← Idea market
Money11,200 searches / mo

Shared expenses with roommates

Rent, utilities, and the one who never Venmos.

Opportunity score

6,096 / 10k

Worth a weekend. Demand is real, execution decides it.

Rank

#59

Gap

B

  • Demand

    52

    11,200 contestable searches a month across 25 related keywords.

  • Momentum

    50

    Last three months ran down 0.0% against the three before, seasonality smoothed out.

  • Competition gap

    53

    18 real products rank on page one for this, ad competition 0.08.

  • Crowd

    n/a

    Only 2 rankings so far, not counted until 5.

  • Willingness to pay

    83

    Advertisers pay $6.29 a click for this search — real budget chases this problem.

What this score is based on

evidence checked 9/28/2026

  • Search demand verified against Google Ads data
  • 12 months of search history
  • 25 related keywords clustered
  • No firsthand pain signals collected yet
  • 18 competitors analyzed from page-one results
  • 2 crowd rankings from builders

Search demand comes from Google Ads data via DataForSEO and refreshes daily. Competitors come from a live scan of page-one results. Crowd input comes from builders ranking ideas 1-2-3 on the market.

Keyword cluster

25 keywords · 11,200 searches a month combined

Demand counts the whole cluster: 11,200 searches a month across every relevant way people look for this problem. The intent label on each keyword tells you how close that searcher is to wanting software.

KeywordIntentSearchesCPCAd comp.
bill splitting appwants a tool3,600$4.770.32
app for bill splittingwants a tool3,600$4.770.32
expense splitting appwants a tool720$2.130.12
app to divide expenseswants a tool720$2.130.12
expense sharing appwants a tool390$2.410.21
apps for sharing expenseswants a tool390$2.410.21
tab bill splitting appwants a tool320-0.00
best bill splitting appwants a tool210$5.050.23
cost splitting appwants a tool170-0.06
restaurant bill splitting appwants a tool170$1.390.08
best expense splitting appwants a tool110-0.09
best app split expenseswants a tool110-0.09
best app to divide expenseswants a tool110-0.09
best split expenses appwants a tool110-0.09
app for group expenseswants a tool70$7.430.07
app to split expenses with friendswants a tool70-0.15
best app to split expenseswants a tool50$1.570.10
splitwise expense trackerwants a tool50-0.00
roommate expense tracker appwants a tool40$2.940.41
app for tracking shared expenseswants a tool40$2.940.41
shared expense trackerwants a tool30$6.570.44
app for sharing expenses with friendswants a tool30-0.15
app for splitting expenses with friendswants a tool30$3.060.18
app to share expenses with friendswants a tool30-0.15
apps for splitting bills with friendswants a tool30-0.10

CPC is what an advertiser pays Google for one click on that phrase — a rough price tag on how valuable the visitor is. Ad comp. runs 0 to 1 and is how full the ad auction is: near 1 means advertisers are fighting over it (money is there, but ranking is hard), near 0 means almost nobody bids.

Who has the problem

Keeping an accurate and mutually agreed-upon record of shared household expenses is a persistent chore. The process of requesting and receiving payments from roommates frequently leads to awkward confrontations and financial imbalance.

Who experiences it
Roommates living together who share recurring household bills like rent and utilities.
When it happens
When monthly rent and utility statements arrive, or after a communal grocery run for the household.
How often
Monthly for recurring bills, and several times a month for shared household expenses.
What they do today
Manual calculations, notes apps, or spreadsheets to track who owes what, which often leads to miscalculations or forgotten payments.

Read off 25 search phrases, 9/30/2026.

Why now

Not a spike — a steady, repeating problem people search every month.

  • Searches are down 33% year over year

    909 a month twelve months ago → 610 now for "expense splitting app".

  • Flat over the last quarter

    Last three months of searches against the three before them.

  • Peaks in February

    Demand swings 171% across the year, so ship roughly two months before February.

  • Advertisers pay $6.29 a click here

    Buying this intent instead of ranking for it would run roughly $21,134 a month — money is already chasing these searches.

  • 8 real products on page one

    Alongside 10 articles and reference pages, which is room a focused tool can take.

