Questions

Do I need Splitwise Pro?

You don’t. Splitwise requires the developer of an app to hold a Pro subscription before the app can use their API at all. That cost sits with whoever runs Gauravide, not with you.

You do need a normal (free) Splitwise account to sign in.

Why does Splitwise show broad account permissions when I connect?

Splitwise uses one account-level OAuth approval for third-party apps rather than separate permission switches. Gauravide uses that connection to read your profile, friends, and groups, then create the expense you explicitly submit. It has no feature or API route for changing your settings or inviting people.

Is my receipt stored? Who can see it?

The photo is stripped of location data in your browser, then sent to Google Gemini to read the items. That is the only place receipt contents leave this app.

If you are signed in, the photo is also kept privately with that saved split so you can look at it later. It is stored in a private bucket, served only to your own account after a check on every request, and deleted when you remove the split from your dashboard. Signed out, nothing is stored anywhere.

The one way anyone else sees it is a share link you create yourself, see below. There is no such link until you make one.

Can I take the photo on a laptop or iPad?

Yes. “Take a photo” opens your camera in the app, you press the shutter, and the shot goes straight into the split. On a phone it opens the normal camera instead, which takes a sharper picture. If a device has no camera, the button is not shown, because it would open a file picker, which is not what “take a photo” means.

Can I change a split after sending it?

Yes. Open it under Your splits and choose Edit split: items, people, who paid and the group are all editable, and saving updates the same Splitwise expense for everyone rather than creating a second one. You can also archive it, remove just your copy, or delete it from Splitwise for everyone. That last one always asks first.

What happens when I remove a split from my dashboard?

The receipt is gone for good: the items, the merchant, the date, everyone’s names and amounts, and the photo, which is deleted from storage. It disappears from your dashboard and the link stops working, for you as much as anyone.

What stays is one anonymous line in the usage totals: the amount, the currency, and how many items and people were involved. Nothing in it can rebuild the receipt. That line is the record of a receipt this app actually split, and one person tidying their own dashboard shouldn’t rewrite how much work the app has done. The same is true if the expense is deleted in Splitwise.

What can the person who runs Gauravide see?

Counts, not contents. The admin dashboard shows how many people used it, how many receipts were scanned and sent, money split as a total per currency, and how often people come back. It cannot show receipt images, item names, merchants, who owes whom, or anyone’s individual amounts, and accounts appear under a keyed pseudonym rather than a name or email. It is behind a password.

How is tax split, and why didn’t everyone pay the same tax?

Most receipts print a code beside each line marking its tax rate. Gauravide reads those and charges tax to whoever took the taxed items. If you bought only tax-exempt groceries you pay none of the 8% charged on someone else’s household goods. If the receipt has no codes, tax is split in proportion to each person’s items, and the app says so. Whatever your country calls it, whether VAT, GST, HST, ALV, MOMS, MWST, TVA or IVA, it is read as tax and never charged to someone as though it were an item they bought.

Can I split with someone who isn’t on Splitwise?

Yes, once you are signed in. In the add-person sheet, type their name and choose Add only to this split. The maths will be right and they appear everywhere in the breakdown. Splitwise itself only accepts an expense where everyone has an account, so the expense is sent for the people who do.

To show that person their part, create a share link on the saved split and send it to them. It opens for anyone, with no account.

Can I show a split to someone without making them sign in?

Yes. Open the split under Your splits and press Create share link. That gives you a link showing the same page you see: the receipt photo, every item and who shared it, who paid, and who owes whom. Whoever opens it needs no account and cannot change anything.

The link is a long random address: it cannot be guessed, and search engines are told not to index it. Anyone you send it to can pass it on, though, so treat it like the receipt itself. Turn off link stops it working for everyone straight away, and removing the split removes its link too.

How many receipts can I add? Is there a daily limit?

Splitwise doesn’t publish a number. Their documentation says rate limits vary by endpoint, can change without notice, and are “fairly lenient”. If they ever do throttle a request, Gauravide tells you plainly, creates nothing, and keeps your split so you can press again in a minute.

This app has its own limit of 30 expenses an hour per account, to protect the shared free quotas. The send screen shows how many you’ve sent this hour and in the last 24 hours, so you always know where you stand.

Scanning has a separate, shared ceiling: the receipt reader runs on a free tier with a daily cap across everyone using Gauravide. When it runs out the app falls back to a simpler reader rather than stopping. It is less accurate, especially on a photo taken at an angle, and it says so on the review screen so you know to check every line. Typing a receipt in by hand always works and is never rate limited.

Does it work outside the United States?

Yes. Gauravide reads the currency off the receipt rather than assuming dollars, and the expense reaches Splitwise in that currency. It works out which one from what the receipt prints: a currency code, then a symbol only one currency uses such as £, € or ₹, and then the tax word, which names the country. GST and HST mean Canada, ALV Finland, MOMS Sweden, MVA Norway, MWST Switzerland, BTW the Netherlands, TVA France, IVA Spain or Italy, VAT Britain and much of Europe.

Dates are read the way your country writes them, so 14/09 is 14 September, not an error. Decimal commas are understood: 1.234,56 and 1,234.56 are the same amount.

A plain dollar sign is the one thing it cannot be certain about, because Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore all print one. So the currency sits on the review screen as a dropdown you can change in a tap, and it is worth a glance before you send: Splitwise cannot change an expense’s currency afterwards.

Currencies without cents, such as yen and won, are not supported yet. The app falls back to dollars rather than quietly showing you the wrong number.

If someone changes the expense in Splitwise, does this update?

Not by itself, on purpose. Open the split and press Check Splitwise: it compares the two copies and shows exactly what differs: total, name, date, group, who paid, who owes. Then you choose: take Splitwise’s version, or push yours over theirs (which changes it for everyone in it). If it was deleted there, the page says so. Splitwise has no idea about items, so pulling updates the amounts and flags the item breakdown if it no longer adds up.

Is it secure?

Your Splitwise password never touches this app, the access token lives in an encrypted server-only cookie, every read and write is checked against your account, receipt photos sit in private storage with no public links, and uploads and input are validated on the server. The full account is on the Security & privacy page, including how to report a problem.

Can I connect my Walmart or Amazon account?

No, and not because we haven’t got to it. Neither company offers a public API for your own order history. The developer APIs they publish are for marketplace sellers and affiliates. Photographing the receipt is the honest route.

What if the scan reads a price wrong?

Fix it. Every line is editable, and lines the scan was unsure about are highlighted so your eye goes straight to them. If the items don’t add up to the printed total, the app says so and points at the gap. It will never quietly adjust a price to make the numbers balance.

Do the splits always add up?

Yes, exactly. All money is handled in whole cents, and shares are distributed so they sum to the total to the penny, and any leftover cent goes to whoever paid. The app refuses to submit an expense that doesn’t reconcile.

Is it free? Will it stay free?

Free, and it has to stay that way: Splitwise’s API terms forbid using it in connection with any fee-based service. So there will never be a subscription or ads.