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What is split/away?

split/away tracks who paid for what on a shared trip or household, then works out the fewest payments needed to make everyone even. There are no accounts — you just create a tab and share its link. Inside a tab you’ll find five sections across the top: Expenses, People & Groups, Settle Up, Insights, and Activity.

Creating a tab

From the home page, give your tab a name and create it. Each tab gets its own private link. Anyone with that link can view and edit the tab, so share it only with the people in your group — and keep it safe, because it’s the only way back in. You can change the currency symbol and default split mode any time from the tab settings (the gear icon).

Sharing a tab

Use the Share button in the tab header to hand the link to your group. You can copy the link, open your device’s share sheet, or reveal a QR code for someone to scan in person. The QR code is drawn on your own device, so the link is never handed to an outside service. Remember that whoever holds the link can do anything you can — there are no read-only links and no passwords.

Because the link is the only way back into a tab, Email me the link sends it to an address you type so you have it somewhere safe. We use that address only to send the one email and don’t store it.

People & groups

Add everyone who’s sharing costs on the People & Groups tab. You can also put people into a group — a couple or household that settles as one. Members of a group pool their balances into a single shared wallet, so they settle up together rather than with each other.

On that tab you can also tap This is me next to your own name. It’s just for this device — there are no logins — but it tags the changes you make so everyone can see who did what on the Activity tab.

Adding expenses

Each expense records who paid and how it’s split. There are four split modes:

• Equal — split evenly among everyone involved.
• Shares — weighted split (e.g. 2 shares for one person, 1 for another).
• Exact — type the exact amount each person owes.
• Percent — split by percentages.

All amounts are handled in whole cents and rounded so the parts always add back up to the total — no money goes missing to rounding.

For a shared bill where everyone had different things, switch to Itemize: add each line item, tick who shared it, and add any tax or tip. Each line splits equally among the people on it, and the lines roll up into one expense.

Every expense also has a Notes & questions field for extra context — or to ask the group something about it, like “was tax included?” Changes to a note show up on the Activity tab, so questions don’t get lost.

Refunds

A refund is just an expense with a negative amount: the “payer” is whoever the money came back to. Use the Refund toggle in the expense editor and enter the amount as a positive number — split/away applies the sign for you.

Smart add (with AI)

Where it’s available, a Smart add button lets you paste messy text — a receipt, some notes, a chat about who paid — or a photo of a receipt, and have AI draft the expenses for you. Nothing is sent until you press Extract, and the results land in a table where you review, edit, or drop each row before anything is saved. Each row becomes an equal-split expense under one payer you choose. This feature is optional and isn’t enabled everywhere; see the Privacy page for what the AI receives.

Pasting a CSV

On the Expenses tab, use Paste CSV to bulk-add expenses from a spreadsheet or bank export. Paste your rows, map which columns are the amount, date and description, choose one payer, and decide whether negative or positive amounts mean refunds. Each row becomes an equal-split expense.

Settling up

The Settle Up tab shows each person’s balance and the shortest set of payments to clear them — people who don’t owe each other are never asked to pay one another. Record a payment once it’s made, or mark everything settled at once. Copy summary grabs a plain-text rundown you can paste into a chat.

Insights

The Insights tab turns the tab into charts: total spent and a running total over time, each wallet’s net balance, who paid for how much, and each person’s paid-versus-share. It’s a read-only view of the same figures behind Settle Up.

Activity & archiving

The Activity tab logs every change to the tab — what changed, and (once someone has marked which person they are) who changed it. The latest few changes also show at the bottom of the Expenses tab. When a trip is over, you can archive it from the tab settings to tuck it away without deleting it.

Backup & restore

Because there are no accounts, a saved file is your only durable backup. From the tab settings you can Export this tab, or Export all tabs this device remembers, as a JSON file. Use Import a backup — from the tab settings or the home page — to restore one later or move tabs to another device. If a backed-up tab still exists on the server, the importer offers to open the live tab instead of restoring an older copy, which is the way back into a tab whose link you lost.

Finding a tab again

The “recent tabs” list on the home page is stored on your current device only. To open a tab somewhere else, use its link — bookmark it, email it to yourself, scan its QR code, or restore a backup. A lost link with no backup can’t be recovered.

Installing the app

split/away can be installed like an app. In a supporting browser you’ll see an install option in the address bar or menu; on an iPhone, use Share → Add to Home Screen. Once installed it opens in its own window and the screen loads instantly, even on a flaky connection. Your tabs always live on the server, so you still need a connection to view or change them — nothing is stored offline.

Light & dark mode

Use the theme toggle in the top-right to switch between light, dark, and matching your system. Your choice is remembered on that device.

Your data & privacy

split/away has no accounts and no tracking that follows you around. For the details, see our Privacy page.