Expense Splitter
Split shared expenses among a group and see who owes whom the least transfers.
Add the people in your group and every expense — including who paid and who took part in each one. The tool nets out all the spending and shows the minimal set of payments needed to settle up. Perfect for trips, dinners and shared households. Everything stays in your browser.
People
Expenses
Total: $60.00
Settle up
- Sam→Alex$20.00
- Jordan→Alex$20.00
Add each person in your group, then log every expense with its amount, who paid it, and which people it should be split between using the checkboxes. As you add expenses, the settle-up panel below updates automatically, showing each person's net balance and the minimal set of payments needed to clear the group's debts.
Formula & methodology
Each expense is split equally among its selected participants. Every person's net balance is paid minus their share, then a greedy largest-creditor/largest-debtor match produces the fewest transfers (at most n−1).
Worked example
- Alex paid $60 dinner for 3; Sam paid $30 taxi for 3 → Jordan owes Alex $30; Sam is already settled
Assumptions
- Each expense is split evenly among the people checked for it — to give someone a different share, adjust which expenses they're included in rather than expecting per-person weighting.
- The settle-up list shows the fewest possible transfers to zero out every balance; it may route payments through people who never directly shared an expense together.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, so groups with many expenses or odd splits can be left with a residual of a cent or two that doesn't perfectly zero out.
Common mistakes
- Leaving everyone checked for an expense only one or two people actually shared, which spreads the cost too thin.
- Entering the same purchase twice — once as an expense and again as a separate reimbursement — which double-counts it in the balances.
- Forgetting to uncheck someone who didn't take part in a specific expense, such as a meal one person skipped.
Frequently asked questions
Can someone skip an expense?
Yes. Untick a person on any expense and they are excluded from that split, while still sharing the others.
Is my data saved anywhere?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
How does the settle-up calculation minimize the number of payments?
It nets each person's balance (what they paid minus their fair share), then repeatedly matches the person owed the most with the person who owes the most until every balance reaches zero, producing at most one fewer transfer than there are people.
Can one expense be split unevenly between people?
Not directly — checking a person for an expense gives them an equal share. To approximate an uneven split, enter it as separate expenses with different amounts and participant sets.
What happens with rounding?
Splits are rounded to the nearest cent, so a bill that doesn't divide evenly — like $10 among 3 people — can leave a one- or two-cent difference that shows up as a tiny non-zero balance.
Does the order I add people or expenses matter?
No. The final balances and settlement only depend on the amounts, payers, and participants — not the order they were entered.
What if someone owes money but isn't in the settle-up list?
Everyone with a zero balance is left out of the transfer list since they don't owe or are owed anything; check their balance card to confirm it reads zero.
Privacy
All processing happens locally in your browser. Your data is never uploaded.