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Best apps to split travel expenses: 9 ranked on a real trip

October 7, 2026 · 13 min read · Dimesum Engineering

A trip breaks what a flat never tests: two currencies, a friend with no account, eight bills before lunch, and one settle on the way home. Nine apps, ranked on those four, with a week in Japan for four worked through in euros and yen.

Four friends, two currencies, one settle at the end. That is what a trip asks of an app, and an app has to answer all three. Dimesum keeps a balance per currency, holds a place for the friend with no account, has no daily limit on bills, and clears four people in at most three transfers per currency. It is free.

We worked one trip through the tests below: Emma, Lucas, Sofia and Noah, a week in Tokyo and Kyoto, booked in euros and spent in yen. Dimesum is ours and sits first, so read us with that in mind. Every fact about another app comes from its store listing, website or terms as checked in August 2026, and where our sources say nothing we write "not in our source" instead of guessing.

What a trip breaks that a flat never does

A flat splits the same rent every month, in one currency, among people who all live there. A trip is a burst. Thirty bills in seven days, two or three currencies, a friend of a friend who joined for the weekend, and a deadline: everyone flies home and the memory of who paid for the taxi starts to fade. If your group shares money all year, the general list of bill splitting apps compared on what lasts is the better starting page; this one ranks on the trip.

1. Two currencies in one group

Emma paid the Kyoto house in euros from home. Sofia paid the Tokyo hotel in yen at the desk. Those two bills cannot be added until somebody picks an exchange rate, and the rate on the day Emma booked is not the rate on the day the group settles.

An app that converts every bill into one currency the moment you type it bakes a guess into the record. An app that keeps a balance per currency leaves the yen in yen and the euros in euros, and the group decides about conversion once, at the end, out loud. We wrote up six money bugs we found in our own multi-currency code, which is why we test this first. The longer argument is in multi-currency expense splitting apps, ranked.

2. The friend who will not make an account

Every trip has one. Noah's cousin joins for two nights in Kyoto, eats three dinners, and has no interest in installing anything for a weekend. If the app needs every person to sign up before a bill can name them, the organiser ends up keeping a side list, and the side list is where money goes missing.

The test is plain: can you put a bill on someone who has no account, and can they see their share from a link? We cover the full set of options in how to split a bill with someone who does not have the app.

3. Eight bills before anyone unpacks

The day the group lands in Tokyo produces the train from the airport, lockers, a convenience store run, lunch, the hotel deposit, a SIM card, dinner and a late taxi. That is eight bills before anyone has unpacked. A free tier that stops at a few bills a day stops on day one.

Splitwise documents a daily limit: its help centre says a free account can add up to 4 expenses each day, as of 7 October 2026. We cover what that means for a group, and the ways round it, in Splitwise's daily expense limit.

4. One settle at the end, in few transfers

Nobody wants to send nine payments on the flight home. A group of four can always be cleared in at most three transfers per currency, because netting each person's balance first removes every payment that would only cancel another one. The method is in how to settle up group expenses in fewer transfers, and the trip version, step by step, is in how to keep track of who owes who on a group trip.

The Japan trip, bill by bill

Here is the trip the four tests are worked on. Two bills were paid in euros before anyone left, five in yen during the week. Every bill split four ways.

The euro side is short. The group spent €1,336, so each share is €334.

Emma paid €1,240 and is owed €906. Lucas paid €96 and owes €238. Sofia and Noah paid nothing in euros and owe €334 each.

The yen side is longer. The group spent ¥184,280, so each share is ¥46,070. Sofia paid ¥88,000 and is owed ¥41,930.

Emma paid ¥55,880 and is owed ¥9,810. Lucas paid ¥18,400 and owes ¥27,670. Noah paid ¥22,000 and owes ¥24,070.

Each side sums to zero on its own, which is the check worth doing by hand once. Settled per currency, the trip takes six payments. Lucas pays Emma €238, Sofia pays Emma €334, Noah pays Emma €334. Lucas pays Sofia ¥27,670, Noah pays Sofia ¥14,260, and Noah pays Emma ¥9,810.

Add the two currencies together at a rate somebody picked on the day of each bill, and those six numbers drift by however much the yen moved that week. That drift is the whole case for keeping them apart.

The best apps to split travel expenses, ranked

The order follows the four tests above: two currencies, a friend with no account, a busy day, and a short settle. An app climbs on how many of the four its own published material shows it passing. An app our sources say nothing about on a test earns nothing on it, so it sits below every app whose behaviour we can state.

1. Dimesum

Dimesum keeps every balance per currency, so the Japan trip holds two balances for each person and never adds yen to euros by itself. When the group wants one number, it can read the balances folded into one currency at rates it agrees, and the ledger underneath still holds the yen.

A friend with no account gets a kept place: you add them, bills name them, and they claim the place later with all their history. For a one-off bill, someone without the app takes a seat from a link or a QR code. There is no daily limit on bills; the caps are 50 people a group and 200 groups an account.

