Split a group into 1‑on‑1s or small groups

29 October 2026

When a whole group can’t meet at once, or never needed to, Split into groups puts people into pairs, 1‑on‑1s or small groups, each at a time everyone in it is free. It places as many people as it can and lists who couldn’t be fitted in.

You’ll find it on the Everyone tab, under Best times: Can’t all meet at once? Split into groups. It appears once at least two people have answered.

Pairs, 1‑hour meetings: everyone gets a slot when both people in the pair are free.

Set the group size and length

Under People per group, set the fewest and the most people in each meeting. It counts everyone in the meeting. Pairs are 2 to 2; study groups might be 3 to 4.
Under Meeting length, set the shortest and longest meeting. With the same value in both, every meeting is that long.
Read the plan underneath. It updates as you change anything.

The plan lists each meeting with its time and people. Anyone who doesn’t fit is listed after Without a meeting.

Lengths go in half hours. For 15‑minute meetings, press Expand to 15 min above the grid first.

1‑on‑1s with one person

For office hours, interviews or a supervisor seeing each student, choose that person under Always with. They’re in every meeting, and meetings run one at a time.

People per group still counts everyone, that person included. So 2 to 2 with someone under Always with gives 1‑on‑1s, and 3 to 3 gives them a meeting with two people at a time.

Under More options, Break between meetings adds a gap after each meeting, for notes or a short rest.

More options

Meetings per person: with Up to 2 or more, people who’d otherwise be left out can join someone’s second meeting. Spread them out evenly makes sure more people get a second meeting before anyone gets a third.
Meetings at once: how many meetings can run at the same time. One at a time fits a single room or a single host.
Meetings per day: the most meetings on any one day, so an interviewer’s Monday doesn’t fill up while Friday stays empty.
Only between: keep meetings within part of the day, such as 10:00–16:00.
Prefer: when group sizes can vary, choose Fewer, bigger groups or More, smaller groups.

Other plans that are just as good

Often there are several ways to group people that place the same number of people. The arrows next to the plan step through up to five of them. A plan counts as different only when someone is in a different group, not just at a different time.

Show coverage outlines every meeting of the plan on the grid, so you can see where they fall in the week.

How the plan is chosen

The plan first places as many people as possible. Among plans that do, it then goes for fewer or more meetings (your choice under Prefer), and then for longer ones. It checks the possible groupings with a solver that runs in your browser. For a class-sized group that usually takes well under a second. If a search runs past 5 seconds, you get the best plan found so far, with a note saying so.

If people end up without a meeting, no grouping fits them with everyone’s current times. Allow a wider range of group sizes, shorter meetings, or a second meeting per person, or ask them to add more times.

The copy button above the plan copies it as text, one line per meeting with its time and people, to paste into an email or a chat.