---
title: "How Does Chat Assignment Work?"
description: "When you assign a chat to a team, Chatfuel picks a teammate at random."
canonical_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/how-does-chat-assignment-work
markdown_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/how-does-chat-assignment-work.md
last_updated: 2026-03-19
lang: en
site: https://chatfuel.com/docs
llms_txt: https://chatfuel.com/llms.txt
---

# How Does Chat Assignment Work?

When you assign a chat to a team, Chatfuel picks a teammate at random.

## Overview [#overview]

When you assign a chat to a team, Chatfuel picks a teammate at random. The system does not check each agent's current workload — it simply selects one of the available [teammates](https://chatfuel.com/docs/account/how-to-add-teammates) and routes the conversation to them.

## How it works [#how-it-works]

1. A conversation reaches the point where it needs a human agent — either through an automatic handoff or because you move the [lead to Selling](https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/leads).
2. If you choose "Assign to team" (rather than picking a specific person), the system randomly selects one teammate from that team.
3. The selected agent receives the chat and can [take over from AI](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-stop-ai-during-active-conversations) immediately.

## What "random" means in practice [#what-random-means-in-practice]

* The assignment is random, similar to round-robin but without strict rotation tracking.
* There is no workload balancing — an agent who already has 20 open chats is just as likely to receive the next one as an agent with zero.
* Each assignment is independent of previous ones.

## Tips for managing workload [#tips-for-managing-workload]

Since automatic assignment does not account for workload, consider these approaches:

* **Set up assignment rules** — use [Fuely AI assignment rules](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-set-up-chat-assignment-rules) to automatically route chats to specific teammates based on conditions like city or language.
* **Assign manually** — open the lead and pick a specific teammate under **Assigned to** when you want to control distribution.
* **Use filters** — check the [Assigned to me and Unassigned filters](https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/how-to-change-chat-filters) regularly so no chat falls through the cracks.
* **Rebalance as needed** — managers can reassign chats from overloaded agents to teammates with capacity by dragging leads on the [Kanban board](https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/what-is-the-kanban-board).