Paste your class list, choose Number of groups, Students per group or Partners, and press Make groups. Every student has the same chance of landing in any group. Press it again, or the space bar, for a new draw.
How to make random groups
- Add the names. Type them, or paste a column from a spreadsheet or your gradebook. One name per line, or commas between names. If you saved a class, load it from the list.
- Mark who’s absent. Tap their names under “Who’s here?”. They’re left out until you tap them again.
- Choose how to split. A number of groups (say 6), a group size (say 4), or partners.
- Press Make groups, then Full screen to show them. Copy or Print saves the groups for later.
When the class doesn’t divide evenly
Group sizes never differ by more than needed. With Number of groups, the sizes differ by one at most: 26 students in 6 groups makes two groups of 5 and four groups of 4.
With Students per group, you choose what happens to the extra students:
| Students | Size | Some groups one bigger | Some groups smaller |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 4 | 6 groups: one of 5, five of 4 | 7 groups: four of 4, three of 3 |
| 27 | 3 | 9 groups of 3 | 9 groups of 3 |
| 23 | 5 | 4 groups: three of 6, one of 5 | 5 groups: three of 5, two of 4 |
With Partners and an odd number of students, one group of three is made, so nobody works alone.
Keeping students apart
List a pair on each line, such as Sam + Alex. The names must match the class list (capital letters don’t matter). The randomizer draws fresh groups until it finds one where no listed pair shares a group, so the result is still random. If the groups are too few to keep everyone apart, it shows the closest draw and names the pair it couldn’t separate.
Is it really random?
Yes. The order comes from your browser’s cryptographic random number generator, crypto.getRandomValues, the same source browsers use for security keys. Names are shuffled so every order is equally likely (a Fisher–Yates shuffle) and then dealt into groups. Nothing about a student, such as where they appear in the list, changes their chances.
More tools
- Seat the groups together with the seating chart generator, which loads the same saved classes.
- Time the activity with the classroom timer.