Why I built PayMate

In grad school I lived with six other people. None of us had a car, so most of our groceries came from Instacart, and we ate out together a lot. That part was great. Splitting the bill afterwards was not.

The spreadsheet nobody wanted to make

Every order meant the same routine. Someone opened Excel, went through the receipt line by line, worked out who had ordered what, then did the tax and tip for seven people. It took over 20 minutes each time, and nobody wanted to be the one doing it.

We used Splitwise because everyone does. It's the default. But there was no way to scan a receipt for free, and the free version felt like it was always pushing us toward paying. It didn't feel like it was built for seven grad students trying to split a grocery order.

So I automated the spreadsheet

At some point I figured I'd just automate the whole thing. I started building PayMate in February 2025, and it went live in February 2026. You scan the receipt, tap who had each item, and tax and tip are split in proportion to what each person ordered. What used to take us 20 minutes now takes under two, signing up included.

The look has changed a lot since then. The idea hasn't: keep it easy to use. Groups made that harder, since running balances and settle-ups bring real complexity, and a lot of my time goes into keeping that complexity out of your way. Today PayMate has groups, settle-ups, quick splits for when there's no receipt, and a way to bring your groups over from Splitwise.

Where it's going

I'd like PayMate to become a real company. Splitting with friends is where it starts, and I see it growing into a reimbursement tool too, for the same kind of mess at work.

Tell me what to fix

If something is confusing, broken or missing, email me at db@paymate.dev. I read every message, and a lot of what's in the app came from someone asking for it.