Rent Calculator – FAQ

Splitting rent with your friends shouldn’t be stressful. If your rooms are different sizes or different levels of niceness, Splitwise’s rent calculator will give you a neutral and objective opinion on how to share the rent. It’s great for close friends or Craigslist strangers, because it gives you the “market” value for how the rent should be fairly split, without having to actually haggle on anything.

Things it handles really well:

  • Unequal room sizes
  • Some rooms are being shared by a couple
  • Up to 8 bedrooms
  • Some rooms have no windows, huge closets, bad sound isolation, private bathrooms, etc.


The calculator uses a simple method used in real estate evaluation – price per square foot.

  • The bedroom costs are shared by the people sleeping there
  • The common areas of the apartment are shared equally per person.

This is a pretty simple method which I think is fair and makes sense.  This calculator makes it easy to do and easy to agree on!  If you want to include bills, we recommend you also split these equally per person.

An example

Let’s say a couple (call them Jon and Rebecca) are sharing a $1200/month 2-bedroom apartment with a single person (Kevin), and both bedrooms are of equal size. Let’s say that the size of the kitchen+living room+bathroom is roughly the same size as both bedrooms combined. Then it would be split as follows:

Cost of common areas: $600, split 3 ways is $200
Cost of bedrooms: $300 per room
Jon pays: $150 for 1/2 bedroom + $200 = $350
Rebecca pays: $150 for 1/2 bedroom + $200 = $350
Kevin pays: $300 for bedroom + $200 = $500

This is good for everyone!  Kevin saves $100/month ($1200 per year!) by living with a couple instead of a single roommate, while Rebecca and Jon save money over living alone – single apartments are usually more expensive per square foot. It’s fair, because everyone pays for what they get, and saves money for anything they share. If Jon and Rebecca’s room is larger, then the calculator can take this into account as well and their rent will be more similar to Kevin’s.

And more

The calculator makes adjustments based on the quality of the rooms as well – private bathrooms, having no windows, not having a door – stuff that really matters.  The amount of the adjustments has been set by a questionnaire which what people would be willing to pay for various improvements. You can read those results here.

But this is too complicated!

“Just splitting it” can be complicated with people’s feelings. People who got a less nice room sometimes feel quietly upset or resentful, but they don’t want to negotiate. This atmosphere makes it harder on everyone. Keep everyone paying a fair share without negotiation – that’s simple!

If you’re still worried the calculator is too weird, try it for yourself and see how you like it!  It only takes a few seconds and see the results for yourself – I think you’ll like it.

38 thoughts on “Rent Calculator – FAQ”

  1. Pingback: Splitwise Blog
  2. Dear Spliwise,
    Have you considered solving the room assignment-rent division problem (as some like to call it) with an auction? This could either be done iteratively or sealed-bid (there exist multiple algorithms for each). A simple implementation would be as follows:
    1) Initialize all rooms to prices rent / number of rooms
    2) Have each agent submit his/her most preferred room
    3) Increase the price of rooms receiving bids and decrease rooms without bids (in proportion to number of bids received – much room for tuning here)
    4) Repeat until each room is selected by exactly one agent
    The only problem with this problem is that it might not always converge and that it may take many iterations if the increases / decreases are not set appropriately. This could pretty easily be implemented through your website sending out e-mails to participants all bids for a round has been submitted and a solution has been found or a new round must be executed.

    1. For the rooms…you have 50/65/80 etc…is that representing the sqft of the room or something else? Hard to know what is considered a small/medium/ or large room based off that.

  3. Hi Paul,

    Thanks for the fun suggestion. We have definitely thought about various auction mechanisms, since after all, an auction can (hypothetically) accurately price people’s specific preferences, instead of something like a general average, which is what you get from a survey-based approach.

