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Split the rent in proportion to income
Two salaries that have nothing in common, one rent. Enter the rent and what each person earns: every share appears at once, with the percentage of income it represents.
The principle: everyone pays the same PROPORTION of their income, not the same amount. Add up the household incomes, work out each person’s share of that total, and apply it to the rent. Someone earning 60% of the income pays 60% of the rent — and both people then spend the same percentage of their salary on housing.
The calculator
Free, no account, nothing to install. Nothing is sent anywhere: it all runs in your browser.
The method, in three steps
- Add up the net incomes of everyone paying the rent.
- Work out each person’s share of that total. An income of $2,400 within a total of $4,000 is 60%.
- Apply that percentage to the rent. 60% of a $1,200 rent is $720.
The check is one addition: the shares must add up to exactly the rent. If it is a cent out, that is rounding — the calculator hands that cent to someone rather than losing it.
A worked example
Alex earns $2,400 and Sam earns $1,600 a month. The rent is $1,200 — $600 each if split down the middle.
| Person | Income | Equal split | By income | Share of income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | $2,400 | $600 | $720 | 30% |
| Sam | $1,600 | $600 | $480 | 30% |
The important result is the last column: both spend 30% of their income on housing. That is what splitting by income does — not an act of generosity, an equal effort. Alex pays $120 more than under an equal split, and Sam $120 less.
By income or by what’s left over: not the same numbers
Splitting by income equalises the share of salary spent on rent. A rarer method equalises what is left over: the money still in the account once the rent is paid. Both are defensible, and they give very different answers.
| Person | Income | Share (equal leftover) | Left over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex | $2,400 | $1,000 | $1,400 |
| Sam | $1,600 | $200 | $1,400 |
With the same rent and the same salaries, Sam now pays only $200. That is far more redistributive — which is why it stays reserved for couples who genuinely pool their money, and rarely suits a flatshare between friends.
A third route, often the fairest when the gap is extreme: split by disposable income, after taking out of each salary what is not negotiable (child support paid, a loan, medical costs). Same arithmetic, applied to corrected incomes.
Where splitting by income goes wrong
- Income that moves. Bonuses, temp work, freelancing: a split recalculated every month becomes a monthly negotiation. Set the shares on a yearly average and revise them once a year, on a known date.
- Rooms are not equal. In a flatshare, the person with 90 square feet and no balcony pays the same proportion as the one with the big room. Income splitting answers incomes, not comfort: the two criteria combine, and that is a separate conversation.
- What it reveals. Telling your flatmates your salary is not a small thing. In a flatshare between friends, many prefer an equal split with a cheaper room for whoever earns less — same result, without payslips on the table.
- Rent is not everything. If only the rent is split by income while the electricity, internet and groceries go down the middle, the effect is diluted. Apply the same rule to every fixed cost, or to none.
Is the arithmetic reliable?
Yes, and it can be checked. The split on this page is not a reimplementation: it runs the same code as the WeSplit app, injected into the page as-is — including the rule that hands out the leftover cent instead of losing it.
That code is compared automatically against the app’s logic on 400 randomly generated scenarios, and the smallest divergence fails the build. That is what guarantees the shares on screen add up to exactly the rent you typed.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate rent split by income?
Add up everyone’s net income, work out each person’s share of that total, then apply that percentage to the rent. Example: with incomes of $2,400 and $1,600 and a rent of $1,200, the shares are $720 and $480 — 30% of income for each of them.
Is it legal to pay unequal shares of the rent?
Yes. The lease fixes what the landlord must receive in total, not how tenants divide it — and a joint-and-several clause usually makes each tenant liable for the whole amount if someone defaults. The internal split is a private agreement between you: write it down, even in two lines, so it isn’t renegotiated at every rent increase.
Gross or net income?
The net amount that lands in the account — the money that actually pays the rent. Irregular bonuses are best spread over twelve months rather than counted in the month they arrive.
What if someone earns nothing?
A strict split by income gives them a zero share, which is not always what people want. Two common fixes: set a token minimum share, or switch to splitting by disposable income once unavoidable costs are taken out. The calculator accepts an income of zero and spreads the rent over the others.
What happens when I tap “keep this in WeSplit”?
The link carries the result — the names, the amounts and the split — to the group creation screen, which shows what it is about to create before creating it, and asks which of those names is yours. Nothing is sent before that tap: the link is built in your browser. If you don’t have an account yet, the calculation waits until you’ve signed up.
Are the amounts I type stored?
No. Nothing is sent, nothing is saved. Close the tab and it is all gone.
So the rent splits itself every month
In WeSplit, a recurring expense can be split in fixed shares: the rent lands every month with the right split, without redoing the sum. Free, no ads.
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