How the seating chart generator works
It has two buttons, and they follow different rules. Auto-seat all takes everyone who has no seat yet and deals them into the empty seats in the order they appear on your list, filling Table 1, then Table 2, and so on. Anyone you have already placed stays put. Shuffle seats clears every seat, shuffles the entire list with a Fisher-Yates shuffle (every order equally likely), and deals it the same way. Each click is a new draw, and Undo steps back to the previous one.
So the rule you give the generator is the list itself. Order it by who should sit together and use Auto-seat. If nobody's placement matters and you want the room mixed, use Shuffle. Either way the result is an ordinary chart: drag any name to another seat, add or remove tables, and export when it looks right.
Random vs. list order: how often couples end up together
At a 120-guest wedding on 15 tables of 8, a purely random seating generator puts a given couple at the same table only 5.9% of the time, leaving about 3.5 of the 60 couples together. Listing each couple on consecutive lines and pressing Auto-seat keeps all 60. The reason is simple arithmetic: once one partner has a seat, only 7 of the other 119 seats are at the same table. That is also why the number of couples a shuffle keeps together barely moves as the room grows. At tables of 8 it stays around 3.5 whether you seat 80 guests or 120.
| Room | Tables | Shuffle: couple together | Shuffle: couples kept | Auto-seat, couples listed together |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The sample list loaded above | 4 × 8 | 23.8% | about 3.3 of 14 | 14 of 14 |
| Wedding, 80 guests | 10 × 8 | 8.9% | about 3.5 of 40 | 40 of 40 |
| Wedding, 120 guests | 15 × 8 | 5.9% | about 3.5 of 60 | 60 of 60 |
| Gala, 150 guests | 15 × 10 | 6.0% | about 4.5 of 75 | 75 of 75 |
| Class of 30 at paired desks | 15 × 2 | 3.4% | about 0.5 of 15 | 15 of 15 |
Method: after a shuffle every split of the list into the tables is equally likely, so the chance two named people share a table is the sum over tables of n(n − 1) divided by N(N − 1), where n is how many people that table holds and N is everyone. “Couples kept” is that chance times the number of couples. For the class row, a “couple” is two friends and a table is one pair of desks. We checked each row against the tool's own seating code with 100,000 shuffles per room, and every simulated rate matched the formula to within 0.1 percentage point.
Setting the rules: together, apart, by group
- Keep people together: write them on consecutive lines. Auto-seat deals the list in order, so couples at even-sized tables never split. The sample list above is written that way: 14 couples, 14 kept together by Auto-seat, about 3.3 by a shuffle.
- Seat by group: sort the list by family, team, class period or table request before you paste it. Auto-seat does not look ahead, so a family of four that starts on the seventh seat of an 8-seat table spills two people onto the next table. Put the biggest groups first and check the join between tables.
- Keep people apart: there is no keep-apart setting. From an empty room, names 8 or more lines apart cannot share a 8-seat table, because each table takes one unbroken run of the list. After a shuffle, drag one of the pair to another table.
- Fix a few seats, generate the rest: seat the head table, the teacher's helpers or anyone with access needs by hand first, then press Auto-seat. It only fills empty seats.
How to generate a seating chart
- Clear the sample, or keep the tables and replace the names. Add tables until the seat count covers your list.
- Paste your list into the add-a-guest box, up to 400 names at a time, or import a CSV.
- Press Auto-seat all to keep list order, or Shuffle seats for a random room. Shuffle again until you like it.
- Drag the handful of people who need a particular seat.
- Download the PDF to print, or a PNG to send.
Which generator page to use
This page is for putting a list into seats quickly. If you only want a random draw, the random seating chart generator opens with a roster ready to shuffle. For a wedding breakfast with a top table, the seating plan generator starts from that layout. Teachers can start from the classroom seating chart maker, and if you would rather draw the room freehand, the main seating chart maker opens on a small starter layout. Printed layouts to start from are in the template gallery.