How to use it
- Enter names and group sizePaste your list with one name per line, then set how many people should be in each group. Use 2 for random pairs.
- Set rounds and rulesPick the number of rounds, from 1 to 12, and add rules such as Ana ! Ben, one per line, for people who should never share a group.
- Make groups and read the countPress Make groups, scan each round, and check the repeated pairs number reported underneath. Press again for a different schedule.
What the group generator does
- Works as a group randomizer for one round or up to 12, keeping the split with the fewest repeated pairs each round.
- Becomes a random pair generator when you set 2 people per group, or a random partner generator for partner work that changes every round.
- Keeps people apart with never-together rules such as Ana ! Ben.
- Serves as a random group generator for teachers and workshop leaders: plan stations or study circles for a whole session in one go.
- Counts the repeated pairs in the result, so you can see how fresh each round is.
A schedule, not a single split
A team draw answers one question: who goes where, once. A session often needs more. Students rotate through four activity tables, participants meet a new neighbor every ten minutes, a study circle reshuffles each week. For those, a single split is the wrong tool, because the second split should not look like the first.
This page builds all the rounds together. Round two knows who sat with whom in round one, and round three knows about both. If you only need one division of a class into sides, the team generator is the simpler page; this one is for repeating the exercise without recycling the same partners.
How each round is chosen
For every round, TwirlPick shuffles the list into groups of your size and scores the result. Each pair that has already shared a group adds one point for every time it happened. A pair you marked as never together adds a thousand points. The tool tries up to 300 random splits per round, keeps the lowest score, and stops early if it finds one with a score of zero.
The shuffles draw on the cryptographic generator built into your browser, the same source as every other TwirlPick draw. What this process offers is a good schedule, not a mathematical proof of the best one: it is a search by many random tries. For classroom sizes it finds clean answers quickly, and the repeated pairs figure tells you honestly when it could not.
How many rounds can stay completely fresh
There is a hard ceiling on how long a schedule can avoid repeats. In groups of three, each person meets two new people per round. Among 12 people there are 11 others to meet, so at most five rounds can be fully fresh: after five, each person has met 10 of the 11 others, and a sixth round would need two new faces when only one is left. The table shows this ceiling, which is simple division and does not depend on the tool.
Reaching the ceiling in practice can be harder than the arithmetic suggests, and uneven group sizes lower it slightly. Past the ceiling repeats cannot be avoided, and the tool simply keeps their number as low as it can find. Treat the figure as a planning guide: asking for fewer rounds than the ceiling gives the search a much better chance of reaching zero.
| People | Group size | New people met per round | Most rounds with no repeats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 16 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 20 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| 24 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 30 | 5 | 4 | 7 |
Never-together rules
Write a pair on a line with an exclamation mark between the names: Ana ! Ben. The rule works in both directions and applies in every round. Use it for siblings in a class who work better apart, for two colleagues from the same team at a networking event, or for two friends who always dominate the discussion.
Because a broken rule costs far more than any repeat, the search avoids it first. Even so, it is a strong preference rather than a locked rule, so glance down the groups before you print them, especially with many rules or tiny groups. Rules stay on your screen; only the group lists are meant for sharing.
Three schedules, and running them on the day
Classroom stations: 24 students, groups of 4, six rounds, one per station. The tool gives you six groups per round; you assign group 1 to the first station and rotate the numbers yourself. Add a rule for the two students who need a break from each other.
Speed networking: set the group size to 2 and the rounds to 8 for random pairs. With an odd headcount, one person appears alone in each round; treat that as a break or let them join a pair as a third. Either way, tell people the round length up front and use a visible timer. Study circles: groups of 4 or 5 and eight rounds at the start of the school year gives each week a new mix and a printed plan for the whole term.
Decide ahead of time whether late changes are possible. Every press of Make groups rebuilds all rounds from scratch, so if a student turns out to be absent, delete the name and generate again before you share anything. Once groups are on a wall or a slide, treat them as final and let the absent student's seat stay empty.
Give each group a number rather than a label that suggests a ranking. Announce the round length, and say where group 1 moves next. A simple rule such as every group moves one table clockwise works with the stations idea above, while the people in the groups change with each round. Copy the lists into your lesson plan, because the page does not keep a history of earlier schedules.
Groups for workshops and teams at work
Mixed groups are most useful when people usually sit with the same colleagues. For an onboarding cohort, a retrospective or an all-hands workshop, list everyone and add a never-together line for each pair from the same small team. The groups then cut across departments, and later rounds keep widening the circle.
Short rounds work best: ten minutes with a prompt, then a new group. Four rounds of groups of five let each participant meet around sixteen different colleagues, which is more than most coffee-machine encounters manage in a month. For a remote call, paste the lists into the chat so people can find their breakout room. Planning the office gift exchange too? The Secret Santa generator sends each person a private link.
When the headcount does not divide evenly
Group size is a target. TwirlPick divides the number of people by it and rounds to the nearest whole number of groups, then spreads everyone out. So 10 people at size 3 make three groups (4, 3, 3), 14 people at size 4 make four groups (4, 4, 3, 3), and 25 people at size 4 make six groups (5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4).
No group is ever made of a single leftover person, except in pair mode with an odd number, as noted above. Your latest list is held in browser storage for your next visit; the list is not sent to a server.
Questions
How do I make random groups for several rounds without the same people together?
Enter the names and group size, set Rounds to the number you need, and press Make groups. Each round avoids earlier pairs as much as it can. A status message beneath Make groups gives the number of repeated pairs. Zero means everybody met someone new every round.
How do I make random pairs from a list of names?
Set people per group to 2. With 12 names you get six pairs per round, and with several rounds each person gets a different partner whenever possible. With an odd number, one person is left in a group of one for that round.
Can I stop two people from being in the same group?
Yes. Add a line such as Ana ! Ben in the never together box. It applies both ways in every round. The search treats a broken rule as far worse than any repeat, but check the groups yourself when you have lots of rules or small groups.
What does repeated pairs mean in the result?
Each time two people share a group after having already shared one in an earlier round, that counts as one repeated pair. A count of zero is a perfect schedule. Higher numbers usually mean you asked for more rounds than the group size and headcount allow, so lower the rounds or raise the group size and press the button again.
How is a group generator different from a team generator?
A team generator splits people once, with options like captains and kept-together pairs. A group generator plans repeated splits over rounds and remembers who has met, so it suits rotations and networking. For a single split into sides, use the team generator.
Does the generator save my groups or my list?
Only the list of names is remembered, held by your browser in local storage, so it is waiting when you return. The groups themselves are not saved or sent anywhere. Copy them into your plan before you close the page, because pressing the button again replaces every round.
Why do some people still meet twice?
Either the arithmetic forces it, as in the table above, or the random search did not find a perfect schedule within its 300 tries per round. Press Make groups again for a new attempt (each press starts the whole search from scratch), reduce the number of rounds, or use larger groups so each round introduces more new people.