Search data

verified · dataforseo:us · refreshed 9/28/2026

Lead keyword
expense splitting app
Cluster volume
11,200 / mo
across 25 related keywords; lead phrase is 720 / mo
CPC
$6.29
what an advertiser pays for one click here
Ad competition
0.08
0-1 scale: barely any advertisers bidding

Opportunity score 6,096 = 40% contestable search demand (11,200 a month across 25 keywords) + 25% how open the competition still is (18 products on page one) + 15% momentum (last three months vs the three before, capped so one bucketed month can't swing it) + 10% willingness to pay ($6.29 a click) + 10% crowd rankings (Elo 1500, 2 head-to-heads, weighted by how many votes exist). Anything we can't measure is dropped and the rest re-weighted, so a blank signal never counts as an average one. Search data refreshes daily from Google Ads via DataForSEO.

Monthly searches for "expense splitting app"

2 votes · demand from dataforseo:us, updated 9/28/2026

909
Sep 25
744
Oct 25
610
Nov 25
610
Dec 25
1,344
Jan 26
496
Feb 26
610
Mar 26
610
Apr 26
744
May 26
744
Jun 26
610
Jul 26
610
Aug 26

Peak 1,344 · latest 610 · low 496 searches a month

Google reports monthly volume in fixed buckets (…27,100 · 33,100 · 40,500 · 49,500), so steady months land on the exact same number. Weekly data isn't published.

This chart tracks the single lead phrase. The demand score uses the whole cluster of 25 related phrases (11,200 searches a month), listed below.

Revenue potential

estimate, not a promise

Priced and converted as a prosumer subscription — the funnel below changes with that model, because a freemium consumer app and a B2B tool convert nothing alike.

MRR by month 12

$593 – $3,589

19–116 paying users · +2–13 new a month at 5% churn

Year-one run rate

$7,118 – $43,064

the month-12 number annualised — you earn less than this during the ramp

Price

$31/mo

same price as the business model below

24-month projection

log scale

Month 24 · hover to scrub

Slow build $709Good execution $4,654Breakout $66,922

The two solid lines are the range above: a slow build and good execution on a slice of this demand. The dashed line is the breakout — you become the default answer for this problem, take roughly a quarter of the intent, convert far better because people arrive already sold, and churn halves. That's the outcome worth chasing, and it's about $66,922 a month by month 24 (5,376 paying users). Most ideas land on the bottom line; the point of the chart is that the ceiling isn't the estimate.

How we got there

  • 11,200 cluster searches a month, 1.6x for app stores and word of mouth.
  • You reach 1.0-5.9% of that, scaled by ad competition 0.08.
  • 10% of visitors sign up, 12% of those pay. Trial-led: people arrive already shopping, so trial-to-paid runs high.
  • That wins 2-13 new subscribers a month. Stack 12 months of that against 5% monthly churn and you're holding 19-116 paying users by month 12.
  • Price $31/mo, taken from the business model below.

Who already builds this

8 real products · 10 articles, explainers and store pages · scanned daily on Google for "expense splitting app"

8 real products own this search. Everything else on page one is a roundup, review post or explainer, listed separately below.

  • #2Splitwise

    Ranks #2 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    splitwise.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #6Tabapp

    Ranks #6 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    tabapp.co · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #10Community

    Ranks #10 on Google for "expense splitting app".

    community.ricksteves.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #10Billsplittingapp

    Ranks #10 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    billsplittingapp.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #16Finance

    Ranks #16 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    finance.yahoo.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #17Cashinator

    Ranks #17 on Google for "expense splitting app".

    cashinator.net · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #18Theguarantors

    Ranks #18 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    theguarantors.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

  • #19Themuse

    Ranks #19 on Google for "bill splitting app".

    themuse.com · from live Google results · verified Aug 18

Also ranking, but not products (10)

Roundups, review posts, explainers and store pages. They compete for the search, not for the job — they don't count against the competition gap.

Likely business model

willingness to pay 63/100

Prosumer subscription

People are actively shopping for a tool here, so charge from day one.

Price to test · from ad click value

$12–$50/mo

No competitor pricing page was readable, so this band comes from what a click on this intent costs advertisers ($6.29) — a starting price to test, not a proven one.

What to charge for

Trial then subscribe. This crowd is already comparing paid tools, so ask for the card early rather than running a wide free tier.

What this data can't tell you

  • · Nobody's published price backs this band yet — treat the number as a test, and put a price up in week one to find out.

Willingness-to-pay evidence

  • Advertisers pay $6.29 a click for this intent — real money already chases it.
  • 92% of the 25-keyword cluster is commercial-intent wording (best, app, pricing, alternative).
  • Ad competition 0.08 — few advertisers fighting for it.

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