Bill split calculator

Which split is fair?

There's no single right answer. Each method protects something different:

• 50/50 is simple and feels equal, but it takes a bigger bite out of the lower income.
• Splitting by income means you both give up the same share of your pay.
• Equal leftover means you both end the month with the same spending money, so the higher earner covers more.

Take a couple bringing home $6,000 and $4,000 a month with $3,000 in shared bills. Split 50/50, each pays $1,500.

Split by income, the first partner pays $1,800 and the second pays $1,200. Split for equal leftovers, they pay $2,500 and $500, and both keep $3,500.

If the first partner is paid every two weeks, their income-based share works out to $830.77 per paycheck into the joint account.

Paying from a joint account

Many couples keep their own accounts and fund one shared account for the bills. The calculator turns each person's monthly share into an amount per paycheck: the monthly share times 12, divided by the number of paychecks in a year (52 weekly, 26 every two weeks, 24 twice a month, 12 monthly).

It rounds up to the cent, so a year of paychecks always covers a year of bills. Dividing a monthly amount by four instead moves too much: a year has 52 weeks, not 48, so weekly transfers of a quarter of the bill would fund 13 months of bills.

With weekly or every-two-weeks pay, some months get fewer paychecks than others, so start the joint account with a cushion of about one month of bills.

Joint vs separate bank accounts →

Questions about splitting bills