# How to use the Settle Up app: groups, splits, debts and Premium Canonical URL: https://www.evenoutapp.com/guides/settle-up-app-how-to-use Updated: 2026-10-06 EvenOut's recurring expenses, spending charts and reminders are free, with no ads, while Settle Up's Premium page lists all three and ad removal among its ten items, as of October 2026. In Settle Up you make a group, invite people by link or QR code, and add each expense with who paid and who shares it. Member weights, several payers and incomes cover uneven cases. Key points: - EvenOut's recurring expenses, spending charts, reminders and expense photos are free, with no ads. Settle Up's Premium page lists all four, and "Remove all ads", among its ten items. - EvenOut's Splitwise import is free and brings in expenses and payments with their dates and currencies. Settle Up's tips page describes bringing over members and balances. - Invite people by link or QR code. A member whose default share is 2 counts as two people in new expenses, which suits couples and families. - Debt minimization cuts the number of payments, so you may pay someone you do not directly owe. Turn it off in Edit group to pay only direct debts. - Settle Up's Premium page lists ten items. Group Premium is a one-time purchase for one group, not a subscription. ## How do you get started in Settle Up? Settle Up is a group expense app for travelers, flatmates and couples. As of October 2026, its sign-in screen offers Google, Apple and email, and says "Sign in to allow for backup and synchronization of your groups." You create a group, add its members and share it. Settle Up's app listing says you invite people by link or QR code, and that you can give people read-only access. On a member's detail screen, "This is me" preselects you as the payer for new expenses. ## How do you add an expense and split it? Each expense records who paid and who shares it, and Settle Up has features for the uneven cases. These are the four it lists: - **Several payers on one expense.** The app listing names multiple payers on a single expense. - **Default shares, also called weights.** On a member's edit screen, a value of 2 makes that member count as two people in new transactions. - **Incomes.** An income works as a negative expense, such as a refunded deposit, and lowers the total spent. - **Items from a long bill.** The listing names adding items from a long bill. Here is what the first three look like with numbers. **Several payers.** Say a €120.00 dinner is shared by Sam, Alex and Jo, and Sam paid €80.00 while Alex paid €40.00. Each share is €40.00. Sam is owed €40.00, Alex is even, and Jo owes €40.00. **Weights.** Set a couple's member to a default share of 2 and two solo travelers to 1. A €200.00 cost is 4 shares of €50.00, so the couple is charged €100.00 and each solo traveler €50.00. **Incomes.** Say a group of five spent €1,800.00 and got a €300.00 deposit back. Recorded as an income, the net cost is €1,500.00, so an equal split is €300.00 each instead of €360.00. ## How does Settle Up decide who pays whom? Debt minimization reduces the number of transactions between people. Settle Up's home page puts it as "Settle Up shows who pays next and minimizes the transactions." The group circles help too: a bigger circle means a bigger debt, and the member in the middle with the biggest debt should pay next. Because it moves debts around, you may pay someone you do not directly owe. Say Kim owes Lou €20.00 and Lou owes Max €20.00. With minimization on, Kim pays Max €20.00 and Lou pays nobody, which is one payment instead of two. If you would rather pay only the people you owe, turn the setting off in the Edit group screen. ## How do you pay someone back? Settle Up works out who should pay whom and how much. Settle Up's Lightning page describes one way to send the money: you can settle a debt over the Bitcoin Lightning Network if the recipient has a lightning address, and it says there is no involvement of Settle Up in that payment. Once everything is settled, you can archive the group from Edit group. Anyone can preview an archived group from My groups, but only the owner can restore it. ## What does Premium add? Settle Up sells two kinds of Premium, and the Premium page lists ten items. Individual Premium is a subscription that applies to you in every group. Group Premium applies to every member of one group, is a one-time purchase, and can be transferred if the group is closed. The ten items are removing all ads, receipt photos, expense categories, 7 extra group colors, recurring transactions, future transactions, reminders to friends to pay, editing exchange rates in bulk, Excel export and charts. Prices differ by where you buy, so the [guide to whether Settle Up is free](https://www.evenoutapp.com/guides/is-settle-up-free) lists each price with its channel. ## How does EvenOut compare? EvenOut covers the same basics, and these differences are easy to check: - **No ads.** EvenOut has no ads on any plan. Settle Up's app listing says the free version contains ads, and its Premium page lists "Remove all ads". - **Free features.** EvenOut's recurring expenses ("Repeat" weekly, monthly or yearly), spending charts, reminders ("Remind" by email or a shared message) and a photo on an expense are all free. Settle Up's Premium page lists recurring transactions, charts, reminders and receipt photos among its ten Premium items. - **Importing from Splitwise.** EvenOut's import is free and brings in expenses and payments with their dates and currencies. Settle Up's tips page describes importing the current members and their balances. - **Paid features.** EvenOut Pro is receipt scanning and the assistant, and everything else is free. Settle Up's Premium list names neither. EvenOut records a payment without moving money, keeps each expense in its own currency with no conversion, and has no data export. For a side-by-side with other apps, see the [Settle Up alternatives](https://www.evenoutapp.com/alternatives/settle-up-alternatives) and the [Splitwise vs Settle Up vs EvenOut comparison](https://www.evenoutapp.com/alternatives/splitwise-vs-settle-up). ## What should you do next? Create the group before the first expense, add everyone, and set a weight for any couple or family member before you start entering costs. Leave debt minimization on unless people want to pay only those they owe. If your group wants recurring bills, charts and reminders without a Premium purchase or ads, choose EvenOut, which includes them free. If the group already lives in Splitwise, the [guide to moving a Splitwise group to EvenOut](https://www.evenoutapp.com/guides/move-splitwise-group-to-evenout) shows the import steps for EvenOut. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Group Premium a subscription? No. Settle Up's tips page says you can buy it as a one-time payment and that it is not a subscription, and that you can lower the cost by adding it as a group expense. The Premium page calls it transferable if the group is closed. ### What do you do when someone leaves the group? Do not delete them, because that would alter history and debts. Settle Up's tips page says to uncheck 'Include this member in new transactions' on the member's edit screen, so they stay in past expenses and out of new ones. ### How do you move a Splitwise group into Settle Up? Settle Up's tips page says to export your data from the group settings in the Splitwise web app, then import it while you create a group in Settle Up, which brings over the current members and their balances. EvenOut's import goes further than balances: it brings in expenses and payments with their dates and currencies. ## Sources - Settle Up: Tips - Settle Up - Settle Up: Premium - Settle Up: Bitcoin Lightning - Settle Up: web app sign-in - Settle Up: official app listing (feature list)