Paste names, get random pairs or trios, and keep chosen people apart. Runs in your browser.
The names are shuffled, then cut from the top into groups of 2 for pairs or 3 for trios. With Make a group bigger every name goes into exactly one group; with Leave them out the extra people are shown in a No partner row instead. Lines are trimmed, blank lines are skipped and names that match once case is ignored count once, with a note. Up to 1,000 names are accepted, and you need at least 2 for pairs or 3 for trios. The result is a table with a Members column and the same list as plain text to copy. Press the button again for a new shuffle. The page opens with 7 sample names already paired, so an odd person out is visible straight away.
With an odd list, or a list that is not a multiple of 3 for trios, some people are left over. With n names and a group size s, Make a group bigger makes as many groups of s as fit and gives each extra person to a different group, one each: 7 names as pairs give one trio and two pairs, and 8 names as trios give two groups of 4. A group never ends up bigger than s plus 1. The one case where the extras would not each fit is 5 names as trios: you get a group of 3 and a group of 2, with a note. Leave them out keeps every group at the chosen size and shows the rest in a row called No partner, with a note giving how many people that is. For trios you may be left with 2 people, and both are listed as having no partner. Pick the option that matches your room, for example an odd class where one trio is fine.
The second box takes one rule per line, such as Ana, Bo, for people who must not be in the same group. A line may name more than two people and then none of them is grouped with another of them. Names are matched without regard to case. The tool tries up to 200 shuffles and keeps the first one that breaks no rule. This is a best effort. If no shuffle works, for example when Ana and Bo are the only two people, you still get the closest result with a note saying how many rules are broken. Lines that do not name at least two people from your list are ignored, and the note gives how many, never the text. Rules are limited to 200 lines and 20,000 different pairs of people in total (a line naming 200 people is already 19,900 pairs). Over that you get a fixed message and no result.
The shuffle uses your browser's secure random source when available, with the browser's ordinary random function as a fallback. Names stay in this tab. They are not stored, not sent and not part of any analytics event, and only the group size and leftover choice are remembered in this browser. This tool makes pairs only. If you need several teams of a set size or a set number of teams, the Team Maker on this site does that. Pairs made here are random, so they do not balance skill, friendship or any other trait.
You choose. Make a group bigger turns one pair into a trio, so 7 people give one trio and two pairs. Leave them out keeps pairs only and shows the extra person as No partner. Either way, everyone on the list is shown.
Yes. Type their names on one line in the Keep apart box, such as Ana, Bo. The tool tries up to 200 shuffles to avoid every rule. If it cannot, it shows the closest result and says how many rules are broken.
Yes. Choose Trios. With 10 names and Make a group bigger you get three groups of 4, 3 and 3. With Leave them out you get three trios and one person shown as No partner.
Almost never. Each press shuffles the whole list again. With 8 names there are 105 ways to form 4 pairs, so a repeat is possible but unlikely. Copy the list before you press again if you want to keep one.
No. They stay in this tab and are gone when you close it. Only the group size and leftover choice are remembered in this browser. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, and that never includes a name.