Split a group trip budget fairly, with the fewest payments
On a group trip one person books the villa, another pays the taxi, a third picks up dinner — and by the end nobody remembers who owes whom. This trip budget splitter keeps the ledger: log each expense with who paid and who shared it, and it works out every person’s share, their balance and the minimum set of payments that settles the whole group, so four friends need at most three transfers instead of a dozen.
It handles the awkward cases: a dinner only three of you ate, a scooter two of you hired, a ferry paid in US dollars on an Indian-rupee trip (type the rate you actually got — nothing is fetched). The result can be shared as plain text in WhatsApp or exported as a CSV with the expense list, balances and settle-up plan. The trip is saved in your browser only, with no account and no app to install.
How to use the Trip Budget Splitter
- Name the trip, set the settlement currency (INR, USD, EUR…) and list the people, separated by commas.
- For each expense enter what it was, the amount and its currency, who paid, the date, and tick who shared it (Everyone is the default).
- If an expense is in another currency, open Exchange rates and type how much one unit is worth in the settlement currency — for example 1 USD = 83.5 INR.
- Read the per-person table (paid, share, balance) and the Settle up list, which names exactly who pays whom and how much.
- Press Share as text to send the summary to the group, or Export CSV for a spreadsheet. Use the pencil to edit any expense.
Trip Budget Splitter features
Partial sharing
Every expense has its own “shared by” list, so a bill is divided only among the people who took part.
Multi-currency with your own rates
Mix currencies on one trip; each foreign currency gets a single rate to the settlement currency, typed by you and kept with the trip.
Minimum settle-up
A greedy debt-simplification pairs the biggest creditor with the biggest debtor until everyone is square — never more than one payment fewer than the number of people.
Per-person view
What each person paid, their fair share and whether they get money back or owe it, all in the settlement currency with ₹ or $ formatting.
Share, export, autosave
Native share sheet on phones (copy to clipboard elsewhere), CSV export with three sections, and automatic saving on this device.
How the split is calculated
For each expense the amount is converted to the settlement currency and divided equally among the people who shared it; that portion is added to each sharer’s share, and the full amount is added to the payer’s paid. A person’s balance is paid minus share: positive means the group owes them, negative means they owe the group. Balances always sum to zero.
- Asha paid ₹12,000 and her share is ₹4,583.33 → she gets back ₹7,416.67.
- Ben paid ₹1,800, share ₹4,050 → owes ₹2,250. Chitra owes ₹1,183.33, Dev owes ₹3,983.33.
- Settle-up: Dev → Asha ₹3,983.33, Ben → Asha ₹2,250, Chitra → Asha ₹1,183.33. Three payments and everyone is square.
| Expense | Paid by | Shared by | Each pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villa ₹12,000 | Asha | Asha, Ben, Chitra, Dev | ₹3,000 |
| Taxi ₹1,800 | Ben | Asha, Ben, Chitra, Dev | ₹450 |
| Dinner ₹3,400 | Chitra | Asha, Chitra, Dev | ₹1,133.33 |
| Scooter ₹1,200 | Dev | Ben, Dev | ₹600 |
Why “minimum payments” matters
If every debt were paid directly, a four-person trip could need up to six transfers. By netting each person to a single balance first, the splitter only needs to move money from people who are net debtors to people who are net creditors. The greedy pairing used here (largest debtor pays the largest creditor, repeat) always finishes within people − 1 payments and in practice finds the smallest number for typical trips. Any exact-cents remainder from rounding is absorbed into the last payment.
Tips for a painless trip kitty
- Log expenses the same day — the date field helps you reconstruct a week later.
- For cash withdrawn abroad, record the amount in the local currency and type the rate your bank actually charged, not the mid-market rate.
- Keep the settlement currency as the one most people will pay in; everyone’s balance is shown in it. The Currency Converter gives today’s mid-market rates if you need a starting point.
- Use the Split Bill Calculator for a single restaurant bill with tip and tax, and the Fuel Cost Calculator to estimate a road-trip fuel expense before adding it here.
Trip Budget Splitter FAQ
Does the trip budget splitter need an account or an app?
No. It runs in the browser and saves the trip in your device’s local storage. Share the text summary or the CSV with the group; nothing is stored on a server.
How does it decide who pays whom?
It first nets every person to one balance (paid minus share), then repeatedly matches the largest debtor with the largest creditor. That yields at most one payment fewer than the number of people — for example three payments for four friends.
Can I split an expense unequally?
Not by percentages, but you can enter the same bill as two or more expenses with different “shared by” lists, which covers most real cases such as one person ordering extra.
What if some expenses are in a different currency?
Give each foreign currency a rate to the settlement currency under Exchange rates. Until a rate is entered those expenses are listed but left out of the totals, and a message tells you which currency needs a rate.
Can several people edit the same trip?
Not live. One person keeps the ledger and shares the summary; others can export the CSV and import it into a spreadsheet. The trip stays on the device it was created on.
Why does the total differ from my calculator by a paisa?
Shares are kept to full precision and rounded to two decimals only for display and settlement, so a three-way split of ₹3,400 shows ₹1,133.33 each and the last payment absorbs the remaining cent.