Tip & Bill Splitter

about this tool

Evenly, or by who had what

Split a bill evenly among any number of people, or item by item: list what was ordered and mark who shared each thing — the pasta one person had, the bottle two people split, the starter for the table. Each item is divided equally among the people marked on it, or among everyone when "everyone" is chosen; an item nobody is marked on is pointed out rather than guessed at, and so is one whose only sharer is taken off the list. Tax and tip are then shared in proportion to what each person's items came to, since they are charged on the food, so the person who had a side salad does not pay a third of the tip on someone else's steak.

Tax and tip

Tax can already be in the bill, or be added as a rate — 8.875%, say — or as an amount from the receipt; when tax is added, the bill you type is the one before it. The tip is a percentage, with the usual 10, 15, 18, 20 and 25 a tap away, and by default it is on the bill before tax, as etiquette guides such as the Emily Post Institute's advise; switch it to the bill with tax if that is how your table does it. Tax and tip are each worked out once on the whole bill and rounded half up to the cent, before anything is shared.

Amounts are read as people type them, 12.50, 1.234,56 or $12, and anything read in a way you might not expect is said beside the field: a separator that could go either way, a currency sign that differs from the bill's, or a fraction of a yen.

Every cent accounted for

Every sum is done in whole cents, so nothing is lost to rounding. When the cents do not divide evenly — $100 three ways is $33.333… — the tool uses the largest remainder method: everyone gets the whole cents their exact share holds, and the cents left over go one at a time to whoever is owed the largest fraction. Two people pay $33.33 and one pays $33.34; the shares add up to the total exactly, and nobody pays a whole cent away from their fair share. In an itemised split, what each person pays is shared out this way first, from the whole bill, and their items and their part of the tax and tip are then set beneath it, so each column adds up to the bill's own figure too. The splits — even and itemised, with and without rounding up, in dollars and in yen — were checked against a second implementation in Python, using exact fractions, on 160 random bills.

Currencies with no cents, such as the yen, are split in whole yen; the currency's smallest unit comes from the browser's own currency data (CLDR).

Rounding up

Nobody wants to transfer $21.16. Choose to round each share up — to the next 0.10, 0.50, 1, 5 or 10, or 1, 5 or 10 for a currency without cents — and the extra is added to the tip, with the tip's new percentage shown so nobody is surprised; the shares then add up to the total with the rounding in it. For working out an hourly rate from a salary before deciding how generous to be, the salary converter does that sum.

Limits

Discounts, coupons and service charges are not modelled separately: take a discount off the prices, and add a fixed service charge to the tax amount (with the tip on the bill with tax, it is then tipped on too). Up to 50 people and 100 items. Nothing is stored or sent.

questions

Should the tip be on the bill before or after tax?

Etiquette guides in the US, such as the Emily Post Institute, say to tip on the amount before tax, and that is the default here. Some people tip on the total with tax for simplicity; choose “on the bill with tax” and the tip is worked out on that instead. Either way the tip is rounded to the cent once, on the whole bill, before it is shared.

Why do some people pay a cent more?

Because cents do not always divide evenly: $100 three ways is $33.333…, so two people pay $33.33 and one pays $33.34. The tool hands out the whole cents first and gives the leftover cents one at a time to whoever is owed the largest fraction, so the shares add up to the total exactly and nobody pays a whole cent away from their fair share, in an even split or an itemised one.

How does splitting by item work?

List what was ordered and mark who shared each thing: a dish one person had, a bottle two people shared, a starter for the table. Each item is divided equally among the people marked on it (or everyone, for a dish for the table), and the tax and tip are shared in proportion to what each person’s items came to, since they are charged on the food.

Is anything saved or sent?

No. The bill is worked out in your browser and nothing is stored or sent anywhere; Copy gives a plain summary to paste into a group chat.