Tip calculator and bill splitter

A tip calculator that also splits the bill

This page does two jobs. The "Bill and tip" tab is for the restaurant table: enter the bill, pick a tip and the number of people, and it shows the tip, the total and what each person pays. The "Group expenses" tab is for a holiday or a shared flat: list who paid for what and it tells you who owes whom.

Amounts are shown with two decimals and no currency symbol. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing is sent.

How to use the tip calculator

1. Type the "Bill amount" and the "Number of people" (1 to 50).
2. Choose the "Tip": 10%, 15%, 18%, 20% or 25% in one click, another rate in "Other (%)", or a fixed sum in "or amount".
3. Read "Tip", "Total to pay" and "Each person pays". The "Formula" box spells out the calculation.
4. Set "Round each share" to "to the cent", "up to the next 0.50" or "up to the next whole unit".

Example: a bill of 100.00 with a 15% tip for four people. The tip is 100 × 15 ÷ 100 = 15.00, the total is 115.00 and each person pays 115 ÷ 4 = 28.75.

Rounding always goes up, so the bill is covered. Take 86.40 with a 20% tip for four: the tip is 17.28, the total 103.68 and each share 25.92. Rounded "up to the next whole unit", everyone puts in 26.00, the table pays 104.00, and the tool shows the actual tip: 17.60, or 20.37% of the bill.

How much to tip in the UK and the US

What follows describes common habits, not rules. In the United States, restaurant servers generally expect 15 to 20% of the bill. In the United Kingdom, around 10 to 12.5% is usual in restaurants with table service, and tipping remains optional. A service charge is sometimes already added to the bill, so check before tipping on top.

Split evenly or pay for what you had?

An even split is quick and spares everyone the line-by-line maths. It is fair when people ordered roughly the same. When they did not, tick "Unequal shares".

You get one row per person, with an optional name and a "Had" field. "Shared items" takes anything ordered for the table. "Tip and shared items are split" lets you choose "in proportion to what each person had" or "equally". The bill is then the sum of everyone's items plus the shared items, and the tip percentage applies to that total.

The bill is 90.00, the tip 18.00, and the three shares add up to 108.00.

Why is there sometimes a penny left over?

50.00 divided by three is 16.666… Three shares of 16.66 make only 49.98. The tool works in whole cents and shows 16.67 + 16.67 + 16.66 = 50.00. With unequal shares it checks the sum too: any rounding remainder is assigned to the first person in the list and flagged.

Settling group expenses with the fewest payments

In "Group expenses", add the people, then each expense with "Paid by", "Amount" and a label. The "Summary" gives the total, the share per person and each balance: what a person paid minus their share.

Take three flatmates. The first paid 120, the second 45, the third nothing. The total is 180 and each share is 60, so the balances are +60, −15 and −45. Nobody needs to pay everybody: the person who owes the most pays the person who is owed the most, and so on. Here the third pays the first 45 and the second pays the first 15. With this method a group of n people never needs more than n − 1 payments.

Two habits help: write expenses down as they happen, and agree beforehand on what counts as shared and what stays personal.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate a 20% tip in my head?

Move the decimal point one place to the left to get 10%, then double it. On 47.00, 10% is 4.70 and 20% is 9.40.

Are my expenses saved?

The people and expenses of the second tab are stored on your device, in the browser, and come back on your next visit. "Clear all" deletes them after a confirmation.

How do I share the result with the group?

"Copy summary" puts a plain-text recap on the clipboard: total, share, balances and who pays whom.

Can an expense be shared by only some of the group?

No. Every expense you enter is split equally between all the people in the list, so leave personal purchases out.