    I’ve spoken with some economists about this in the past, who made me realize that auctions are not as simple as they seem when there is a fixed total price for the house. As you noted, many simple auction mechanisms based on a fixed total price have incentive comparability and/or convergence problems. There is a very interesting paper here by Francis Edward Su ( that uses Sperner’s Lemma to do it properly. It uses relatively minimal assumptions to achieve a fair rental division, but involves a multi-step, multi-user interface that would take quite a lot of repeated interaction by users spread out over time. At least for now, we think that it is a bit too burdensome to be worth implementing.

    Splitwise was created to deal with things in a practical way. While I am totally the sort of nerd who would enjoy auctioning the rent prices for rooms in an house, I feel that most people would think of ah auction as very unfriendly and would not accept it. Auctions make explicit the sense that things are adversarial. The goal with the rent calculator was to create something that emphasized simplicity, efficiency, and harmony so that people would want to use it. It’s not perfect, but it’s easy to get an answer and informs the conversation with community wisdom.

    If you are interested in programming an auction tool, we might be interested in hosting it here – let me know!

  4. Splitwise,

    I am planning on having my girlfriend move in with myself and my friend/roommate in a 2 bedroom apartment priced at around 2000 a month. He is ok with the situation but we cannot agree on pricing. I explained this site to him and he seems to disagree with your calculations. He claims that as a couple we CHOOSE to live together in the same room and that it is not an inconvenience, so square footage does not matter. He believes that we should all pay exactly 1/3 of the cost regardless of whether he gets more usable room for his money. I know this is a question of philosophy but I would like to learn the ideology behind your system to possibly better explain it to him. Thanks!

    1. You can find a simple description of the philosophy here: You should let your roommate know that this has been tested with surveys and reflects positive feedback from thousands of happy users! But of course, Splitwise is a starting point, and try and come to an agreement that makes sense to both of you. If you can’t agree at all about this, you should probably find a new roommate, as there are lots of people happy to live with couples and save some money.

  5. Hi guys, we have exact square footage for the rooms, and it seems a bit weird to have rooms that have significant differences in size pay the same amount just because they round out to the same of the 5 values you offer, so I’d like to replicate the calculator myself.

    The splitting by square footage is described here and easy enough, but I’m not sure how to value the other factors (closets, noise, etc) because the link to the survey results is down. Could you fix that or give us some indicator of how to price those?


    1. Hi @Robert,

      Thanks for commenting. I’d be happy to work it out for you with exact measurements if you send me the specifics. We prefer to publish our calculator use the big buckets to help people round and not sweat the small stuff.


      1. Jon, Would you be able to calculate it for me if i give the measurements? Please let me know and i will mail the details. Thanks!

  6. This is a nifty way to calculate for long-term leasing but I have a question about a weekly vacation rental. We have a house rented for 1 week. Eight people will be there all 7 nights, 4 people will be there 3 nights. How do I calculate so that everyone pays their fair share?

    1. Hi @Mitzi,

      Great question! We have a calculator for sharing weekly vacation rentals too – check out the travel calculator. This uses a “per person-night” formula, and has a nifty way to visualize the input as well as share the results without signing up for anything.

      Hope this helps,

      1. Hi Jon, I set up a “splitwise” account, but cannot figure out how to get anywhere past settling a tab. Can I get to the calculators from that website. I also don’t see a link to your blog from the home screen. Assistance please.


  7. Hi! so if the other rooms do not check that they have a private bathroom, do you just assume the rest of the rooms are splitting one bathroom? how does that work exactly? we have one room with a private bath and the other 3 rooms share a bathroom.

    Thank you,

    1. Hi Kiki,

      Basically yes – we assume that the others are sharing one or two bathrooms (we don’t make any valuation assumptions based on total bathrooms).

      A related post:

      One bathroom for three people sounds pretty normal for me, so I’m not sure I’d recommend doing anything special in your case. The rent calculator should give you a fairly accurate answer. I’m sure there is a limiting case (like a hallway bathroom shared by 10 people vs one private bathroom) where this formula would not work, but I think 3 people sharing a bathroom is fine. Unless the bathroom is so busy that people very frequently have to wait to shower in the morning.

