About Tab Tender
Tab Tender is a free, mobile-first web app that makes splitting a bar or restaurant tab fair, fast, and genuinely easy. Snap a photo of the receipt, tap who had what, and we handle the tax-and-tip math and the pay links — so everyone covers their own share and you actually get paid back.
In short:we're a small, independent team that got tired of doing group-bill math on a napkin, so we built the tool we wished existed — one that's fair by default and works even when the people you're splitting with don't have the app.
Why we built it
Every group has lived the same scene: the check lands, someone fronts their card, and the table tries to reverse-engineer who owes what. Splitting evenly is fast but unfair — the person with a salad and a water ends up subsidising the steak-and-cocktails crowd. Splitting properly means reading a long receipt, doing percentage math on tax and tip, and then chasing five people over text for the next week.
We thought that was a solved problem until we went looking and found it wasn't — most apps either make everyone download something, ignore tax and tip, or turn into a full expense-tracking ledger when all you wanted was to split tonight's tab. So we built Tab Tender around one job, done well: take a real receipt and turn it into an honest, per-person breakdown with one-tap payment, in under a minute, with no account required for the people you're splitting with.
What we believe
Fair by default
An even split is the easy answer and the wrong one — it quietly overcharges whoever ordered least. Tab Tender splits by what each person actually had, and spreads tax, tip, and service in proportion, so "fair" doesn't cost anyone extra effort.
Fast enough to use at the table
Splitting a bill is a 30-second job, not a spreadsheet. Snap the receipt, tap who had what, share a link. If a feature can't earn its place in that flow, it doesn't ship.
Private by design
Share pages aren't indexed and go private after 7 days, uploaded receipt photos are deleted after 30 days, and we never store full card numbers or sell your data. The full detail lives on our Privacy page.
Free, and honest about why
Tab Tender is free for personal use. We keep the lights on with unobtrusive ads and the occasional affiliate link — never by selling your data. If we ever add premium features, the core splitting flow stays free.
Who's behind Tab Tender
Tab Tender is built and run by a small, independent team — not a big company with a data-mining business model behind it. We use the app ourselves every time we go out, which is the main reason it stays focused: features earn their place by making a real split faster or fairer, or they don't ship.
Have a question, a bug, or an idea for the next feature? We read everything that comes through our contact page.
How Tab Tender makes money
We believe in being upfront about this. Tab Tender is free to use, and we cover our costs two ways: lightweight display ads, and the occasional affiliate link to a payment or finance service we think is genuinely useful (if you sign up through one, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you). We don't sell your personal data. The full breakdown is on our Privacy page.
See how the split actually works
Curious about the math? We show our work — read exactly how Tab Tender calculates each person's fair share.
More: read what Tab Tender solves, browse the guides, or check the FAQ.