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Split a bill

Guide

How to split a restaurant bill

Add up each person's items from the check, dividing anything shared between the people who had it. Then share the tax and the tip in proportion to each person's share of the pre-tax subtotal — if your food is 30% of the subtotal, you pay 30% of the tax and the tip. Tip 15–20% on the pre-tax amount, and tell the server how you are splitting before you order rather than after the check arrives.

First, the honest exception. If four people ordered four similar meals, divide the total by four and stop reading — you will be within a dollar of correct and nobody will care. Everything below matters when the orders were genuinely different sizes, when the group is large, or when it is the same people every week and small unfairnesses compound.

The method

  1. 1

    Decide before the food arrives, not after

    Agree at the start whether you are splitting evenly or by item, and tell the server early if you want separate checks — many restaurants can split at the register but not once the check is printed. The single biggest cause of a bad bill moment is deciding the method while everyone is standing up to leave.

  2. 2

    Work from the subtotal, not the total

    Everything is calculated off the pre-tax subtotal. Add up each person's items — divide anything shared between the people who had it — and you have each person's share of the subtotal. That figure drives everything else.

  3. 3

    Tip on the pre-tax subtotal

    The Emily Post Institute's guidance is to tip 15–20% on the pre-tax amount, on the reasoning that tax is a government charge and not part of the service. Tipping on the post-tax total is widely accepted too and usually costs $1–$3 more; either is fine as long as everyone uses the same rule.

  4. 4

    Share the tax and tip in proportion, not per head

    If your items are 30% of the subtotal, you pay 30% of the tax and 30% of the tip. Dividing tax and tip evenly is the common shortcut and it overcharges whoever ordered least — which is usually the person who was already trying to spend the least.

  5. 5

    Check that the shares add up to the printed total

    Add every person's total together. It should equal the amount on the check exactly. If it does not, rounding has been dropped somewhere and one person is absorbing it — that leftover cent or two should be assigned deliberately rather than left to whoever is holding the calculator.

What it costs to get it wrong

Three people. Ana had the steak, Ben the pasta, Chi the salad, and they shared a bottle of wine. Subtotal $90, tax $7.20, tip $16.20 at 18% of the pre-tax subtotal — $113.40 on the check.

A restaurant check split proportionally, compared with an even split
PersonItemsTaxTipOwesEven split
Ana — steak$42.00$3.36$7.56$52.92$37.80
Ben — pasta$28.00$2.24$5.04$35.28$37.80
Chi — salad$20.00$1.60$3.60$25.20$37.80

The wine splits three ways at $10 each, which puts Ana at $42 of the subtotal, Ben at $28 and Chi at $20 — 46.67%, 31.11% and 22.22%. Those same proportions apply to the tax and the tip, and the three totals sum to $113.40 exactly.

Split evenly, Chi pays $12.60 more than they owe — a 50% surcharge on a salad, transferred to whoever ordered the steak. Once, that is nothing. Every Friday with the same group, it is a standing arrangement nobody agreed to.

Tipping: the three real questions

Pre-tax or post-tax?

Pre-tax is the standard guidance — the Emily Post Institute's position is that tax is a government charge unrelated to service. Post-tax is widely accepted and usually costs $1–$3 more on a normal check. Pick one and apply it to the whole table; the mistake is different people using different rules on the same bill.

How much?

15–20% for standard table service in the US, with 20% now the common default in cities. Below 15% reads as a comment on the service, whether or not you meant it as one.

Was a gratuity already added?

Check the bottom of the check before you do anything else. Parties of six or more are frequently charged an automatic gratuity, and adding a second tip on top of it is the most expensive mistake in this whole guide.

The etiquette bit

Let the check split itself

Photograph it, share the link, and everyone claims their own items at the same time. Tax and tip land in proportion automatically, and the totals are checked to add up to the cent.

Split a check freeJust the tip calculator

Want the arithmetic in more depth? Splitting a bill by item · All the guides

Questions, answered

How do you split a restaurant bill fairly?

Add up each person's items from the check, dividing anything shared between the people who had it. Then share the tax and the tip in proportion to each person's share of the pre-tax subtotal — if your food is 30% of the subtotal, you pay 30% of the tax and tip. That way everyone pays for what they ordered plus a fair share of what was charged on top of it, and the shares add up to the printed total exactly.

Should you tip before or after tax?

Before. The Emily Post Institute's guidance is to tip 15–20% on the pre-tax subtotal, since tax is a government charge that has nothing to do with the service. Tipping on the post-tax total is common and perfectly acceptable — it usually amounts to $1–$3 more on a normal check — but pre-tax is the standard answer, and it is the one to use if a group is disagreeing about it.

Is it rude to split the bill by item?

No, but it is rude to spring it on the server after the check is printed. Etiquette experts consistently give the same advice: decide before you order and tell the server then. A group that says 'separate checks, please' at the start is easy to accommodate; a group that asks for the check to be broken into six after the fact is asking for a re-ring at the busiest moment of a shift.

How much should you tip when splitting a bill?

15–20% of the pre-tax subtotal for standard table service in the US, applied to the whole check rather than calculated by each person separately. Splitting the tip proportionally afterwards is what keeps it fair. Note that many restaurants add an automatic gratuity for parties of six or more — check the bottom of the check before adding another tip on top of it.

What if one person ordered much more than everyone else?

That is precisely the case where an even split stops being fair, and it is worth splitting by item. On a $113 check for three people, an even split can cost the person who ordered a salad about $12 more than they actually owe. The larger the spread in what people ordered, the more an even split becomes a quiet transfer from the cheapest order to the most expensive.

How do you split a shared appetizer or a bottle of wine?

Divide it between the people who had it, not across the whole table. If four out of six shared a bottle, it splits four ways. If a line has a quantity — six beers, and you had two — you can take part of it, so you pay for two beers rather than a third of the line.

What is the easiest way to split a check with a big group?

Photograph the check, upload it, and send everyone a link so they claim their own items from their own phone at the same time. It removes the two slow parts: one person transcribing thirty lines, and going round the table asking what everybody had — which reliably produces a different answer from what the receipt says.