Who owes whom after a trip
After a weekend away, the receipts are spread across four phones: one person booked the cabin, another paid for dinner, a third filled the tank. The fair answer is not “everyone pays a quarter of everything”, because not everything was for everyone. This splitter takes each expense with the people it was for, and turns the lot into a short list of transfers.
| Person | Paid | Share | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anna | $300.00 | $160.00 | +$140.00 |
| Ben | $90.00 | $130.00 | -$40.00 |
| Cy | $60.00 | $160.00 | -$100.00 |
That is the sample trip: a $300 cabin paid by Anna for all three, a $90 dinner paid by Ben for all three, and $60 of gas paid by Cy for Anna and Cy. Two transfers settle it: Cy pays Anna $100.00, and Ben pays Anna $40.00.
Settling up
- Add every expense as it happens, or all at once at the end from the receipts.
- Tap off anyone an expense was not for.
- Copy the result into the group chat; everyone sees what they owe and to whom.
For a shared home instead of a shared trip, the rent split calculator divides the rent by room size or by income. More money tools are on the Money page.
Questions
How do I split trip costs with friends fairly?
Write down every expense with who paid it and who it was for, add up each person's share, and compare it with what each person paid. Whoever paid more than their share gets money back, whoever paid less owes it. This splitter does that arithmetic and then lists the transfers that settle everyone.
Can an expense be for only some of the group?
Yes. Under each expense, the names are buttons: tap off the people it was not for. A taxi for two, a dinner without the person who stayed in, gas for the car that drove: each is split only among the people it was for.
How does it keep the transfers few?
It works out each person's balance (what they paid minus their share), then lets the person who owes the most pay the person who is owed the most, and repeats. With five people that is never more than four transfers, and often fewer.
Do I need an app or an account?
No. Everything happens on this page: copy the result into the group chat as text, save it as a picture, or download the settlement as a PDF. The names and amounts are remembered in this browser only, until you clear your browser data.
What happens to the odd cent?
Amounts are split in whole cents. When an amount does not divide evenly, the leftover cents go one each to the first people in the list for that expense, so the shares add up to the amount exactly and the transfers settle to the cent.