      Intuitively, I see why having a private bathroom would be more desireable the more people who are sharing the shared bathroom. However, the calculator doesn’t take that explicitly into account – it uses a square-footage-based formula, in which a private bathroom is assumed to be a modifier to the bedroom and a public bathroom increases the overall size of the common space.

      I hope this helps.


  8. Hi.
    My roommates and I are trying to split the rent for our new apartment fairly. There are 3 bedrooms and 3 people. One bedroom has a balcony and private full bath with a window. The 2nd bedroom has a balcony and a 3/4 bathroom with a door to the public area as well. The 3rd bedroom has no balcony but a large full bathroom. Your calculator doesn’t have an option for anything but full or half bath and I don’t know if “awesome” windows are equal to a balcony. Any advice?

  9. Split wise,

    My partner and I used the calculator. In doing so, we discovered we will not save any money by sharing a place with another roommate using your system. Its actually $20 dollars more by having a roommate and using this system! We were truly hoping to share a place to save money. In this case, what do you do?

    Also, I noticed there is no calculations for other living accommodations for roommates. Such as backyards, storage closets, and garages. If one roommate needs the garage or extra storage space and another doesn’t at the moment, how do you factor that in?
    Even social situations can cause frustration. For instance, a couple and one individual is sharing a place, and they split rent by your calculator. Well the single roommates partner is constantly over/ staying the night. How does that play in?

    I think this system is great probably for most, just not completely solid. Not only am I dealing with a few of these dilemma, but know quite a few people who are/ or have. I would love to hear your insight.

  10. Split wise,

    How can I know by square meters the size of a normal, generous or large room as it is not specified on the page. At the moment in my flat we have two bedrooms, one is 16m2 and the other 12m2 with tiny common areas, How would you categorise them.

    Kind regards,

  11. I love your app and website, thank you! I wondered if you can add features such as garage spaces, master bath vs just full bath, multiple closets, private patio, sitting area in your room and perhaps a tab to customize room sizes (keeping the standards that you already have) but also a spot to customize if the user chooses.

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  13. I share an aprtment with a guy and a girl. later they became couples. and they rent one of their room to a fourth person. But they still want to pay the cost of one person plus the energy cost for them two. we have a large common area with a big living room and kitch. for the kitch we have to pay extra 90euro to rent the euipment (cabinet and fridge). Personally, I do not use the kitch a lot. But they do. Do you think it is reasonable they only share the energy cost?

  14. Dear Splitwise,

    I am quite a dilemma. I am living in a house next year (7 people total), rent is $2,700 a month, with a total of 1,904 sq ft and there are 5 bedrooms. Two of my roommates divide up my rent and I disagree with how they did it but I am having trouble convincing them. I have used your online rent calculator and I believe the values your calculator give me are the most accurate but I am having trouble convincing them. Here is how they broke up the rent:

    $2700/624.2 (total bedroom sq ft) = $4.33/ sq. ft

    1st floor room: 104 * $4.33 = $447

    2nd floor front left: 115.2 * $4.33 = $493
    +260.82 +260.82 = $493 /2 = $246.00
    2nd floor back left: 110 * $4.33 = $476

    2nd floor back center: =101.76 * $4.33 = $431

    2nd floor master: 187.33*$4.33 = $853
    = $853 /2 = $426.00
    I personally think its ridiculous that the two girls that did the rent this way are sharing the 2nd floor front left and are paying only $246 each a month and I am paying $476 a month. Here is how I calculated the rent;

    Rent: $2,700
    Total sq. ft: 1,904
    Shared common space: 1,285.71
    Price per sq ft: 2700/1904 = $1.42
    1.42 * 1,285.71 = 1,825.7/2 = $260.82
    This means each person pays $260.82 for shared living areas (kitchen, bathrooms, living room etc)

    1st floor room: 104 * $1.42 = $147.68
    + 260.82 = $408.00
    2nd floor front left: 115.2 * 1.42 = $163.58
    +260.82 +260.82 = $685.22 /2 = $342.00
    2nd floor back left: 110 * $1.42 = $156.2
    + 260.82 = $417.00
    2nd floor back center: =101.76 * 1.42 = $144.5
    + 260.82 = $405.00
    2nd floor master: 187.33*1.42 = $266.01
    + 260.82 +260.82= $787.65 /2 = $393.00

    To me these rent values make more sense. With the two girls who are sharing the 2nd floor front left room are paying $342 a month rather then $246. However, I can not for the life of me convince them that the way I calculated it is the correct way. Is there any advice you can give me that will help convince them??

