Who owes who calculator
One person books, another pays for dinner, a third covers the ride home, and by the end nobody knows where they stand. Enter the group, add each expense with who paid it and who it was for, and this free calculator shows every person's net balance and the short list of payments that clears it.
How do you split costs in a group?
List everyone in the group, then enter each expense once with the amount, who paid it, and who it was for. Add up what each person paid, add up what each person owes, and the difference is their balance. Nobody reimburses anybody along the way, and at the end the whole group settles in a handful of payments.
Split expenses with friends calculator
Pre-filled with the worked example below. Edit any field, tick or untick anyone, and the numbers update as you type.
People
Expenses
How to figure out who owes who money
Three numbers per person do the whole job. Paid is the sum of the expenses that person covered. Share is the sum of their portion of every expense they were ticked into: each expense is divided equally among the people ticked for it, and when the amount does not divide evenly, the leftover cents are handed out one at a time going down the list, so the shares add back to the exact amount. Net is paid minus share. A positive net means the group owes that person, a negative net means they owe the group, and the nets always add up to zero.
Turning those nets into payments is the second half. The plan pairs the person who is owed the most with the person who owes the most, records a payment for the smaller of the two figures, and repeats until every balance reads zero. That is at most n-1 payments for n people, the same method the Faiyr app uses, and every figure is carried in whole cents so nothing is lost to rounding. If one person is on their own, or everybody already came out even, there is nothing to pay and the plan says so.
Worked example: dinner, drinks and a taxi among four
Alex, Bailey, Casey and Dana go out for the evening. Alex puts $184.00 on their card for dinner, shared by all four. Bailey buys a $61.00 round of drinks, shared by Alex, Bailey and Casey, because Dana was not drinking. Casey pays $37.00 for the taxi home, shared by all four. That is $282.00 in total.
Dinner is $46.00 each. The drinks are $61.00 over three people, which is $20.33 each with one cent left over, and that cent goes to Alex as the first name on the list, so Alex is charged $20.34. The taxi is $9.25 each. Add each person's slices together and you get their share.
| Person | Paid | Share | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | $184.00 | $75.59 | +$108.41 |
| Bailey | $61.00 | $75.58 | -$14.58 |
| Casey | $37.00 | $75.58 | -$38.58 |
| Dana | $0.00 | $55.25 | -$55.25 |
The shares add up to $282.00 and the nets add up to zero. Alex is the only person in credit, so the plan sends everyone to Alex, largest debt first: Dana pays $55.25, Casey pays $38.58, Bailey pays $14.58. Three payments for four people, and nobody hands cash back and forth twice.
Worked example: a bachelorette or bachelor party
A weekend for the bride to be works the same way, with one rule of thumb on top: the guest of honor is usually not charged. Keep Maya in the group list so her name appears on every expense, and simply leave her unticked under Split among, on every row. She ends the weekend with a zero balance and no payment to make.
Deposits are not a special case either. Priya, the organizer, put down a $600.00 house deposit two months early. That goes in as an ordinary expense: amount $600.00, paid by Priya, ticked for Priya, Jess and Leah. Jess covers a $240.00 group dinner and Leah spends $45.00 on decorations, both split the same three ways. Total shared: $885.00, so $295.00 each for the three paying guests.
| Person | Paid | Share | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priya (organizer) | $600.00 | $295.00 | +$305.00 |
| Jess | $240.00 | $295.00 | -$55.00 |
| Leah | $45.00 | $295.00 | -$250.00 |
| Maya (guest of honor) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
Two payments clear the whole weekend: Leah pays Priya $250.00 and Jess pays Priya $55.00. The early deposit is netted against what everyone spent later, so Priya is paid back without sending a separate reminder for it.
Common questions
How do you figure out who owes who money in a group?
Write down every expense with the amount, who paid it, and who it was for. Add up what each person paid, add up their share of the expenses they were part of, and subtract the second number from the first. A positive result means the group owes that person, a negative result means they owe the group. This calculator does all three steps for you.
How do you split expenses with friends when several people paid?
Do not settle up expense by expense. Keep one list for the whole weekend or the whole month, then net everyone out at the end. Most of the small debts cancel each other out, so a group of five usually clears with three or four payments instead of a dozen.
Can one person be left out of a single expense?
Yes. Untick that person in the split among row for that expense. They stay in the group for everything else, and that one expense is divided only among the people who are ticked.
How do you split the cost of a bachelorette or bachelor party?
The guest of honor is usually not charged, so keep them in the group list but leave them unticked in every split among row. Deposits the organizer put down months earlier are ordinary expenses: enter the amount, set the organizer as the payer, and tick everyone who is sharing it. The calculator nets those deposits against everything spent on the weekend and tells each guest what to send the organizer.
How many payments does the settle up plan need?
At most n-1 payments for n people, the same method the Faiyr app uses. The plan pairs whoever is owed the most with whoever owes the most, repeats until every balance reads zero, and works in whole cents so nothing rounds away.
More free calculators
Keep the group's balances up to date
This calculator is a one-time snapshot. Faiyr keeps one shared list for the group, updates every balance as expenses go in, and remembers who paid what long after the weekend is over.