To split a restaurant bill fairly, add up what each person ordered, split any shared plates evenly, then multiply each person's subtotal by the bill's total divided by the food total, so everyone pays their own share of tax and tip.
The check lands, someone says "let's just split it," and the person who had soup goes quiet. Here is how to do it right.
Splitting the bill evenly is fast, and it is fair when everyone ate about the same. It stops being fair when one person had a salad and water and another had the steak and two cocktails. Most arguments at the end of a meal come from that gap.
There is no single right method. There is a right method for each table. Here are five, with the maths worked out so you can do it on a phone calculator in under a minute.
Four friends go out. Here is what they ordered, before tax and tip:
Food total: $122. Tax is 8% ($9.76) and they tip 20% on the pre-tax food ($24.40). The bill comes to $156.16.
Divide the total by the number of people. $156.16 / 4 = $39.04 each.
This is the quickest, and it is fine when orders are within a few dollars of each other. Here they are not. Ana's food and her share of the starter came to $21, about $27 with tax and tip, yet she pays $39.04. Dee's came to $43, about $55 with tax and tip, and she pays $16 less than that.
This is the fairest method for most tables, and it is less work than it sounds.
1. Give each person their own items. 2. Split shared plates evenly. The $12 starter adds $3 to each person. 3. Work out one multiplier: bill total / food total. Here that is $156.16 / $122 = 1.28. 4. Multiply each person's subtotal by 1.28.
| Person | Food + starter share | x 1.28 | Even split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | $21 | $26.88 | $39.04 |
| Ben | $25 | $32.00 | $39.04 |
| Cal | $33 | $42.24 | $39.04 |
| Dee | $43 | $55.04 | $39.04 |
| Total | $122 | $156.16 | $156.16 |
The multiplier trick works because tax and tip are both percentages of the food. Everyone pays the same rate on what they ate. If your tax is 8% and your tip is 20%, the multiplier is always 1.28. At 10% tax and 18% tip it is 1.28 too. At no tax and 20% tip it is 1.2.
Sometimes one person ordered far less or far more than everyone else. Take that person's share out first, then split the rest evenly.
If Ana pays her $26.88 from Method 2, the other three split $129.28 and pay $43.09 each (rounded, with one person covering the extra cent). It keeps things simple for the majority and is fair to the one who ate light.
Drinks cause most of the gap. One person on cocktails at $14 each can add $40 to a bill while another drinks tap water.
Split the food evenly, then each person pays for their own drinks, with the same multiplier on top for tax and tip. This works well for groups that share dishes family style.
Close friends who eat together often can skip the maths and rotate. One person pays the whole bill this time, the next person pays next time. Over five or six dinners it evens out. It only works when everyone shows up about as often and orders in the same range.
Agree on the method before you order if you can. "Separate checks?" or "Are we splitting?" is much easier to ask at the start than at the end.
Most people notice when they pay for someone else's meal far more than when someone pays for theirs. A $10 overpay stings, and a $10 underpay is barely noticed. That is why the light eater is often the only one who feels the even split is wrong.
The same instinct shows up in every kind of halving. Two people sharing a sandwich will both watch the knife. If you want to see how good your own eye for an even split is, Halfsies gives you three objects a day to cut in half, and a scale weighs the two halves to show how close you got. For more ways to share things fairly, see I Cut, You Choose: 7 Fair Ways to Split Anything.
Pay for what you ordered, split shared plates evenly, then multiply each subtotal by the bill total divided by the food total. Everyone pays the same tax and tip rate on what they ate.
By what each person ordered is fairer, because the tip is a percentage of the food. The multiplier method handles tax and tip together in one step.
Let that person pay for their drink plus tax and tip, then split the rest of the bill evenly among everyone else.
Not if you ask early. Saying "I'll just cover mine" when you order, or asking for separate checks at the start, is normal and easy for the server.