Split Bill Calculator

How the shares are calculated

• Each person's share = total ÷ number of people, rounded to the step you choose (0.01, 0.10, 1.00 or 10.00) in the way you choose (round up, round down or round to nearest).
• The total collected = share × number of people. Whatever does not match the bill is the rounding difference.
• The tool uses whole numbers of the smallest currency unit (for example, cents), so there is no floating-point error. The currency does not matter: the steps simply mean 0.01, 0.10, 1.00 and 10.00 of whatever currency you use.

Who covers the rounding difference?

When the total does not divide exactly by the number of people, there is a rounding difference. The tool shows two ways to deal with it side by side.

Everyone pays the same

Everyone pays the same rounded amount.

• Round up: the amount collected is more than the bill (a surplus). Decide separately what to do with it, for example refund it, carry it over or let the organizer keep it.
• Round down: the amount collected is less than the bill (a shortfall). Someone has to cover the shortfall.

Organizer covers the rest

Everyone except the organizer pays the rounded amount, and the organizer pays what is left (the bill minus what the others pay). The amount collected is exactly the bill.

• The organizer pays less than the others when rounding made the others pay a little too much in total (the surplus). The organizer absorbs it.
• The organizer pays more than the others when rounding left the amount short. The organizer covers the shortfall.
• The result always shows what the organizer pays and how much more or less that is than the others pay.

The organizer's amount can be negative when there are few people and a large rounding step (for example a total of 10.00 between 3 people with each share rounded up to 10.00: the other two would pay 20.00, more than the bill). In that case the tool shows a warning that the organizer would receive money. Choose a smaller step, or use the "everyone pays the same" result.

Examples

These use plain numbers; the currency does not matter.

• A total of 100.00 between 3 people, rounded up to 0.01: each share is 33.34, so everyone pays 100.02 in all (a surplus of 0.02). If the organizer covers the rest, the other two pay 33.34 and the organizer pays 33.32 (0.02 less).
• The same bill, rounded up to 1.00: each share is 34.00, so 102.00 is collected (a surplus of 2.00). With the organizer covering the rest, the others pay 34.00 and the organizer pays 32.00 (2.00 less).
• The same bill, rounded down to 0.01: each share is 33.33, so 99.99 is collected (0.01 short). With the organizer covering the rest, the others pay 33.33 and the organizer pays 33.34 (0.01 more).

Notes

• The total can be 0 or more, up to 9,999,999,999.99, with up to 2 decimal places. The number of people is a whole number from 2 to 1,000. Use a period as the decimal separator; commas are accepted only as thousands separators.
• The organizer option has one person cover the difference. It does not share the difference between several people or weight the shares (for example, a larger share for some people).
• There is no tip or tax setting. Enter the full amount you want to split, including any tip or tax.
• This tool only does the arithmetic. It does not handle how people pay or who has already paid. For the rules of rounding to a step, see the Rounding Calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What do people usually do about the leftover cents?

Common ways are to round up and let the organizer keep or return the surplus, to have the organizer pay a little less to even things out, or to round to a convenient step such as 1.00. The tool shows these results side by side so you can compare.

Should I round up or down?

Rounding up always collects at least the bill, so there is no shortfall. Rounding down is slightly cheaper for everyone, but someone has to cover the shortfall.

With many people, is the organizer's difference large?

With a step of 0.01 the difference is at most the number of people minus one, in cents. With a larger step such as 10.00 the difference can be much larger.