    Thank you,

  15. I moved into my room march 2nd for 6 months. I assumed I would leave July 2nd but roommates said I need to be out July 1st . Is that fair? Don’t I have till July 2nd? When can I stay until? Please help.

  16. Great calculator. It would be great if it went up to larger sizes of rooms, or allowed the inputting of room size as a value (we know the exact sizes). Most of our rooms are >200 sq ft, and the largest is >300 sq ft!

  17. Trying to get a fair price to charge a couple to rent a bedroom in our 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom single family home

  18. Dear Splitwise,

    My roommates and I are wondering how you classify “normal” windows. One roommate has a smaller bedroom and one window, which looks appropriate given her room size. Another roommate has a larger bedroom and two windows, which also looks appropriate given the size of her room. They both have the exact same view, and the windows in the rooms give appropriate sunlight proportional to the room size.

    Would you call both their windows “normal” for their space? (And any space differential is taken into account on your calculator with square footage). Or would you call the two windows in one of the bedrooms amazing and the one window normal?

  19. Hey there,

    I don’t think your calculation is fair and here’s why!
    Let’s take your exemple of a couple and a single person living in a two bedrooms apartment.
    Let’s imagine now for a second that the single person is a very social person and has always friends around (so much that you have the impression they “basically live there”).
    Or imagine that this single person has a different partner every nights or even the same for few days then another one and so on.
    So, this single person is technically just rightfully uses his room and the common areas.
    What is a couple? It is just a single person who decided she wants the same visitor everyday.
    So why a couple should pay more than a single person?
    Rent should be divided by the number of rooms if equals in size.
    It is the choice of a person to be several days with the same mate, the same way it is the choice of another to stay on her own or be with several different partners who are gonna stay more or less.

  20. My bigest question is, do you pay more for privacy? Or for the size if your “room”.? My roommate and I live in a one bedroom apartment. He lives in the bedroom as I live in the living room. We both split the rent equally to avoid problems. But i am just curious to know if it should be different? He has a smaller room compared to the living room im in with his own closet, and most importantly a door. As for me, I have the bigger room although I do not have a door (wooden stretchable doors that cover the entrance) the heating/ac system is in my room, the wifi router is in my room. My room does have a fan and has the backdoor. My room has an indoor window that is placed in between the kitchen and my room. I do not have any problem with my roommate coming in to chnge the ac or to fix the wifi whenever he needs to. My closet is in the hallway. Now my question is, would I pay more or should he pay more as he has privacy? I do have the bigger room but I feel as I cannot close my door to have complete privacy when I can hear everything that goes on in the kitchen or they can peak through the open spaces between the wooden doors i placed. The hallway light is turned on and i basically have to shut it off to have complete darkness when I sleep. But then again, he has a smaller room than I do without a fan or an outside door. What would be reasonable to pay? Or is splitting rent, which is what we are doing the right thing?

  21. What if one room has its own private entrance from the outside? Could you help me figure out how that would factor into the rent? I can provide other information if you need it.

  22. Shared room for few days in a week

    How do we solve for if there are 4 roommates in a 3 bedroom flat with private full baths in each but one of the person in the shared room occupies the flat only on weekends(2 days and 3 nights per week)? The occupant with 2 day attendance does not have an accomodation anywhere else and is not paying for rent, utilities anywhere else.
    What should be the ideal split in this case?
    All rooms are similar except one non-shared rooms is not having a closet and the shared rooms is a bit large.
    Common space larger than normal.

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