Use animal names
Switch the naming scheme to animals. "The Tigers, The Owls, The Bears" works far better than "Group 1" with five-year-olds.
Tiny teams for circle games, parachute play and sing-along activities β paste names and split fast.
The free version does the job. The optional template pack just makes brackets look beautiful for events, classrooms and clubs.
Free forever for basic use Β· No signup required
Pre-K and reception teachers needing fast small groups for short activities. Three is the magic number β bigger groups stop listening, pairs leave one child out when someone is absent.
Switch the naming scheme to animals. "The Tigers, The Owls, The Bears" works far better than "Group 1" with five-year-olds.
Children's names never leave the device. Important when using real first names from a class register.
There's a temptation to think a sport-specific or classroom-specific tool would be 'better' than a generic generator. In practice the opposite is true: the rules of fair team-splitting are the same whether you're dividing a Year 7 PE class or a Sunday-league football squad. What changes between audiences is the framing β the language used in the guide, the typical group size, the kinds of ratings people record. The underlying maths (FisherβYates shuffle, snake-draft balancing) is identical. That's why this site uses one generator across many audience-specific pages: the same engine, with copy and presets tuned to the context.
If you'll regenerate teams from the same roster repeatedly β every Tuesday training, every Friday game night β paste the names once, click 'Copy as text', and save the result in a note app or a pinned message. Next session, paste it back. There's no account system to maintain and nothing to forget; the names live wherever you keep your other notes. For coaches managing multiple squads, prefix each name with a one-letter squad tag (e.g. 'A Alex', 'B Sam') and use the filter step to keep only the relevant tag before generating.
Yes β switch the mode to pairs. Triads are usually safer when children miss a day.
Yes. The generator doesn't ask for personal information, doesn't display ads inside the tool itself, and runs entirely client-side. Many teachers use it weekly. See the trust and safety page for the full position on under-16 use.
Yes β the 'Export CSV' button gives you a two-column file (team, name) that opens cleanly in Excel, Google Sheets, and Numbers. From there you can pivot, filter, or merge with attendance records.
Add their name to the textarea and regenerate. If you want to preserve the existing teams and just slot the latecomer in, use the 'Add to smallest team' shortcut instead of regenerating β it places them on whichever team currently has the fewest members.
Type or paste your names and we will divide them into random groups of three β ideal for triad discussions, peer reviews and quick activities.
OpenBuilt for the moment you walk into the gym with 28 kids and need fair teams before the warm-up ends.
OpenCamp counsellors: paste your group, pick animals or colours, get four spirited teams ready for the relay.
OpenWednesday night games, lock-ins, retreats β paste who showed up and split into balanced teams without favouritism.
OpenFree forever for basic use. No signup required. The free version really does do the job.
Want prettier prints? See the optional template pack