Secret Santa generator, no sign-up

1. Type the names. Put one name on each line, or paste a list from your group chat.
2. Add pairs who shouldn't draw each other. Couples are the usual case.
3. Add the details, if you like. A spending limit, the exchange day and a short note travel with every link.
4. Tap Draw the names. Your phone shuffles the names until every rule holds, and each fair result has the same chance.
5. Send each person their link. Use your phone's share button, WhatsApp, a text message or email. Each link opens one name, for one person.

When someone opens their link, they tap a button before the match appears. A quick look at their phone, or a link preview in a chat, shows no name.

Want everyone to share what they like first? Hand out our printable questionnaire when the names are drawn, then pass each sheet to the right Secret Santa.

Want a louder game where gifts get stolen? Try the white elephant rules.

At the office, follow our office Secret Santa rules and send each person their link in a private message, not in the team channel.

The draw runs in your browser. Each draw gets a room that keeps the names, who drew whom and anything people add there, such as a wish list. All of it is locked in your browser before it reaches us, and we store only the locked copy.

The key sits in your links, in the part after the # sign. Browsers keep that part on the device and never send it to a website, so we can't read any of it. If you save your email, we keep your room link too, only to send it to you. We never open your room.

After the exchange day, each person's link also shows who drew whom, unless the organizer turns that off. The room is deleted 18 months after the exchange day.

A few plain limits:

• A link works like a key. Anyone who gets a forwarded link can open it.
• Some mail tools open links. Work email may check a link before you see it. The tap keeps the match hidden until a person taps.
• Links stay in browser history, like any other link you open.
• This page shows no ads, so no ad script can read the names you type.

• A lost link. Open your organizer link and send that person's link again. If you ticked “Keep on this device to resend links”, this page on the phone you drew on works too.
• Checking your match again. Your link keeps working, so open it again whenever you want to look. Tick Remember this on this device to keep it on that phone as well.
• Next year. Open your organizer link, tick Don't repeat last year's matches, then choose New draw with these names. The new draw then repeats none of last year's pairs.
• Someone drops out. Choose Someone dropped out. Whoever drew that person takes over their match, and only they need a new link. The tool shows you who that is, so if you are playing, draw again instead.
• Someone joins late. That needs a new draw. Tell the group to use the newest links.

Running the whole exchange, not just the draw? Our guide How to organize a Secret Santa walks you through it, from the first message to reveal day.