Decide how much each person shares of every expense, add in money already handed over, and get per-person balances and the transfers left to make.
This calculator works only with the values you enter. It does not look up exchange rates and converts only with the rate you type in, it does not send bank transfers, and it does not store the names and amounts you enter or leave them in the address bar.
Values to have ready
The list of people settling up. Two to twenty people, and every name has to be different.
Each expense and the person who actually paid for it.
How each expense should be shared. Splitting evenly means 1 for everyone; to split lodging by nights, enter each person's number of nights.
Amounts already confirmed in the settlement currency. If your card statement shows the charged amount, enter that figure and do not reconvert it at today's rate.
Any money already handed over during the trip, and any expense that was cancelled or refunded.
For any expense with no confirmed charge yet, the amount in the currency you paid in and the rate to apply. You have to look the rate up yourself; the calculator does not fetch it.
Please check your entries
Some costs are not yet fixed in the settlement currency
No transfer plan is produced until every cost is fixed in the same settlement currency. Finish converting the rows below and calculate again.
Settlement basis
Note which trip this settlement is for so the copied result is not confusing later. It is not used in the calculation.
Every amount has to be entered in this one currency. For money spent in another currency, check the amount actually charged and convert it into this currency yourself.
Ticking this adds an estimate label to the result. The calculated figures themselves do not change.If you enter an expense converted with an exchange rate, the estimate label is added to the result automatically, whatever this checkbox says.
Participants
Two to twenty people. Real names are not required, and do not enter phone or account numbers.
Expenses and refunds
Set the payer and the share weights for each expense. To split lodging by date, add one expense per night and enter 1 only for the people who slept there that night.
Money already handed over
Money already sent during the trip. It is a settlement that reduces balances, not an expense, so do not enter it again as an expense.
Leave this empty if no money has changed hands yet.
Nothing calculated yet. Enter participants and expenses, then press Build the settlement table.
Your entries changed. Calculate again.
Settlement result
Key totals
Balance per person
A positive figure is money to receive, a negative one money to send. Adding up everyone's balance gives exactly zero.
Share per expense
Anyone with a weight of 0 has a share of 0. Adding up the shares on each row comes to exactly the total of that expense.
Transfers that settle up
This is a deterministic offsetting plan, so the same input always produces the same table. It is not guaranteed to use the fewest transfers of all the possible plans.
Nothing further to hand over. The settlement is complete.
What this result assumes
Amounts entered as confirmed charges are figures you checked in the settlement currency. Amounts converted with an exchange rate were calculated only with the rate you entered yourself and may differ from the actual charge.
The weights on each expense are the basis you agreed on. The calculator does not judge which way of sharing is fairer.
Transfers already made are calculated on the assumption that the amounts you entered really were handed over.
Leftover money that does not divide evenly into the smallest currency unit goes to particular participants under the rules in How it is calculated below.
How it is calculated
The steps are as follows. Every amount is handled as a whole number of the settlement currency's smallest unit, so no decimal error creeps in along the way.
For each expense, each person's ideal share is the total times their own weight divided by the sum of the weights, and each value is rounded down to the smallest unit.
The units left over after rounding down are handed out one at a time, starting with the person whose discarded fraction was largest. That is why the shares always add up to exactly the total.
When even the fractions are equal and no order can be decided, the units go in ascending order of participant ID. IDs on this screen are assigned in the order participants were added, so whoever is higher in the list receives a unit first. Reordering the display does not change who receives the leftover.
A person's balance is what they paid on behalf of the group, minus what they have to shoulder, plus transfers they already sent, minus transfers they already received. Someone who received a refund has their paid amount reduced by that much and may therefore show a negative figure.
Everyone's balances added together come to exactly zero. The calculation core checks this condition directly and, if it does not hold, produces no result and stops with an error.
A refund is distributed as a negative amount with exactly the same weights as the original expense. Cumulative refunds cannot exceed the amount of the original expense.
The transfer suggestion works by offsetting the largest receiver against the largest sender in turn. When amounts tie, they are sorted in ascending order of participant ID.
An expense converted with an exchange rate has its original-currency amount multiplied by the rate and rounded to the smallest unit of the settlement currency; exactly half rounds up. The multiplication and rounding are done as fractions, so no decimal error appears. This conversion happens once, at the very start, before the shares are divided.
If even one expense has not finished conversion, neither the per-person balances nor the transfer plan is produced, because a settlement table with currencies mixed together is a wrong table.
The amounts on screen are display strings with digit separators. Do not add them back up to check the arithmetic; look at the totals shown alongside them in the table.
Two ways to split lodging
The lodging result depends on what you agree. This calculator does not decide which is fairer, and both methods preserve the total exactly.
