Splitwise vs Settle Up: Which Is Better in 2026?
Settle Up shows ads on its free version but has no expense cap we could find; Splitwise free allows 4 a day. Prices, currencies and offline use compared.
Splitwise is the app most groups start with. Settle Up is the one people switch to when they want the same idea without a daily expense cap: it imports your Splitwise balances, works offline, converts currencies and has a web app. If you’re weighing the two, the real questions are what its free version costs you in ads and what Premium adds. Spliteo is a third option, and it’s ours.
Full disclosure: this is the Spliteo blog, so we’re not neutral. What we can do is compare only facts you can check, link the source for each one, and say plainly where Spliteo falls short. Everything about Splitwise and Settle Up below was checked on their own sites, help pages and store listings on October 7, 2026. Apps change, so follow the links if you’re reading this much later.
Splitwise vs Settle Up vs Spliteo at a glance
| Splitwise | Settle Up | Spliteo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan limit on expenses | Up to 4 a day | None on expenses or groups that we could find | No daily or monthly cap |
| Paid plan | Splitwise Pro; prices aren’t on its website, store prices vary by country | Premium US$3.99/month or US$19.99/year; Group Premium one-time, US$39.99 for a year (US App Store) | Premium, from US$1.99/month on the web; app stores localize |
| Ads | Pro is sold as “no ads”; free users see Pro upsell screens | Yes on the free version; Premium is “ad-free” | None |
| Currencies | 100+; balances stay separate per currency; conversion is Pro | All currencies, converted at daily rates you can edit | 107; balances stay separate per currency; no automatic rates |
| Adding expenses offline | Yes (“offline entry”) | Yes, syncs when you’re back online | No; offline you can only view cached data |
| Recurring expenses | Yes | Premium | Yes; 1 active on Free, unlimited on Premium |
| People without an account | Placeholder friends, added by name from the web app | Members are names in the group; a shared link shows balances in a browser without the app | Guest members, added by name |
| Settling up | Simplify Debts cuts the number of payments | Minimizes the number of transfers; can be turned off | A short list of who pays whom, per currency |
| Receipt scanning | Pro | Receipt photos on Premium (stored, not scanned) | 3 scans a month on Free, 20 on Premium |
| Export | Spreadsheet export is free; JSON backup is Pro | CSV by email is free; Excel is Premium | CSV (30 days on Free, 365 on Premium); PDF on Premium |
| Platforms | iOS, Android and web | Android, iOS (plus iPad, Mac and Vision) and web | Web, iOS and Android |
| Import from Splitwise | — | Yes: members and current balances | No |
| AI assistants (MCP) | No official MCP server that we could find; community servers exist | No official MCP server that we could find; a public API and community servers | Official MCP server, on Premium |
The sources for each row are linked in the sections below.
Splitwise
Splitwise is made by Splitwise, Inc. and runs on iOS, Android and the web. Its feature list is the longest of the three: several payers on one expense, splits by percentages, shares or exact amounts, recurring bills, comments, an activity feed, and integrated payments through Venmo and PayPal in the US and Paytm in India (App Store listing). You can add expenses offline, and Simplify Debts restructures who owes whom to cut the number of payments. To include someone who has no account, you can add a placeholder friend by name only from the web app.
The free plan’s limit. Splitwise’s help center says free users can add up to 4 expenses each day, and that Pro removes the limit. That’s enough for rent and a weekly grocery run, and tight on a trip, where a normal day can easily have six expenses. Splitwise sells Pro as “No limits and no ads”. We go through every limit of the free plan in Splitwise free limits.
Currencies. Splitwise supports 100+ currencies and keeps the balances in each currency separate by default. Converting everything to one currency at the current exchange rate is a Pro feature.
Export. Exporting a group or friendship as a spreadsheet is free; a JSON backup of your account is Pro (help center).
Splitwise Pro. Pro adds unlimited expenses, currency conversion, receipt scanning and itemization, charts, search, default splits, no ads and, in some countries, transaction import from your card (Pro page, help center). The help center lists three plans: Individual + Trip Pass (annual), Duo + Trip Pass (annual, for two people) and Monthly. The yearly plans include a Trip Pass that gives Pro to one trip group for 30 days. Splitwise doesn’t publish prices on its website. Its App Store listing shows Pro purchases from US$2.99 to US$39.99 in the US store and up to US$59.99 in the Argentine store, which prices in dollars. Our Splitwise Pro price guide goes through what it costs by country.
AI assistants. We found no official Splitwise MCP server. Splitwise has a public API, and unofficial, community-built Splitwise MCP servers exist on GitHub. Check who runs a hosted one before you give it access to your account.
Good fit if your group is already on Splitwise, you rarely add more than a few expenses a day, or you want recurring bills, offline entry and a web app in one place.
Settle Up
Settle Up is made by Step Up Labs, Inc. and runs on Android, iOS and the web (settleup.app); the App Store listing also covers iPad, Mac and Apple Vision (App Store). It says it has more than 2.5 million users.
What you get. Even and weighted splits, several payers on one expense, incomes (a deposit you got back, entered as a negative expense), offline use with sync, and an invitation by link or QR code. Anyone with the group link can view the balances in a browser without installing anything (App Store description). Members are names inside the group rather than accounts: a tip on its site explains how to mark which member is you, give a member a default share of 2 so a couple counts as one, and disable a member who left without deleting their history (Settle Up tips). CSV export by email, notifications and read-only access are free (Google Play).
