Bill-splitting is a math problem with a social tax.
splitmax exists because the three-second mental math of splitting a dinner bill is wrong almost all the time, and the existing tools make people feel worse about asking for what they’re owed.
What we noticed
Every group of adults eats out together. Every one of those groups has one person who quietly pays more than their share — often the same person, every time — because the alternative is a weird conversation at a moment that’s supposed to be fun. The average adult eats at least one meal a month with four or more people. Over a year, the overpayer can easily donate $300–600 to the group across a few dozen dinners.
The problem isn’t that people are cheap. The problem is that splitting correctly is a nuisance. Even-splitting is easy; fair splitting requires reading the receipt, doing arithmetic, and then getting four people to Venmo you within 24 hours. Existing expense-tracking tools (Splitwise and friends) were built for roommates tracking months of expenses, not the four-person dinner on a Tuesday.
What we’re building
splitmax is a phone app that scans the receipt, extracts every line item, and lets everyone at the table tap the things they had. Tax and tip are computed proportionally. One person pays the server; everyone else pays them back instantly through Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or Zelle — whichever handle the organizer has enabled.
The only requirement is that one person at the table has splitmax on their phone. The rest of the group opens a link in their browser. No downloads, no signups, no accounts. We made this decision because asking six friends to install something just to pay for dinner is the thing that kills every group-payment app.
What we won’t do
- We won’t hold your money. splitmax doesn’t touch payments. It tells each person exactly what to Venmo the organizer, and opens Venmo with that amount pre-filled. The money moves through Venmo, not through us.
- We won’t sell your receipts. Receipt photos are processed through an OCR service to extract line items, and then deleted. We don’t build a database of what you order.
- We won’t upsell you constantly. splitmax is free forever. The Pro tier is $5/year and its only real purpose is supporting the work. We don’t plan to add tiers, paywalls on features, or nag screens.
Who we are
splitmax is built by a small team of engineers who got tired of doing bill math on a napkin. We ship from Brooklyn and San Francisco. We’ve been building software together for about a decade, and we wanted to work on something we’d actually use three times a month.
If you want to get in touch — feedback, press, a weird edge case we got wrong — email hello@splitmax.app. For support, support@splitmax.app. Or see our contact page.
A note on ads
The free version of splitmax shows ads. They’re on the web pages you’re reading now and on a single banner inside the app — nothing else. The $5/year Pro tier turns them off entirely and adds a tiny badge next to your name. That’s it. We think paid users shouldn’t subsidize the product for free users through a worse experience — but we also think the free version needs to actually be usable, which it is.
Ready to try it? Back to the app. Or read one of our guides on splitting money.