Split bill calculator: send each share by UPI

Two ways to split

Evenly. ₹3,000 across five people is ₹600 each. When it doesn't divide cleanly, the splitter rounds friends' shares down to the paisa and you cover the difference: ₹1,000 across three is ₹333.33 for each friend and ₹333.34 for you. Untick "I'm sharing too" if you're not sharing the bill yourself.

By what each person had ("Custom amounts"). Enter each friend's amount: one person had the extra round, two shared a dish, someone arrived late. The splitter adds the tip to each share in proportion, and your share is whatever's left of the total. It warns you if the friends' amounts add up to more than the bill.

Split the final bill, not the menu

Restaurant bills grow between the menu and the payment: GST, a service charge if there is one, and a tip.

Splitting evenly? Enter the final total, including tax and any service charge, and add the tip in the tip box.

Splitting by what each person had? Each person's share of the tax should match their share of the food. The simple fair way:

1. Add up each person's items.
2. Work out what fraction of the food bill that is.
3. Give them the same fraction of the bill after tax.

Example. A ₹2,000 food bill comes to ₹2,100 with 5% GST. Asha's items came to ₹500, a quarter of the food, so her share is a quarter of ₹2,100: ₹525. Enter ₹525 for her, and if you add a 10% tip, the splitter makes it ₹577.50.

Worked examples

After a trip

Trips are harder, because different people pay for different things along the way. The cleanest way to settle:

1. Write down every expense and who paid it.
2. Add up the total and divide by the number of people to get each person's fair share.
3. Compare what each person paid with their fair share. Some paid more, some less.
4. Settle to one person. Those who underpaid send the difference to whoever paid the most, and that person pays out anyone else who overpaid.

One person doing the settling means fewer transfers and less confusion about who owes whom. Use "Custom amounts" with each person's balance as their amount.

What your friends see

Each link opens a page with their share, a note naming the occasion, your QR and your UPI ID. The links are sealed, so your UPI ID, name and note aren't readable in the link itself.

How they pay:

• Tap your UPI ID to copy it, then pay to it from their UPI app. This works for any amount within their normal limit.
• Pick your QR from their gallery after a screenshot, for shares up to ₹2,000.
• Tap Pay. Since April 2024, UPI apps block link payments to personal UPI IDs, so this may show "This transaction may be risky". If it does, they copy your UPI ID instead.

→Why payment links fail, and what works

Asking without awkwardness

Send the links on the same day. The longer it waits, the stranger it feels to ask.

Say the amount and what it's for in the message, so nobody has to open a calculator. The splitter's WhatsApp message does this for you.

Remind once, kindly, after a few days, with the same link.

Where it's used

Dinner, a trip, a cab, a shared gift, rent between flatmates, a group order: anywhere one person paid and several owe.

Collecting towards one thing instead

If you're gathering money for something in advance, such as a gift, a function or society maintenance, and want a list showing who has paid, use group collection.

→Group collection