The Splitty fuel cost splitter
Planning a drive with friends? Enter the distance, how much fuel the car uses and the price at your local pump. This page works out the fuel used, what it costs, and what each person in the car pays. Add tolls or parking if you have them. Every share is calculated in whole cents or baisa, so the shares add up to the total exactly.
Result
| Distance driven | 900.0 km |
|---|---|
| Fuel used | 72.00 litres |
| Fuel cost | 129.60 |
| Tolls and parking | 12.00 |
| Total to share | 141.60 |
Each person's share
| Person | Fuel | Extras | Pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | 32.40 | 3.00 | 35.40 |
| Passenger 1 | 32.40 | 3.00 | 35.40 |
| Passenger 2 | 32.40 | 3.00 | 35.40 |
| Passenger 3 | 32.40 | 3.00 | 35.40 |
| Total | 129.60 | 12.00 | 141.60 |
If the driver paid for all the fuel and extras, the passengers send the driver 106.20 in total.
The formula
Fuel used = distance x 2 x L/100 km / 100 = 450.0 x 2 x 8.0 / 100 = 72.00 litres.
Fuel cost = litres x price per litre = 129.60.
Share = (fuel cost + extras) / 4 people = 141.60 / 4.
Should the driver pay a share?
Most groups say yes. The driver is going on the same trip and uses the same fuel to get there. Splitting the cost between everyone in the car, driver included, is the simple default, and it is what this page does unless you change it.
Some groups decide the driver pays nothing. The driver gives up a relaxed journey, takes the risk of a fine or a scratch, and lends a car that loses value with every kilometre. If that feels fair to your group, set "Driver pays a share" to no and the passengers cover the full cost between them. Agree on the rule before you leave. It is a short talk at the start and an awkward one at the end.
Wear and tear: a per-km rate
Fuel is not the only cost of a drive. Tyres, oil, servicing and lost resale value all grow with distance. Some groups use a flat rate per kilometre or per mile instead of a fuel calculation, so the driver gets back a fair part of those costs too. Many employers use a rate like this when staff drive their own car for work.
To try it here, set fuel use to 100 L/100 km and enter your agreed rate as the price per litre. The fuel cost then equals the distance multiplied by your rate. It looks odd, but the arithmetic is the same. Keep the rate modest and agree it in advance, so nobody feels the driver is making money from the trip.
Tolls, parking and other extras
Road tolls, parking fees and a car wash after a desert drive belong to the trip, not to the driver. Add them in the extras field and the page splits them the same way as the fuel. If one person caused a cost alone, such as a parking fine for a stop only they wanted, leave it out and let that person pay it directly.
Passengers who join for part of the route
Sometimes a friend rides only one leg, or you pick someone up halfway. An even split charges them for distance they never travelled. A fairer way is to weight each share by the distance each person rode. Take the total cost and give each person a weight equal to their kilometres. Our bill split calculator has a weighted mode that does this in one step.
Here is a 900 km round trip with a total cost of 150.00, where one passenger rode only the 450 km back:
| Person | Km ridden (weight) | Pays |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | 900 | 42.86 |
| Passenger 1 | 900 | 42.86 |
| Passenger 2 | 900 | 42.85 |
| Passenger 3 | 450 | 21.43 |
| Total | 3,150 | 150.00 |
The shares add up to exactly 150.00. The half-route passenger pays half of what a full-route rider pays, which is easy to explain to everyone.
A worked example
Four friends drive about 450 km each way for a weekend. The car uses 8.0 L/100 km and fuel costs 1.80 per litre in this example. The round trip is 900 km, so the car burns 900 x 8.0 / 100 = 72 litres. That costs 72 x 1.80 = 129.60. They also pay 12.00 in parking, for a total of 141.60. With the driver paying a share, each person pays 141.60 / 4 = 35.40. If the driver pays nothing, the three passengers pay 47.20 each. These are the default values on this page, so the result above shows the same numbers until you change them.
Settling after the trip
A long drive rarely has one payment. The driver fills up twice, a passenger pays the toll, and someone else buys snacks at the fuel station. A clean way to finish:
- Write down every cost as it happens, with who paid it.
- At the end, add up the shared total and work out each person's share.
- Compare what each person paid with their share. The difference is what they owe or are owed.
- Settle by netting balances, so each person usually makes one payment, not one payment per pair.
If several people paid along the way, the trip cost splitter does steps 2 to 4 for you. For the full method, read our guide on how to split trip expenses, or browse all free tools.
For a whole road trip, Splitty keeps one shared record for the group. Everyone adds what they paid as they go, custom splits handle the passenger who joined late, and the settle-up screen suggests a short list of payments that squares everyone, aiming for one payment per person. People you invite can join from a link.