Splitwise is a free app for keeping track of shared costs and who owes whom. You add a bill, say who paid and how to split it, and Splitwise keeps a running balance with each person. Nobody pays anyone at that point. When you're ready, you settle up: either you pay outside the app and record the payment, or, in some countries, you send the money through Splitwise itself. The rest of this post covers groups and bills, how balances and simplify debts work, settling up, free vs Pro, and how a Splitwise bill fits into your budget. Everything about Splitwise comes from its own site and help center, checked in October 2026.
What is Splitwise
Splitwise's home page describes it as a way to split expenses with friends and keep track of shared expenses, balances and who owes who. It's meant for housemates, trips, friends and family, and it's free on iPhone, Android and the web.
The idea is simple. Instead of paying each other back after every coffee and grocery run, you write each shared cost down, and Splitwise adds it all up into one number per person. You only move money when you settle up.
How Splitwise works: groups and bills
Most people start with a group. Splitwise's getting-started guide calls groups the best way to split expenses with a set of people on an ongoing basis: an apartment, a trip, a couple. For a one-off split, you can add a bill with a few friends without making a group.
To add a bill, you tap Add expense and enter the amount, who paid and the date. Bills split equally by default. Splitwise's help article on split options lists several other ways:
- Exact amounts: you type what each person owes.
- Percentages: each person pays a percent of the total.
- Shares: useful when a couple or a family should pay more than one person.
- Adjustment: one person's share goes up or down by an amount, and the rest is split evenly.
- Itemized: you assign items from the bill to people, with tax, tip and discounts.
Bills that come back every month, like rent or internet, can be set to repeat weekly, every other week, monthly or yearly.
Once a bill is saved, everyone's balances update on their own.
How balances and simplify debts work
Your balance with a person is everything they owe you minus everything you owe them. Every bill adds to it, and every payment brings it closer to zero.
In a group, many small debts can pile up between different people. That's what simplify debts is for. Splitwise's help article says it restructures who owes whom to keep the number of payments as low as possible, and that it never changes anyone's total balance. Its example: if one person owes a second $20 and the second owes a third $20, Splitwise tells the first person to pay the third directly. It's a group setting, and any member can turn it on or off.
A worked example: a weekend trip for three
Say you and two friends rent a cabin for a weekend. Three bills go into a Splitwise group, all split equally:
- You pay the cabin: $450.
- Friend one pays groceries: $90.
- Friend two pays gas: $60.
The trip cost $600, so each person's share is $200. Each balance is what that person paid minus their share:
- You paid $450, your share is $200, so you're owed $250.
- Friend one paid $90, so they owe $110.
- Friend two paid $60, so they owe $140.
Check: $110 plus $140 is $250. Everything owed adds up to everything paid.
Without simplify debts, the bills leave three debts between pairs of people. Friend one owes you $120 ($150 of the cabin minus the $30 you owe them for groceries). Friend two owes you $130 ($150 minus $20 for gas). And friend two owes friend one $10 ($30 of groceries minus the $20 friend one owes for gas). That's three payments.
With simplify debts on, it's two: friend one sends you $110 and friend two sends you $140. Each person ends up exactly where they would have anyway. Friend two still pays $140 in total, just all to you.
Splitwise settle up: recording a payment vs paying in the app
When you tap Settle up, you have two kinds of choice, according to Splitwise's guide to sending money.
Record a payment. You pay outside Splitwise, in cash, by bank transfer or with any app, and then record it so your balance updates. This works anywhere, and it's the option to use where the in-app payment options aren't offered.
Send the money through Splitwise. In the US, that means Splitwise Pay, Venmo or PayPal. In select European countries, it's Pay by Bank, a bank-to-bank transfer. Payments stay in one currency.
A few details from Splitwise's own pages:
- Splitwise Pay is for US residents 18 and older, is funded from a linked US checking account, and has no transaction fee for standard transfers and no monthly fee. A payment that isn't accepted within two weeks is cancelled and refunded.
- The Venmo and PayPal option is for US balances in US dollars, from the mobile app. You pick the balance, choose the third-party option and finish the payment in Venmo or PayPal.
- If a friend is slow to pay, you can send them a reminder about their balance from the app.
One handy detail: if you're in several groups with the same friend, one payment can clear all of it. Splitwise's article on being fully settled up gives the example of owing $20 in one group and being owed $5 in another: a $15 payment clears both.
Splitwise free vs Splitwise Pro
The free app covers everything above. Splitwise's help article on Pro says free users can add up to 4 expenses each day. That's plenty for most weeks, and it can feel tight on the day you get back from a trip with a stack of receipts.
Splitwise Pro, according to its Pro page, adds:
- unlimited expenses
- transaction import from a credit or debit card, currently only in the US
- currency conversion and charts of spending by category
- receipt scanning and itemizing scanned receipts
- searching all your expenses and default splits for a group
- early access to new features and no ads
The help article lists three plan types: an annual Individual + Trip Pass, an annual Duo + Trip Pass, and a monthly plan. None of the Splitwise pages we read listed a price, so check in the app before you subscribe. You can cancel from the Account tab in the app or from account settings on the web; if you bought Pro through Apple or Google, refunds go through them.
How a Splitwise bill shows up in your budget
Splitwise tracks who owes whom. Your budget needs a different number: what you spent. In the cabin example, your card shows $450, but your spending on the trip is $200, your share. The other $250 is money your friends owe you, and when they send it, that's a debt being paid, not income.
Most bank feeds only see the $450 going out and the $250 coming in, so a budget built from them alone can show the trip as $450 of spending plus $250 of income. Our post on Splitwise and your budget walks through counting only your share, whoever paid. If your Splitwise total and your card charge don't match, see what to do when the bill and the charge disagree.
You can do this by hand each month, or use an app that reads Splitwise for you. Monio connects to Splitwise, links each shared bill to its card charge so only your share counts as spending, and works in the US and Canada for $7.99 a month or $80 a year. You keep using Splitwise with your friends as before.
Questions
How does Splitwise work?
You add a bill, say who paid and how to split it, and Splitwise keeps a running balance with each person. Nobody pays anyone at that point. When you're ready, you settle up by paying outside the app and recording it, or in some countries by sending the money through Splitwise.
What does simplify debts do on Splitwise?
Splitwise's help article says it restructures who owes whom to keep the number of payments as low as possible, and that it never changes anyone's total balance. If one person owes a second $20 and the second owes a third $20, the first person pays the third directly.
How do you settle up on Splitwise?
Tap Settle up and either record a payment you made outside Splitwise, in cash, by bank transfer or with any app, or send the money through Splitwise. In the US that means Splitwise Pay, Venmo or PayPal, and in select European countries it's Pay by Bank.
Is Splitwise free?
Yes. Splitwise is free on iPhone, Android and the web, and its help article says free users can add up to 4 expenses each day. Splitwise Pro adds unlimited expenses and more, but none of the Splitwise pages checked in October 2026 listed a price.