Meeting organizers and appointed breakout room managers can assign people to breakout rooms. Breakout room managers must first join the meeting to assign people to rooms.
Assign participants to a breakout room
Assign participants to breakout rooms before or during a meeting.
Before a meeting
To assign people to breakout rooms before a meeting:
Select Calendar
in Teams.Select a meeting.
Select View event
.Select More options
> Breakout rooms 
.This option will only appear after invites have been sent to attendees.
Select Assign participants
> Manually assign people to rooms > Next.In the Room
column, select Unassigned or the room they’re currently assigned to.Select the room you want to assign them to.
Select Save.
During a meeting
To assign people to breakout rooms during a meeting:
- Select Rooms
in the meeting controls.
- Select Assign participants.
- Manually assign each person to a room or select Shuffle
to assign everyone randomly. - Select Save.
Before a channel meeting
To assign channel members to breakout rooms before a channel meeting, you must first join the meeting. Then:
- Open Teams on your desktop and go to your team channel.
- Select Breakout rooms.
- Select Assign participants and sort channel members into breakout rooms.
Meetings with breakout room capabilities are limited to 300 participants. If a channel contains more than 300 members, you won’t be able to assign people to rooms before the meeting.
Room assignments in recurring meetings
When an organizer assigns people to breakout rooms in a meeting series, the room assignments will apply to future meeting occurrences unless the organizer manually changes them.
Shuffle people across breakout rooms
Randomly assign participants to breakout rooms before and during a meeting. Shuffle everyone or only shuffle people who aren’t in a room yet.
Before a meeting
To shuffle participants in breakout rooms before a meeting:
Select Calendar
in Teams.Select a meeting.
Select View event
.Select More options
> Breakout rooms
.This option will only appear after invites have been sent to attendees.
Select Assign participants
> Shuffle
.This option only appears after attendees have been assigned to breakout rooms.
From the Shuffle
dropdown menu:- Select Everyone to shuffle all participants.
- Select Only unassigned people to shuffle participants who haven't been assigned to a room.
Select Save to reassign participants to new breakout rooms.
During a meeting
To shuffle participants in breakout rooms during a meeting:
- Select Rooms
in the meeting controls.
In Breakout rooms, select Assign participants
> Shuffle
.From the Shuffle dropdown menu:
- Select Everyone to shuffle all participants.
- Select Only unassigned people to shuffle participants who haven't been assigned to a room.
Select Save to reassign participants to new breakout rooms.
Assign people in bulk using a CSV file
Save time setting up breakout rooms by importing a CSV file. This lets you create rooms and assign participants in bulk—useful for trainings, workshops, and other structured meetings.
Import participants from a CSV file
In your meeting controls, select Breakout rooms.
Select Import from CSV.
Choose your CSV file or drag and drop it into the window.
Select Import.
Breakout rooms will be created based on the room names in your CSV file.
Participants will be assigned to rooms based on their email addresses. When participants join the meeting, they'll be assigned to a specific breakout room if their email matches an entry in the CSV file. If there's no match, they won't be assigned automatically. Move or reassign participants at any time using standard breakout room controls.
CSV file requirements
The file must be in .csv format.
The file must follow the required structure shown during upload.
Include valid room names and participant email addresses.
If there are issues with the file (such as an invalid format or incorrect data), you’ll see an error message to help fix the problem.
Limitations
CSV import doesn’t support distribution lists. You must use individual email addresses for each participant.
Importing a CSV file doesn’t invite participants to the meeting—it only assigns them to breakout rooms after they join.
Participants are automatically assigned to rooms only if their email matches an entry in the CSV file.
Importing a new CSV file may replace existing breakout room assignments.
The CSV file must follow the required format. Invalid files or incorrect data will cause the import to fail.