Free tool
Work out each roommate's fair share of rent and utilities: equally, by income, or by room size. Free, instant, and no signup.
How do you want to split?
Each person pays per month
Roommate 1
$860.00
Roommate 2
$860.00
Roommate 3
$860.00
Total collected: $2,580.00 (rent $2,400.00 + utilities $180.00).
Equal splits are the default for a reason: zero math, zero negotiation, and perfectly fair when bedrooms and incomes are roughly comparable. If your situation is symmetric, stop here.
Income-based splitting keeps housing from consuming wildly different shares of each person’s life. If one roommate earns twice as much, an equal split costs the lower earner twice as much in real terms. Totaling incomes and paying proportionally is the standard fix, and it’s especially common for couples.
Room-size splitting prices the actual product: private space. The primary bedroom with the ensuite is worth more than the converted den, and weighting rent by square footage (plus agreed premiums for perks) settles the question with measurement instead of negotiation. Shared costs like utilities stay equal, since everyone streams and showers the same.
Whichever method you choose, the calculator only settles month one. The real test is month four, when someone has covered the Wi-Fi twice and bought groceries three times. That running ledger is what CashWise’s GroupVault handles: every shared cost tracked, who-owes-whom computed continuously, settled in Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle.
There are three standard methods: equally (simplest, works when rooms and incomes are similar), by income (each person pays a share proportional to earnings, the fairest option with big income gaps), or by room size (bigger or private rooms pay more). The right answer is whichever method everyone agrees to before move-in.
Income-proportional splitting is common for couples and close friends with very different earnings: total the incomes, and each person pays their percentage of the total. A roommate earning $4,000/month and one earning $2,000/month would split rent 67/33. It keeps the same housing from consuming wildly different shares of each person’s budget.
Weight each person’s rent share by their bedroom’s square footage (or agree on a premium for perks like a private bathroom). Utilities and shared costs typically stay split equally, since everyone uses the kitchen and Wi-Fi the same.
Usually not. Rent maps to private space, so it can fairly be weighted; utilities map to shared usage, so most households split them equally regardless of how rent is divided. This calculator follows that convention for the room-size method.
A calculator settles the agreement; an app keeps it honest. CashWise’s GroupVault keeps a running ledger of rent, utilities, and shared purchases, calculates who owes whom, and settles through Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle. Roommates join free.
CashWise GroupVault tracks rent, utilities, and every shared cost all year. Roommates join free, and balances settle through Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle.