§
Settle up in one tap
Three friends, a tangle of IOUs. Chara figures out the fewest payments to clear it — two transfers instead of six — and settles in a tap.
Splitwise capped you.
Steven dropped you.
Chara won’t.
Take a photo of the receipt. Chara figures out who had the wine, who skipped dessert, and what everyone owes in their own currency. No spreadsheet, no awkward Venmo request, no "I'll get you next time."
Switching from Splitwise, Tricount or Settle Up? Paste a screenshot and your balances come with you — no re-entering who owes what.
See how it works ↗ →Snap
The receipt reads itself
Fair
You pay for what you ate
Home
In your own currency
Done
Settled in a tap
pl.01 — The reckoningōban · 1843
Kyoto tripJPY
¥0.00
Anya owes you
3 of 4 settled
Why Chara
Get your money back.
Without becoming the nag.
Every other split app turns one of you into the collector. Chara does the awkward part — so the only thing left in the group chat is plans for next time.
≈
One number per person. "Anya owes you 412 kr." No spreadsheet, no scrolling through history, no "wait — did I pay you back already?" The answer is on the home screen, the moment you open the app.
One screen · one number per friend
Short, honest,
and all of it free.
Everything you need to split.
¥
Every group in its own currency
Owe in kronor, pay in euros, track in yen. Chara shows what you owe in your currency, updated daily from European Central Bank rates.
¶
Receipts that fill themselves in
Snap the bill and Chara reads the merchant, total, and date — the expense is half-written before you've put your card away.
‡
On every screen you own
Phone at dinner, laptop on Sunday. Native apps for iPhone and Android, plus the web — same numbers everywhere.
⌘
Sign in the way you already do
A magic link to your email or your Google account. No password to set, no new account to dread.
№
Never chase rent again
Rent, Netflix, the cleaner — set each recurring bill once. Chara posts and splits it on the day, then stays quiet until something changes.
The bill comes either way.
Same rent. Same group chat. The difference is whether the math, the receipts, and the awkward ask happen in a calm place — or a frantic one.
after Hokusai · ōban · ¥13,800
ed.0aBelief
“Money is awkward.
Your app shouldn't be.”
Where we
win and lose.
Splitwise's iOS app is genuinely better than ours today. Steven is a smaller, faster tool if you only need basic splits. Pick the one that fits.
| Feature | Splitwise (free) | Steven | Chara |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free, but capped | Free | Free, forever |
| Daily expense limit | 3 per day | None | None |
| Ads | In-app banners | None | None |
| Receipt scanning | Pro only | No | Built in, line by line |
| Multi-currency | Yes, well done | Manual rates | Live mid-market |
| Receipts kept | Pro only | Basic | Searchable, forever |
| Recurring bills | Pro only | No | Yes |
| Mobile | iOS + Android | Web only | iOS, Android, web |
One file.
One command.
- 01Postgres 15+. Whatever you already run. No Redis. No queue. No vector DB.
- 02S3-compatible storage. Minio, R2, Backblaze, AWS — receipts go anywhere with an access key.
- 03OIDC, optional. Plug in Authentik, Pocket ID, Keycloak. Or stay on magic links — both work.
- 04~80 MB image. Runs on a Pi. Memory ceiling 256 MB for a household of ten.
~/chara
$ curl -fsSL chara.dev/install | sh$ cd chara$ docker compose up -d✓ postgres ready✓ chara-web ready :3000✓ chara-worker ready✓ minio ready :9000→ open http://localhost:3000Your data, on your shelf.
When the cloud goes dark and the bills keep falling, the people who run their own server are the ones still eating. Self-host Chara and the receipts, the rates, the whole ledger stays on a box you own.
after Hiroshige · ōban · self-hosted
Questions,
answered.
Yes. There's no paid tier, no premium upsell, no cap that nudges you toward paying. We don't make money from features — we make money from the small fraction of people who choose to host it for their company or club.
No. Snap a photo if you want the line-by-line magic, or just type in a total like any other app. Both work, both split fairly.
Tell Chara your home currency once. Every expense, no matter where it was paid, shows up converted at the day's mid-market rate so the number you owe is the number you understand.
Yes. Export your data from Splitwise (Settings → Your account → Download a copy) and Chara pulls in your groups, friends, and expense history in one pass.
Yes. Add anyone by name; they get a link, see what they owe, and pay — no signup required. They can make an account later if they want their own view.
A small team in Stockholm. We were Splitwise users for nine years and got tired of the cap. The first commit is in the repo if you want to read it.