Split each utility on its own basis, not all of them the same way — electricity and gas by what each person used, water by how many people live in each room, internet equally. Enter the bills below, choose how each one is shared, and read off what every person owes. It works as a split utility bill calculator for a whole apartment rather than for a single bill.
Leave Usage blank to split a bill equally. A blank People here counts as one person.
Most anyone owes
Enter at least one bill amount to see the split.
Each bill is divided on its own basis and rounded to the cent, so the shares of every bill add back up to that bill exactly.
Three worked examples of the same arithmetic: a $120.00 electricity bill, a meter reading, and the rounding step on an $80.00 internet bill.
A utility bill is split one utility at a time, because electricity, water, gas and internet are shared in different ways. Electricity and gas usually follow what each person used, water often follows how many people live in each room, and internet is almost always equal. This page lets you set a basis for each utility separately and then adds the shares up into one figure per person, so nobody has to work out four independent splits by hand and hope they add up.
An electricity bill split calculator turns the total on the bill into a price per unit and then charges each person for the units they used. Take the amount on the bill and divide it by the units on the meter to get the rate — 120.00 over 640 units is 0.1875 per unit — then multiply that rate by each person's units. Set Electricity to by usage above, enter the units, and the implied rate is printed under the electricity line so you can check it against your own bill.
A water bill split calculator divides the water, the sewer charge and the standing charge between the people who live there rather than between the rooms. Water is the one utility where headcount is usually the fairest basis, because a room with four people in it uses more water than a room with one person even when the two rooms are the same size. Set Water to by people and give each person their headcount — a couple sharing one room enters 2.
Split utilities with roommates by agreeing the basis for each utility before the first bill arrives, then applying the same rule every month. The arrangement that survives is the one where the person who consumes the most can see why they pay the most, so write the basis down — usage for electricity and gas, headcount for water, equal for internet — and keep the fixed charges separate from the usage charges. This page does the arithmetic; the agreement is still yours to make.
Internet is the one utility that should almost always be split equally, because it is a flat monthly fee that does not move with use. A heavy month and a light month cost exactly the same, so charging by usage would be charging for something that does not exist. Leave Internet on equally unless one person has a separate line or a paid add-on that nobody else uses, in which case split that add-on out on its own first.
Split a utility bill by room size by putting each room's size into the usage column and setting the bill to by usage — the arithmetic is the same, only the meaning of the number changes. Use square feet, or a simple 1 / 2 / 3 ratio for small, medium and large, and the page charges each room in proportion. Room size is a reasonable stand-in for water and for heating, but it is a poor stand-in for electricity, which follows appliances rather than floor area.
Leave their headcount in place and reduce only the usage-based bills, because the fixed part of a utility bill does not fall when somebody goes away. Internet, the water standing charge and the gas connection fee are owed whether or not anyone is home, so the fair move is to keep those in full and cut only electricity and gas usage. Put the reduced figure in their usage column and set those two bills to by usage.
Split the fixed charges on a different basis from the usage, because a standing charge is not consumed by anybody. A typical utility bill mixes two things: a fixed amount — the meter charge, the connection fee, the line rental — and a variable amount that follows use. The fair split divides the fixed part by headcount and the variable part by usage, which is exactly why this page asks for a basis per bill instead of one basis for everything.
Sometimes they will not, on their own, because a share of a cent is not a whole cent. This page rounds each share down and then hands the leftover cents to the shares with the biggest remainders, so every bill's shares add back up to that bill exactly and the person totals add up to the whole. The breakdown prints a tick next to "shares added back up" when it matches, and without that step you would get a column that is a cent or two short.
No — rent is one figure split once, while utilities are several figures that are each shared differently. Rent is normally split by room size or by income and the answer is a single number per person; a utility split has to cope with electricity following usage, water following headcount and internet being flat. That is why this page is a split utility bill calculator rather than a rent calculator: it keeps a separate basis for each line and only then totals them.