The Splitty trip cost splitter
On a holiday nobody pays their share as they go. One person books the flights, another puts the hotel on their card, a third buys most of the dinners, and at the end everybody is owed something by somebody. Enter what each traveller actually paid and this page works out the even share, each person's position, and a reduced list of payments that squares the group.
Where everyone stands
| Traveller | Paid | Even share | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traveller 1 | 400.00 | 165.00 | is owed 235.00 |
| Traveller 2 | 260.00 | 165.00 | is owed 95.00 |
| Traveller 3 | 0.00 | 165.00 | owes 165.00 |
| Traveller 4 | 0.00 | 165.00 | owes 165.00 |
| Trip total | 660.00 | 660.00 |
Settling up
3 payments settles the whole group:
- Traveller 3 pays Traveller 1 165.00
- Traveller 4 pays Traveller 1 70.00
- Traveller 4 pays Traveller 2 95.00
Paying each person back individually would take up to 6 transfers between 4 people. Matching the biggest debtor to the biggest creditor gets it down to 3.
Things that make a holiday split go wrong
Someone joins for part of the trip
An even split charges them for nights they were not there. Split the trip into stretches, run each stretch through this page with only the people who were present, and add each person's stretches together. It is more work than one calculation and it is the only version that is actually fair.
Costs in more than one currency
Convert everything to one currency before entering it here, and use the rate from the day it was spent, not today's. Recording an expense in the currency it was paid in, with the rate frozen at that moment, is what stops a later edit rewriting the group's history. This page takes one currency; the app handles the multi-currency case properly.
One person's room costs more
Anything not shared evenly should come out of the even split entirely. Take the private cost off the total, settle the shared part here, and have that person pay their own extra directly. Weighting the shares instead is the bill split calculator, which is the right tool when the difference is a proportion rather than a separate item.
The list changes after you settle
It always does. Somebody remembers the airport taxi three days later, and the whole calculation is out of date. That is the point at which a page like this stops being enough and a shared record starts earning its keep.
Do this continuously instead
Splitty keeps the same maths running for the whole trip, not just at the end. Everybody adds what they paid as they pay it, everybody sees the same balances at the same moment, and the settle-up screen shows exactly these payments, recalculated every time something is added. It is free, the people you invite can join from a link without creating an account, and it works in 52 languages, which matters when the group does not all read the same one.
Sharing a home rather than a holiday? Read splitting expenses with roommates.