Currencies. Settle Up supports all currencies and converts at the day’s exchange rate, which it downloads from a Yahoo service. You can edit the rate or the converted amount, and the group then keeps using your rate, which is handy for one rate for a whole trip (tips).
Settling up. Its algorithm minimizes the number of transfers, so you may end up paying someone you don’t directly owe; if you don’t like that, you can turn debt minimization off in the group settings (tips).
Ads and Premium. The free version shows ads: the App Store listing carries the “Contains Advertising” note and Google Play its “Contains ads” label, and Settle Up lists “ad-free” as the first Premium feature. Premium also adds receipt photos, recurring and future expenses, custom categories, Excel export and statistics (App Store). The US App Store shows the in-app purchases: Monthly Premium US$3.99, Yearly Premium US$19.99, and Group Premium, a one-time payment that unlocks Premium for everyone in a single group, from US$5.99 for a week to US$39.99 for a year, plus Lifetime Group Premium at US$149.99. Settle Up’s tips page adds that Group Premium is not a subscription and can be moved to another group when the group is archived or deleted, and that inviting five new users earns you one Premium feature forever (tips). Google Play lists a range of US$0.99 to US$149.99 per item.
Import from Splitwise. Settle Up imports the members and current balances of a Splitwise group: you export the group from the Splitwise web app and import the file while creating the group (tips). History doesn’t come across, balances do.
Developers and AI assistants. Settle Up publishes a public API (a Firebase database you access as a signed-in user, with a sandbox for testing). We found no official MCP server, but community ones exist on top of that API: notsuhas/settleup-kit, which calls itself unofficial, and rithviknishad/settle-up-mcp. Both run with your own Settle Up login, so check the code before you trust it with your groups.
Support. There’s no help center; the support page lists an email address per platform.
Good fit if you’re leaving Splitwise and want to carry your balances over, you want automatic currency conversion, or you want one group to have Premium without everyone paying a subscription.
Spliteo: a Splitwise and Settle Up alternative
Spliteo is an expense-splitting app for the web, iOS and Android, built by a solo developer in Uruguay. It’s much newer and much smaller than the other two, so it doesn’t have their track record.
The free plan has no daily or monthly cap on expenses. It includes up to 6 groups (created and joined count together), 3 receipt scans a month, 1 budget, 1 savings goal and 1 active recurring expense, and CSV export of the last 30 days. Splitting by Evenly, Amount or Parts, several payers on one expense, guest members and settlement suggestions are all free. There are no ads.
Premium costs US$1.99 a month, US$19.99 a year or US$59.99 once for lifetime access on the web. In the App Store and Google Play, the stores set their own local prices, so they can differ. It adds unlimited groups, budgets, goals and recurring expenses, 20 receipt scans a month, PDF exports, CSV exports of up to 365 days, analytics charts and the AI assistant connector.
Currencies. Spliteo supports 107 currencies and keeps one balance per currency, the way Splitwise does by default. There’s no live exchange rate: if you settle a debt in another currency, you type the rate or the amount you paid. Settle Up converts for you.
AI assistants. Spliteo has an official MCP server, so you can add expenses and check balances from Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP client. It needs Premium. Here’s how it works.
Where it falls short. Be aware of these before you switch:
- Offline is read-only. Without a connection you can see cached balances, but you can’t add expenses until you’re back online. Splitwise and Settle Up both let you add expenses offline.
- No import. Spliteo can’t import groups from Splitwise or Settle Up. Settle Up imports Splitwise balances.
- Free has limits of its own. 6 groups and 1 active recurring expense may be too few if you split with many different groups or have several fixed bills.
- Two languages. The app is in English and Spanish only; the App Store lists Settle Up in 16.
Good fit if you keep hitting Splitwise’s daily limit, want a free plan without ads, want receipt scanning on the free plan, or want to use an AI assistant.
Which one should you pick?
- Everyone in the group already uses Splitwise and you add a few expenses a day at most: stay with Splitwise. Switching costs everyone some effort.
- You’re leaving Splitwise with open balances: Settle Up is the only one of the three that imports them.
- A trip with lots of small expenses: you need an app without a daily cap. Settle Up and Spliteo both qualify; Settle Up also works offline, and Spliteo has no ads.
- Roommates or a couple with fixed monthly bills: recurring expenses matter. Splitwise has them free, Spliteo has 1 on Free and unlimited on Premium, and Settle Up has them on Premium.
- Several currencies on one trip: all three keep track of them. If you want automatic conversion, Settle Up includes it and Splitwise has it in Pro; Spliteo keeps each balance in its own currency and has no automatic conversion.
- One group needs the paid features, not one person: Settle Up’s Group Premium is a one-time purchase for a single group, and the group can split its cost as an expense.
- You want to use an AI assistant: Spliteo has an official MCP server (Premium); Settle Up has a public API with community servers; we found none for Splitwise.
- A one-off split, like a single dinner: you may not need an app at all. Our free split expenses calculator works in the browser with no account.
How to switch
If you’re moving from Splitwise to Settle Up, export the group from the Splitwise web app and import it while creating the group in Settle Up. If you’re moving to Spliteo, there’s no import, so you settle up (or write down the balances) and start fresh: create a group, invite people or add them as guests, and add one starting expense per open debt. Our Splitwise alternative guide walks through each step. If the price of Pro is what’s making you look, the Splitwise Pro price guide has the details, and if Tricount is on your list too, see Splitwise vs Tricount vs Spliteo.