Share by who used it each night
Add one expense per night of the stay and enter 1 only for the people who actually slept there that night. If the rate differs by date, enter that night's actual rate. If a rate has to be paid but nobody slept there that night, the calculation stops. You have to decide who is responsible first.
Proportional to person times nights
Enter the whole lodging total as a single expense and put each person's number of nights in the weights. Be aware that cost caused by an empty room nobody used is also divided in proportion to the total nights.
Worked example
A made-up example for illustration. It is not an actual accommodation rate or the terms of any particular booking site.
Three people, A, B and C, settle in USD, and A paid 450 dollars of lodging. A and B stayed two nights, C stayed one.
Entered as a share by who used it each night, the 225 dollars for night one is split three ways and the 225 dollars for night two between A and B. The shares are 187.50 / 187.50 / 75.00 dollars.
The example button fills the form in with this method. The result is that A receives 262.50 dollars, and it is finished once B sends 187.50 dollars and C sends 75.00 dollars.
Entered as proportional to person times nights, the single 450 dollars carries weights of 2 / 2 / 1, giving 180 / 180 / 90 dollars. Both methods come to the same 450 dollars.
Pressing the example replaces whatever you have entered with the example values. The Undo button at the top of the screen puts it back.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from an ordinary bill splitting calculator?
An ordinary bill splitting calculator divides one total evenly by the number of people or lets you write each person's amount by hand. When you want to add a tip and see the per-person figure straight away, that one is faster. This calculator takes many expenses, gives each expense its own payer and weights, and folds in refunds and money already handed over to produce per-person balances and the transfers still to make. If you are splitting one meal evenly, use the bill splitting calculator.
Is the transfer plan the fewest possible transfers?
No. It offsets the largest sender against the largest receiver in turn, so the same input always gives the same table, but in theory there may be a combination that finishes in fewer transfers. Treat it as one way to settle up.
How do I enter money spent in a foreign currency?
For each expense, first choose whether there is a charge already confirmed in the settlement currency. If there is a confirmed amount, such as on a card statement, enter that figure. It is not reconverted at today's rate. If there is no confirmed amount yet, choose conversion with an exchange rate and enter the amount in the currency you paid in along with the rate. If even one expense uses a rate, an estimate label is added to the result. This calculator does not look up exchange rates, so you have to check the rate yourself and enter it.
Where do foreign transaction fees go?
If the fee is already included in the charged amount, do not enter it separately or it is counted twice. Only for a fee that went out separately from the charge, add one more expense row and decide with the weights who bears it. This calculator does not add any fee on top of the exchange rate.
One particular person keeps getting one extra unit of the smallest currency unit.
Because nothing can be split below the smallest currency unit. Each person's share is rounded down, and the leftover units are given out one at a time starting with the largest discarded fraction. Only that way do the shares add up to exactly the total. When even the fractions are equal, they go in ascending order of participant ID, that is, to whoever was added first.
Why can I not edit the weights on a refund row?
A refund reverses the original expense, so it has to be shared on the same basis. Changing the weights would make it a new distribution rather than a reversal, and would distort the balances. That is why a refund row simply follows the weights of the original you selected. Compensation or goodwill money of a different nature should be entered as a separate expense and agreed separately, not as a refund.
Are the names and amounts I enter left anywhere?
No. The calculation happens entirely inside your browser and nothing is sent to a server. Values are not carried in a share link, so they do not appear in the address bar or in your browser history. In exchange, your entries disappear if you refresh, so use the Copy result button if you need them.
What this calculator does not do
It does not look up exchange rates. Conversion uses only the rate you enter yourself, and if any cost is still unconverted, no transfer plan is produced.
It does not add foreign transaction or withdrawal fees automatically. A fee that is not included in the charged amount has to be entered by hand as a separate expense row.
It does not send bank transfers or connect to an account. It does not even ask for an account number.
It does not create the nights of a stay for you from dates. You have to add an expense for each night yourself.
It does not guess who took part in which expense. It does not assume everybody went to an attraction together.
It does not recommend which way of sharing is fairer.
It does not save your entries. They disappear when you refresh or close the window.
Related calculators
If you just need to split one amount on the spot, the calculators below are simpler.
Bill Splitting Calculator
— Divides one total evenly by the number of people or lets you write each person's amount by hand. It shows the tip percentage and the per-person figure straight away. It does not handle multiple expenses, per-expense payers, or money already handed over.
Tip Calculator
— Works out the tip to add to a meal. Enter the final amount including the tip as an expense in this calculator.
Percentage Calculator
— Useful when you want to check a ratio first, before deciding the weights.