Split Bill Calculator

Splitting a restaurant bill equally is the quickest approach, but it can feel unfair if people ordered very differently. This calculator supports both equal and itemised splits, so you can assign dishes to individuals and divide shared items such as starters or a bottle of wine between only the people who had them. Tips are handled alongside the split. Choose whether the tip applies before or after dividing, and set your own percentage. Many UK restaurants add a service charge automatically for larger groups, and you can include that instead of a separate tip. On a £120 bill for four, a tip at 12.5% adds £15.00, taking the grand total to £135.00, or £33.75 each on an equal split.

Convention in the UK is reasonably settled. Table-service restaurants attract 10-12.5% where no service charge has been added, and 10-15% is fair for service you were pleased with. When a charge is added it is usually 12.5%, rising to 15% in upmarket London places. Cafés and counter service treat the tip jar as entirely optional. Away from restaurants, taxi fares are rounded up to the nearest pound or tipped 5-10%, Uber offers 10-15% in the app, hair salons expect around 10%, and hotel porters take £1-£2 a bag with £1-£3 a night for housekeeping, which many British guests skip. Nobody tips for drinks bought at a pub bar.

A service charge in the UK has been optional since the 1980s, and it can be removed on request for any reason at all. What happens to the money changed much more recently. From October 2024 the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 has required employers to pass 100% of tips through to staff, so the old employer skim is no longer lawful. Cash tips still reach staff most directly, while card tips are distributed through the restaurant's tronc arrangement.

An even split stops being fair once drinks make up 30-50% of the bill and part of the table is not drinking. Three fixes work in practice. People can pay for their own drinks and split the food evenly, the drinkers can take a 30% larger share, or the whole bill can be itemised in an app. British custom also holds that the person whose birthday it is does not pay, with everyone else covering that share. Where orders differ sharply, a steak against a bowl of pasta, agree the convention before ordering rather than at the moment the bill lands on the table.

Large bookings attract an automatic service charge at many UK restaurants, typically from 8 diners and sometimes from 6. The rate is usually 12.5%, or 15% in London. House policy may describe it as mandatory, but the legal position is unchanged, so it can still be taken off on request. The classic large-group problem is paying a share of two expensive bottles you never touched. Agreeing a rough figure per head before booking heads that off, a split-bill app removes most of the friction on the night, and a little cash settles the outliers, whether that is one big spender or one teetotaller.

Business meals follow tax rules rather than etiquette. A sole trader or an employee travelling away from their normal workplace can deduct the cost of meals on that trip. Entertaining clients is not deductible against Corporation Tax at all, a UK rule since 1965 that surprises people used to other countries. Staff entertaining is treated differently, with annual social events such as the Christmas party deductible up to £150 per head per year. VAT follows the same split, blocked on client entertaining and recoverable on staff entertaining, apportioned where an event mixes the two.

Settling up afterwards is far easier than it used to be. Splitwise is the most widely used bill-splitting app in the UK and its free tier covers occasional use, Tricount suits holidays and works offline, and Settle Up offers a simpler interface again. Monzo and Starling have splitting built in and can request money straight from your contacts. Apple Pay and Google Pay transfers settle instantly, and Faster Payments moves bank transfers within seconds at any hour of the day, which is why most UK groups square up the same evening instead of hunting for cash.