Free tools
Split the bill.
Put in the total, how many of you there are, and anything added on top. The shares always add back up to the bill, down to the last coin.
Try it with your own numbers
Whoever settled the bill is owed everybody else's share. That part is worth writing down before the night ends.
These tools do arithmetic on the numbers you type and nothing else. They are here to help you work something out, not to tell you what to do, and what is right varies from one person to the next.
Saving Diary is a personal record keeping app. What it suggests is general guidance, not personal financial advice, and it does not replace a licensed financial adviser.
The bill divides. The last coin does not.
Most bills do not split cleanly. Divide 100 between three people and the calculator on a phone gives everyone 33.33, which leaves a cent on the table and an argument nobody wants to have. This one hands the leftover to the first few people one coin at a time, the way anybody would, so the shares add back up to exactly what was on the bill.
How the number is worked out.
The percentage goes on the whole bill before anything is divided, because that is how it was charged.
- Take the bill as it was printed, before service or tax.
- Add the percentage on top. That gives the amount actually being paid.
- Divide it by the number of people, rounded down to the coin.
- Whatever is left over after that division is handed out one coin at a time, so a few people pay one coin more and the shares add back up to the exact total.
A worked example.
The same numbers this page starts with, run through the same steps.
What went in
- The bill
- 100
- How many of you
- 3
- Added on top
- 10%
What comes out
- Added on top
- 10
- Bill with extras
- 110
- Each person pays
- 36.66
It does not divide evenly. 2 pay 36.67 and everybody else pays 36.66.
Every figure here is calculated by the same code the calculator above runs, so the example and the tool can never disagree.
Splitting it is one night. Remembering it is the problem.
The sum takes a second. What actually goes wrong is a week later, when nobody can agree on who covered the taxi and who paid for dinner.
FAQ
Good to know.
How do you split a bill that does not divide evenly?
Divide it down to the coin, then hand the leftover coins out one at a time. If three people split 100, two pay 33.34 and one pays 33.33. The difference is a cent and the total is exactly right, which is better than everybody paying 33.33 and the bill being a cent short.
Should the tip be added before or after splitting?
Before. Service and tax are charged on the whole bill, so adding them first and dividing once gives the same answer for everybody. Splitting first and adding a percentage each is the same arithmetic in a longer order.
What if we did not all have the same thing?
Then an even split is the wrong tool, and what you want is a record of what each person actually owes. A shared wallet in Saving Diary keeps a running total both people can see, and the loan tracker keeps hold of who covered what until it comes back.
Other tools
A calculator answers once. An app answers every month.
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