Settling clears a group in at most one transfer fewer than its people, per currency, and a payment is recorded when the payer marks it and confirmed by the person paid. Dimesum never holds money: its payment doors open PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Wise, Revolut, Zelle, PayNow, Pix or a bank transfer by IBAN. An edit restates the whole split and keeps the old version in history, which matters on a trip where the ramen bill gets fixed twice.

The limits are real. The web app is live at app.dimesum.com, and the Android and iOS apps are still in closed testing, so on the trip you use it in a phone browser. It reads in 18 languages, Japanese among them; our guide to bill splitting apps in Japan covers the local side.

2. Monzo Split

Monzo Split is a group expense feature inside the Monzo bank app, rebuilt in March 2025. As of August 2026 it keeps unlimited expenses on a running balance and allows partial settlement. Monzo's page says guests can join a Split by link without banking with Monzo or living in the UK, which covers the friend with no account.

Our source does not say how a Split handles a second currency. A Split is set up from inside Monzo, so at least one person in the group banks with Monzo. Monzo's own page lists no paywalls or ads, and publishes a comparison against Splitwise footnoted "as of 18/03/2026".

3. Revolut Group Bills

Revolut Group Bills has run inside Revolut since 19 August 2020. It keeps a running balance for 2 to 20 people and settles through a feature Revolut calls Smart Settle. Since about mid-2025, people without a Revolut account can take part through a web page.

Revolut's terms for the feature say "we do not currently charge a fee." Our source does not cover a second currency inside one group. A group of 21 or more cannot use it.

4. Splitwise

Splitwise keeps a running group ledger in over 100 currencies, with several payers per bill, repeating bills and debt simplification. Converting between currencies is a Pro feature, alongside unlimited expenses, receipt scanning and itemising, search and JSON backup. As of August 2026, US in-app prices for Pro sit at $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, $29.99 and $39.99, and regional prices vary.

On the friend with no account, its public feedback forum lists "add friends without email or phone" as its seventh most voted request, at 625 votes and under review as of 22 August 2026; the web app can add an unnamed member and the phone apps cannot. The free tier stops at 4 expenses a day, as its help centre states as of 7 October 2026.

The trip complaint is in its own reviews. A 2-star review on the UK App Store listing, left on version 26.5.4, reads: "Now EVERY member of a group needs a subscription. So this means say you go away with 8 mates, they all need a Splitwise Pro membership." If that is why you are looking, our list of Splitwise alternatives with no daily expense limit goes further, and Dimesum vs Splitwise puts the two side by side.

5. Tricount

Tricount is a group expense app owned by the bank bunq since 2022. It is free: its Premium tier was removed. Our source does not record how it handles two currencies, a friend with no account, or settling, so it ranks below every app whose behaviour on those we can state. The full picture is in Tricount alternatives.

6. Settle Up

Settle Up sells a subscription and also a pass for one group that any member can buy for everyone in it. As of August 2026 that pass runs from $5.99 a week at the low end to $149.99 for a lifetime pass. Our source does not cover its currency handling or how it treats a member with no account.

7. Splid

Splid charges a single in-app purchase of $3.99, with no ads and no subscription. On 22 August 2026 its Android app had last been updated on 23 August 2025, twelve months earlier. Our source does not cover its currency handling, guests or settling. We compare it with Settle Up in Splid and Settle Up alternatives.

8. Spliit

Spliit is an open-source group expense app that runs in a browser or on your own server. It reported about $1,300 of income in a year, 92% of it the founder's own donation. Our source does not cover its currency handling, guests or settling.

9. Venmo Groups

Venmo Groups, live since 14 November 2023, keeps running balances for up to 30 people and simplifies them. It works in the United States only, and every member needs a Venmo account. For a European group in Japan, that rules it out before the first bill. How it compares with the other bank and wallet features is in bank split features compared.

Stay where you are if your group already fits it

Switching apps mid trip costs more than any of the differences above, so do not. A few groups have no reason to switch before the next one either. If every person on the trip banks with Monzo, a Split is already in their app. If everyone already pays for Splitwise Pro, the expense cap and the conversion paywall do not apply to them.

If your group is entirely in the US, spends only dollars and already has Venmo, Venmo Groups needs no new install. Those are conditions, not endorsements. A group that fails any one of them, a second currency, one friend without the bank, one person on the free tier, is the group the ranking above was written for.

Test an app before the flight, in twenty minutes

Reviews tell you what other groups liked. A test tells you what your trip will do. Run these five steps with whichever app you are considering, on the evening you book the flights.

1. Create the trip group and add one person who has no account, then send them the link and ask what they can see.
2. Enter a bill in euros and a bill in yen, and check that the app shows two balances instead of one blended figure.
3. Enter eight small bills in a row, the number a travel day produces, and note if the app stops you.
4. Edit one of those bills and check that the old amount is still visible in the history.
5. Ask the app how to settle, and count the transfers it proposes against the number of people in the group.

Item by item splits matter too, for the dinner where one person ordered the wagyu; our list of apps to split a bill by item covers that test. For a trip built around one occasion, a ski week or a wedding, how to split costs for a group event works through deposits and late joiners.