Itemized Bill Splitter
Add people, assign each item to who ordered it, and split tax and tip fairly based on what everyone actually got.
Who's Splitting?
Items (tap a name to assign it)
Tip
Tip is calculated on the pre-tax subtotal. Tax and tip are split in proportion to what each person ordered rather than evenly.
Who Owes What
Subtotal
$0.00
Tax
$0.00
Tip
$0.00
Total
$0.00
Splitting a Bill by What Each Person Ordered
An even split works right up until it doesn't. Once one person orders a $42 steak and someone else has a salad and a water, dividing the total by the number of people stops being fair and starts being a quiet transfer from the light eaters to the heavy ones. This calculator splits a bill unevenly, so each person owes a different amount based on what they actually ordered.
A worked example: who owes what
Three people at dinner. Matt has the ribeye, Hannah has a salad, Johnny has pad thai, and the calamari is shared between all three. Tax is $7.50 and the group tips 20%.
| Item | Who ordered it | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ribeye | Matt | $42.00 |
| Caesar salad | Hannah | $14.00 |
| Pad thai | Johnny | $18.50 |
| Calamari | Shared, all three | $16.00 |
| Subtotal + $7.50 tax + $18.10 tip | $116.10 |
Split evenly, that's $38.70 each. Split by what each person ordered, it looks like this:
| Person | Even split | By item | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt | $38.70 | $60.72 | +$22.02 |
| Hannah | $38.70 | $24.80 | −$13.90 |
| Johnny | $38.70 | $30.58 | −$8.12 |
Hannah was covering $13.90 of someone else's dinner. That's the whole argument for splitting a restaurant bill by person rather than by headcount, and it's the kind of gap that stays invisible until someone works it out.
How tax and tip get divided
This is where most manual attempts go wrong. People correctly total up each person's food, then split tax and tip evenly across the group, which undoes the fairness they just created. If Matt's food is half the bill, he should be paying half the tax and half the tip.
Here both are divided proportionally, based on each person's share of the pre-tax food total. Matt ordered 52% of the food, so he covers 52% of the $25.60 in tax and tip. Tip here is calculated on the pre-tax subtotal, which is the traditional basis and avoids tipping on sales tax.
Shared plates, bottles and apps
Shared items are the reason spreadsheet attempts collapse. Tap every person who's in on it and the price divides evenly among only those people rather than the whole table. The $16 calamari above splits three ways at $5.33 each; if only Matt and Johnny had eaten it, it would be $8.00 each and Hannah wouldn't pay a cent toward it.
A bottle of wine shared by four out of six people works the same way. So does a dessert two people picked at.
The totals always reconcile
Percentages and cents don't cooperate. Round each person's share independently and you routinely end up a penny or two off the actual bill, which is the sort of thing that makes a group re-check the math instead of paying.
Each share is rounded to the cent and then reconciled, with any leftover pennies pushed onto the last person, so the individual totals always sum to exactly what the restaurant charged. Any item you haven't assigned to anyone is flagged in amber rather than silently dropped, so a forgotten side doesn't vanish from the total.
Nothing is saved anywhere. There's no account, no sign-up, and everything you type is gone the moment you close the page.
When an even split is still the better call
Itemizing isn't always worth the effort. If everyone ordered roughly the same thing, if the group is large and the differences are small, or if you're splitting something that has no items at all, like rent or a hotel room or a road trip, the even split is faster and nobody loses out. The regular Bill Splitter handles those in two fields.
Use this page when the amounts genuinely differ enough that someone would notice.
FAQ
How is this different from the regular bill splitter?
This version lets you assign individual items to each person instead of splitting the total evenly. That's what you want when everyone ordered something different. For a simple even split, use the regular Bill Splitter instead.
How are tax and tip divided?
Both are split proportionally based on what each person ordered, not evenly. Someone who ordered a $40 entree pays a larger share of the tax and tip than someone who ordered a $12 salad.
What happens with a shared item, like an appetizer?
Tap every person who's sharing it. The price divides evenly among just those people rather than the whole group.
What if I forget to assign an item to anyone?
Unassigned items are flagged so you don't lose track of them. They won't count toward anyone's total until you tap at least one person.
Do the totals always add up correctly?
Yes. Individual shares are rounded to the cent and reconciled so they always sum to the exact bill total, with no missing or extra pennies.
Is my data saved anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser and resets when you leave the page. Nothing is sent to a server or stored.
How do you work out who owes what on a group bill?
Add everyone's name, enter each item with its price, and tap the people who ordered it. Each person's food total is added up, then tax and tip are added on in proportion to that total. The result is what each person owes, and the individual amounts always sum to the exact bill.
How do I split a bill when everyone owes a different amount?
That's exactly what this page is for. Rather than dividing the total by the number of people, it assigns each item to whoever ordered it, so the amounts come out different by design. In the worked example above, an even split would have had one person overpaying by $13.90.
What if the restaurant already added an automatic gratuity?
Choose "No Tip" and add the gratuity amount into the Tax field alongside the sales tax. Tax and tip are split proportionally in exactly the same way, so the result comes out correct without double-tipping.
Do I need an app or an account?
No. It's a web page: no download, no sign-up, no email. Open it at the table, work out the split, close it.
Can I use it outside a restaurant?
Yes. A bar tab, a group takeout order, or any bill made of separate line items works the same way. For something with no items to assign, like rent or a hotel room, the even Bill Splitter is quicker.
