Who owes who calculator
You already know what everyone spent. This page turns that into the answer that matters: a short list of payments that leaves everybody square.
Short answer
Enter what each person paid and what they owed a share of, and the calculator converts that into balances and then the shortest list of payments that clears every one of them — the answer to 'who owes who' is always that final settlement list.
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 involved.
- 2Enter each payment that was made and who it covered.
- 3The balance list shows who is up and who is down.
- 4The settlement engine matches the biggest debtor to the biggest creditor until nothing is left.
'Who owes who' is really two questions in one: what does each person's overall position look like, and what's the smallest number of payments that fixes it? A lot of people try to answer this by mentally cancelling out debts pairwise, which works for two or three people but breaks down fast beyond that.
The maths behind it is simple once the balances are known: anyone with a positive balance is owed money, anyone with a negative balance owes it, and the two sides always sum to the same amount. The only genuinely hard part is finding the minimal set of transfers, which is what the calculator automates.
This page is aimed at people who already have the numbers — a holiday's worth of receipts, a month of shared bills — and just need them turned into an answer, rather than people wanting to log expenses as they go.
Worked examples with real numbers
Four people, known balances already
After a shared holiday, the group works out that Ravi paid 340 more than his share, Sana paid 60 more than hers, Tom paid 180 less than his share, and Uma paid 220 less than hers.
| Balances | Amount |
|---|---|
| Ravi | 340.00 |
| Sana | 60.00 |
| Tom | -180.00 |
| Uma | -220.00 |
| Person | Paid | Fair share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravi | 340.00 | 0.00 | +340.00 |
| Sana | 60.00 | 0.00 | +60.00 |
| Tom | 0.00 | 180.00 | −180.00 |
| Uma | 0.00 | 220.00 | −220.00 |
- UmaRavi220.00
- TomSana60.00
- TomRavi120.00
The two owed amounts (340 + 60 = 400) exactly match the two owing amounts (180 + 220 = 400), confirming the figures are consistent. Three transfers — Uma to Ravi 220, Tom to Sana 60, Tom to Ravi 120 — clear every balance.
Six-person group, mostly small differences
A recurring games night group of six tallies up who's covered pizza and drinks over two months. Five people are within 15 of their fair share either way, but one person, Wren, is 75 down after missing several rounds while still eating.
| Net position vs fair share | Amount |
|---|---|
| Five players, combined | 75.00 |
| Wren | -75.00 |
| Total | 0.00 |
Even with six people and many small transactions, if only one person is meaningfully out of balance, settling is a single payment from Wren covering the group's combined shortfall — there's no need for five separate small transfers.
From balances to a settlement list
1. Confirm balances sum to zero
sum of positive balances − sum of negative balances = 0
If this doesn't hold, an expense was logged or shared incorrectly.
2. Sort
list people from most owed to most owing
3. Match greedily
pay the biggest creditor from the biggest debtor until one of them reaches zero, then repeat
4. Stop condition
every balance is zero and no more than (number of people − 1) transfers were needed
Mistakes that cause arguments
Trying to cancel debts pairwise by memory
'You owe me for the taxi but I owe you for the tickets' reasoning works for two people but produces the wrong number of payments — and sometimes the wrong amounts — once a third or fourth person is involved.
Confusing 'who paid the most' with 'who is owed the most'
Someone can pay for the most expensive single item and still owe money overall if their fair share across everything was higher than what they paid.
Ignoring rounding differences until they compound
A one-cent rounding difference per expense across a dozen expenses can leave a balance that doesn't quite sum to zero — settle it by adjusting the final payment by that small amount rather than re-doing every calculation.
Practical tips
- If you already have balances (not raw expenses), enter those directly rather than reconstructing every underlying transaction.
- Double-check that positive and negative balances sum to zero before trusting the settlement list.
- Share the settlement list as a screenshot in the group chat so there's a single source everyone agrees to.
- For recurring groups, re-run the calculation each time rather than trying to carry the maths forward by hand.
Questions
- How do you decide the minimum number of payments?
- The largest debt is always matched against the largest credit, which repeatedly clears at least one person per payment and keeps the transfer list short.
- What does a negative balance mean?
- Negative means that person owes money to the group. Positive means the group owes them.
- Can I share the result?
- Yes. Share settlement produces a clean image of the payments — ideal for a group chat.