Split expenses calculator
When several people pay for different things, fairness is hard to eyeball. Log each cost once and this calculator works out everyone's share and the payments that square it up.
Short answer
Log every cost once, mark who paid and who it was for, and the calculator nets everything into a balance per person and the shortest list of payments to settle it. You don't need to split each expense manually — the totals do that.
People
Expenses
Balances
- Alex$375.00
- Sarah$15.00
- Mike$165.00
- Emma$195.00
+ gets money back · − owes money
💸 Settle up
Only 3 payments needed.
- EmmaAlex$195.00
- MikeAlex$165.00
- SarahAlex$15.00
Who paid what
- Alex$600.00
- Sarah$180.00
- Mike$60.00
Saved on this device. No account needed.
How it works
- 1Add everyone who is sharing costs.
- 2Add each expense: what it was, how much, and who paid.
- 3Tick who that expense was actually for — not every cost is shared by everybody.
- 4Choose an equal split, custom amounts, or percentages.
- 5Read the balances and the settle-up list at the bottom.
Splitting a single bill is simple arithmetic; splitting several expenses across a group is a bookkeeping problem. Different people pay for different things, some costs are shared by everyone, others by a subset, and by the end nobody can hold the running total in their head.
This calculator treats every expense as two numbers per person: what they paid and what their share of that expense was. Summing those across every expense gives each person's overall balance — positive if they're owed money, negative if they owe it.
The result is settled with the minimum number of transfers, so a group of six people with a dozen expenses between them might only need two or three payments to clear everything, not twelve refunds.
Worked examples with real numbers
Three flatmates, four expenses over a week
Amara, Ben and Priya share a flat. Amara pays for a 90 grocery shop, Ben pays 60 for a takeaway split between all three, Priya pays 45 for cleaning supplies, and Ben separately pays 30 for a taxi only he and Amara took.
| Expenses | Amount |
|---|---|
| GroceriesAmara paid, split 3 ways | 90.00 |
| TakeawayBen paid, split 3 ways | 60.00 |
| Cleaning suppliesPriya paid, split 3 ways | 45.00 |
| TaxiBen paid, split with Amara only | 30.00 |
| Total | 225.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amara | 90.00 | 80.00 | +10.00 |
| Ben | 90.00 | 80.00 | +10.00 |
| Priya | 45.00 | 65.00 | −20.00 |
- PriyaAmara10.00
- PriyaBen10.00
Amara paid 90 and owes a total share of 80, so she's owed 10. Ben paid 90 and owes 80, so he's also owed 10. Priya paid 45 and owes 65, so she owes 20 in total. Two 10 payments from Priya — one to Amara, one to Ben — clear the whole group.
Four colleagues splitting a work trip
Dan books flights for the group at 400 total, Fatima pays a 180 hotel for all four, Grace pays 60 for a group taxi, and Hassan pays 40 for lunch shared by everyone.
| Expenses | Amount |
|---|---|
| FlightsDan paid, split 4 ways | 400.00 |
| HotelFatima paid, split 4 ways | 180.00 |
| TaxiGrace paid, split 4 ways | 60.00 |
| LunchHassan paid, split 4 ways | 40.00 |
| Total | 680.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dan | 400.00 | 170.00 | +230.00 |
| Fatima | 180.00 | 170.00 | +10.00 |
| Grace | 60.00 | 170.00 | −110.00 |
| Hassan | 40.00 | 170.00 | −130.00 |
- GraceDan110.00
- HassanDan120.00
- HassanFatima10.00
Total spend is 680 across four people, so each person's fair share is 170. Dan overpaid by 230, Fatima by 10, while Grace and Hassan underpaid by 110 and 130. Three transfers clear the whole group — Grace pays Dan 110, and Hassan pays Dan 120 plus 10 to Fatima.
How balances and settlement are worked out
1. Per-expense share
expense amount ÷ number of people included = each included person's share
2. Personal balance
total paid by person − total share owed by person = balance
Positive balance means they're owed money; negative means they owe it.
3. Check it balances
sum of all positive balances = sum of all negative balances
4. Minimal settlement
match the largest debtor to the largest creditor repeatedly until every balance is zero
Mistakes that cause arguments
Recording who paid but not who the expense was for
A 60 takeaway paid by Ben only balances correctly if you also record that all three people shared it — otherwise the calculator has no way to know it wasn't just Ben's dinner.
Splitting a personal item across the whole group
If Amara buys herself a coffee on the group's grocery run, that line shouldn't be split three ways — log it separately as her own expense, included for her alone.
Waiting until the end to log everything from memory
Reconstructing three weeks of spending from receipts and memory introduces errors that are hard to catch. Log expenses as they happen.
Practical tips
- Add expenses as soon as they happen rather than saving them for a big reconciliation session — it takes seconds and avoids disputes about who paid what.
- Use custom splits (not just even shares) when someone didn't take part in part of an expense.
- Check the running balance occasionally rather than only at the end — a big imbalance is easier to fix early.
- Keep one-off personal purchases out of the shared list entirely, even if they were bought on the same shopping trip.
Questions
- Can different expenses involve different people?
- Yes. Each expense has its own participant list, so a taxi shared by two people inside a group of six only affects those two.
- Can I split by percentage?
- Yes. Every expense can be split equally, by custom amounts, or by percentages.
- Is my data stored anywhere?
- No account, no server. Your group is saved in your own browser, and you can clear it any time.