groups, so sizes never differ by more than one and nobody can claim the groups were picked by hand.
Built for classroom realities
- Split by group size: choose “People per team” to make groups of 3, 4 or 5 without doing the maths yourself. Remainders are balanced, never dumped into one giant group.
- Keep apart / keep together: separate the pair that derails every lesson, or keep a shy student with a trusted friend. The generator retries until your rules hold, and tells you honestly if they cannot.
- Group leaders: mark a student with * before their name to spread one leader per group.
- Instant group names: every group can be auto-named from our classroom name lists, which saves the “what are we called?” debate.
- Projector-friendly: copy the result, or print a clean sheet with nothing but the groups.
Worked examples
| Class size | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | groups of 5 | 6 groups of 5 |
| 28 | groups of 4 | 7 groups of 4 |
| 25 | 5 groups | 5 groups of 5 |
| 22 | groups of 3 | 8 groups: six of 3, two of 2… balanced as 3,3,3,3,3,3,2,2 |
| 18 | pairs | 9 pairs |
Ideas for using random groups
Project teams, lab partners, reading circles, discussion groups, station rotations, debate sides, peer-review pairs and quiz teams. Re-shuffle each term, each unit, or each lesson: because the draw is random and visible, students accept the result.
Student privacy
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Student names are never uploaded, stored on a server, or shared. Use first names or initials if your school policy prefers it, and the list disappears when you close the tab.
Frequently asked questions
Is this random group generator free for teachers?
Yes. No sign-up, no school account, no daily limit, and no watermark on printed groups.
Can I make pairs instead of groups?
Yes. Set “People per team” to 2 and the whole class is paired off, with one group of 3 if the class is odd.
How do I stop two students ending up together?
Add them as a pair in the “Keep apart” box, one pair per line, and the generator will keep re-drawing until they are in different groups, or tell you if it cannot be done with your other rules.
What if a student is absent?
Delete their name from the list and re-generate. It takes five seconds.
Can the groups have fun names?
Yes, keep “Give each team a name” ticked, or browse the classroom team names in the Team Name Generator.