Enter what each person's items cost, plus tax and tip percentage — everyone's share of tax and tip is distributed based on what they actually ordered, not split evenly.
Each person's subtotal plus their proportional share of tax and tip.
| Person | Subtotal | Share of tax + tip | Total owed |
|---|
A standard tip calculator divides one bill evenly by the number of people — fine when everyone ordered about the same. This tool is for when people ordered different amounts: enter what each person's items actually cost, and tax and tip get distributed proportionally to how much each person spent, not split evenly.
Splitting tax and tip evenly means someone who ordered a side salad subsidizes someone else's steak and cocktails. Proportional splitting — where each person pays tax and tip based on their own share of the subtotal — is generally considered the fairer approach when orders are uneven, which is why this calculator does it that way rather than dividing everything by headcount.
Add the shared item's cost split evenly into each relevant person's amount before entering it here — for example, a $30 appetizer split three ways adds $10 to each of those three people's subtotal. This calculator works from whatever final subtotal you assign each person, however you've already decided to divide shared items.
Worked example: three people order $25, $40, and $15 of food (a $80 subtotal), with 8% tax and 18% tip: the total bill is $100.80, and — because tax and tip scale with each person's share — they owe $31.50, $50.40, and $18.90 respectively, in proportion to what they ordered.
Splitting a bill equally is simplest and is usually fine when everyone ordered comparably. It stops being fair the moment one person had a starter, two courses and half the wine while another had a salad and tap water.
The practical rule most groups converge on: split evenly when orders are broadly similar, and itemise when they clearly aren't. Deciding which before ordering rather than after avoids the awkward part entirely.
When splitting by item, tax and service should be allocated proportionally, not equally. Someone whose food came to 40% of the bill should carry 40% of the service charge. Dividing the service equally while itemising the food quietly reintroduces the unfairness you were trying to remove.
Watch for service already included — adding a tip on top of an included service charge is a common and expensive double-payment, especially on larger tables where it's added automatically.
Calculate the tip on the pre-tax total where the distinction exists. For a single bill without splitting, the Tip Calculator is the quicker tool.
Divide almost any bill by three and you get a repeating decimal, so someone has to absorb a penny or two. Round each share up to a sensible unit — the total will slightly exceed the bill, which simply becomes a marginally larger tip.
For groups who eat together regularly, running a tally across several occasions beats settling every bill exactly. Alternating who pays is less arithmetic and, over a few meals, close enough to fair. For shared ongoing costs like rent or utilities, splitting by a proportional share rather than equally is usually the more defensible approach — the Percentage Calculator handles the ratios.
Ordered about the same amount? The simpler Tip Calculator splits evenly by headcount instead.