How to Split Expenses with Claude Using Spliteo

Some expenses are easiest to explain in one sentence: “Add a $48 dinner to the Lisbon group, paid by me, split evenly.” With Spliteo’s AI assistant connector, you can type exactly that to Claude and the expense lands in your group, split the way you described. This tutorial covers what the connector is, how to set it up, prompts that work well, and how to keep an eye on what the assistant does.

What the connector is

The connector uses MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard that lets an AI assistant work with another app through a defined set of actions, called tools. Spliteo runs an MCP server at https://api.spliteo.app/mcp. Once you connect it and approve access, Claude can read your groups and balances and add or change transactions in your Spliteo account, using only the tools Spliteo provides.

The connector is part of Premium (US$1.99/month, US$19.99/year, or US$59.99 for lifetime access on the web). The assistant works with your existing groups, so if you’re new to the app, start with how to use Spliteo and set up a group first.

What Claude can do in Spliteo

Groups and balances: list your groups, see each group’s balances, and see your consolidated balances with each person across all groups.
Settlement suggestions: see who should pay whom. This is read-only; asking for suggestions changes nothing.
Group transactions: list, create, update and delete expenses, transfers and income, split Evenly, by Amount or by Parts.
Categories: list the categories available.
Personal finance: your personal transactions, monthly summary, budgets, savings goals (create, update, contribute) and category analytics.

There’s no separate “settle” action. Settling up with the assistant means creating a Transfer, a transaction that records someone paying someone back.

Set up Spliteo in Claude

On claude.ai or in the Claude apps:

In Claude, open Settings → Connectors.
Choose Add custom connector.
Paste the server URL: https://api.spliteo.app/mcp.
If Claude asks for a Client ID, enter spliteo-mcp.
Sign in to Spliteo when prompted and approve access.

To check it works, start a new chat and ask “Which Spliteo groups am I in?”

Set up Spliteo in Claude Code

Claude Code connects with an API key instead of the sign-in step.

In Spliteo, go to Settings → AI Assistant and create an API key.
In your terminal, run the following, replacing YOUR_API_KEY with your key:

claude mcp add --transport http spliteo https://api.spliteo.app/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Keep the key private, the same way you’d keep a password.

Where to find it in Spliteo

Settings → AI Assistant opens the “AI Assistant Access” page. It has:

Tabs for Claude, ChatGPT and Other, with the setup for each.
The server URL and the Client ID, ready to copy.
API key management.
The AI Activity log, which shows what the assistant changed.

Example prompts

The more detail you give (group, amount, currency, who paid, who’s included), the less Claude has to ask. Plain language is fine.

Adding expenses

“Add a $48 dinner to the Lisbon group, paid by me, split evenly.”
“In Lisbon, add €120 for the apartment cleaning fee. Maya paid. Split by parts: 2 for me, 1 for Maya, 1 for Tom.” That’s four parts of €30: your share is €60, and Maya’s and Tom’s are €30 each.
“Add €36.40 of groceries to Lisbon, paid by Tom, split evenly between Tom and me. Leave Maya out.” That’s €18.20 each for Tom and you.
“Yesterday’s taxi in Lisbon was €22, not €20. Please fix it.”

Checking balances

“Across all my groups, who owes me money and who do I owe?”
“How should we settle up the Lisbon group with the fewest payments?”

Settling up

“Tom paid me back €45 by bank transfer. Record it in Lisbon.”

It helps to know what happens behind each of these. When you ask how to settle, Claude reads Spliteo’s settlement suggestions, which are read-only: nothing in your group changes. Only when you ask it to record a payment does it create a Transfer from the person who paid to the person who received the money. That’s the same kind of record you’d get by tapping Settle! in the group’s Summary tab. Spliteo doesn’t move money, so the payment itself still happens outside the app, by cash, bank transfer, Mercado Pago, Venmo or whatever you use.

Personal budgets and goals

“How much did I spend this month, and in which categories?”
“Create a $400 monthly budget for groceries.”
“Add $50 to my savings goal for a new laptop.”

Tips for accurate results

Say the currency. Spliteo keeps balances per currency with no forced conversion, so “€36.40” and “$36.40” end up in different balances.
Ask for parts, not percentages. There’s no percentage split. For 60/40, ask for 3 parts and 2 parts, or give exact amounts.
Name who’s included. If someone wasn’t at dinner, say so, so they stay out of the split.
Read the reply. If an amount or a name looks off, ask Claude to fix it, or edit the transaction in the app.

For trips with several currencies, how to split travel expenses walks through a full example you can then run by chat.

Review what the assistant did

Every change the assistant makes shows up in the AI Activity log under Settings → AI Assistant. A quick look after a longer session is a good habit, the same way you’d double-check a friend’s math. Each group also has a History tab that lists created, edited and deleted transactions, and you can edit or delete anything in the app as usual.

You can revoke the assistant’s access at any time. API keys are managed on the same AI Assistant page, and in Claude you can remove the connector from Settings → Connectors.

Using ChatGPT or another MCP client

The connector isn’t limited to Claude. It works with ChatGPT and any other MCP client, using the same server URL, https://api.spliteo.app/mcp. The AI Assistant page has ChatGPT and Other tabs with the details each one needs.