What is GroupMixer?
Groups that keep people meeting someone new.
GroupMixer splits people into groups, for one session or many rounds, so everyone meets as many new people as possible. It also keeps the rules you set: who must stay together, who should be apart, and how groups stay balanced.
9 of 36 pairs met0 repeat meetings
- met this round
- met earlier
- met again (repeat)
The problem in one sentence
Splitting people into groups once is easy. Splitting them again and again, without the same people landing together, is not.
Repeats pile up
Shuffle nine people four times and about a third of all possible pairs never meet, while other pairs keep meeting again.
Rules get broken
A shuffle doesn’t know that two people must be kept apart, or that the skipper has to stay on boat one.
Groups drift out of balance
Random groups can put all the beginners, or one whole department, into the same group.
Mathematicians know the multi-round version as the social golfer problem. It gets hard fast.
Where people use it
Workshop rotations
Rotate participants through tables or breakout rooms so every round brings new faces.
Speed networking
Plan rounds of small-group conversations without repeat introductions.
Classroom groups
Mix students fairly, balance by level or gender, and keep certain pairs apart.
Multi-day events and trips
Reshuffle crews, teams or tables every day for a week. GroupMixer started as a boat-crew planner.
Rules it respects
Keep together
Friends, couples or co-leaders always land in the same group.
Keep apart
People who shouldn’t share a group never do.
Balance by attribute
Spread levels, departments or genders evenly across groups.
Pin a person
Fix a facilitator or skipper to a specific group.
Plus partial attendance, per-round group sizes, meeting targets and weighted preferences. Browse the docs
How it works
Paste names
Type or paste a list, or import a spreadsheet. Add attributes like team or level if you need them.
Add rules
Choose the number of groups and rounds, then add keep-together, keep-apart or balance rules.
Optimize in your browser
The solver searches for the best schedule on your own device. Standard grouping of up to 50 people needs no account.
What it isn’t
A wheel spinnerIf you only need to pick one name at random, a spinner is faster.
A tournament bracketRound-robins and brackets schedule matches between teams. GroupMixer forms the groups.
A seating chartIt decides who is in which group, not where each person sits.
Try it with your own group
Paste names, pick the number of groups and rounds, and generate. It takes about a minute.