Split Bills by Income Calculator: Your Fair Share
Split bills by income: enter each person's take-home pay and your shared bills to see a 50/50, income-based or equal-leftover split, and each monthly transfer.
When two people earn different amounts, a straight 50/50 split of the rent and bills takes a much bigger bite out of the lower earner's pay. Splitting in proportion to income fixes that: if one of you brings home £3,000 a month and the other £2,000, an income-based split means you each spend exactly the same percentage of your pay on shared costs, so £2,000 of bills becomes £1,200 and £800 rather than £1,000 each. Enter your take-home pay and your shared monthly costs below to compare three fair ways to split, and see what each person should transfer into a joint account or bill-splitting app every month.
Split shared bills fairly
The three ways to split, explained
Equal split. The bills are divided by the number of people. It is simple and works well when incomes are close, but the lower earner ends up spending a bigger share of their pay and has much less left at the end of the month.
In proportion to income. Each person pays the same percentage of their take-home pay. The calculation is your pay divided by everyone's combined pay, multiplied by the bills. This is the split most couples mean when they talk about a "fair" split, and it keeps both people's contributions in line with what they earn.
Equal money left over. The split is set so that everyone has the same amount of spending money once the shared bills are paid. It treats the household's income as fully pooled, so the higher earner pays noticeably more. If one person's pay is too low to reach the common leftover figure, they pay nothing and the others share the bills between them.
Take-home pay, not salary
Use what actually lands in each account every month, after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments. Two people on the same gross salary can take home different amounts if one pays into a bigger pension or repays a student loan, and using gross figures would skew the split.
Putting the split into practice
The simplest set-up is a joint account that the shared bills leave from, with each person sending in their monthly figure from this calculator on payday by standing order. Our guide to the best joint account apps covers which banks offer one, and if you would rather keep money separate, the best apps for splitting bills can track who owes what. Re-run the numbers whenever someone's pay or a big bill changes, such as a rent rise or a new energy tariff.
