How to export your Splitwise data to CSV or Excel

Splitwise lets you download any group as a CSV spreadsheet. This page covers where the button is, what every column in the file actually means, what isn't included, and what to do when the export doesn't arrive. We wrote and tested a parser against this column structure, so the column-by-column section below reflects what the importer actually reads rather than marketing shorthand.

Where the export button is

On the website (most reliable):

1. Log in at secure.splitwise.com
2. Open the group from the left sidebar
3. Click the group's settings (gear icon, top right of the group)
4. Scroll to "Export as spreadsheet"
5. The CSV downloads, named after the group

In the mobile app, open the group → gear/settings icon → scroll to Export as spreadsheet. Depending on the version, the app either emails the file to your account address or hands it to the system share sheet. The web route avoids that ambiguity, so use it if you can.

Splitwise exports one group at a time. There's no "export everything" button — repeat the steps per group. If you have a lot of groups, work oldest-first so you don't lose track.

What every column means

The file starts with a header row shaped like this:

Date, Description, Category, Cost, Currency, Alice, Bob, Charlie

The first five columns are fixed; after them comes one column per group member, in no guaranteed order.

The part that confuses everyone: member columns are net, not owed

The per-person columns are not "how much this person owes." They're the net effect on that person's balance. Take a $45.60 grocery run that Alice paid for, split three ways:

2026-05-01, Groceries, Groceries, 45.60, USD, 30.40, -15.20, -15.20

Alice shows +30.40, not 45.60 — she paid $45.60 but owed $15.20 of it herself, so her net is the difference. Bob and Charlie each show −15.20.

Two useful consequences: the member columns of every row should sum to zero (a quick integrity check on your file), and a positive number means that person is owed for that row while a negative means they owe.

A row can have more than one positive number, which means several people paid toward the same expense. The final line of the file is a Total balance row showing each member's running position — that's a summary, not an expense.

Opening the export in Excel without mangling it

First thing worth knowing: Splitwise gives you a CSV, not an .xlsx file. Excel opens CSVs happily, but double-clicking one is where most of the problems start.

Don't double-click it. On Windows, Excel guesses the character encoding when you open a CSV directly, and it usually guesses wrong. Any name with an accent — José, Zoë, Müller — comes out as José. Same for emoji in expense descriptions, which people use constantly.

Instead:

1. Open a blank workbook in Excel
2. Data → From Text/CSV
3. Pick the downloaded file
4. In the preview, set File Origin to UTF-8
5. Check the names look right in the preview, then Load

If you want a real spreadsheet afterwards rather than a CSV, use File → Save As → Excel Workbook (.xlsx). That preserves any formatting, formulas or pivot tables you add — a CSV won't.

Google Sheets handles the encoding correctly on import, so if you just want to look at the numbers it's the lower-friction route: File → Import → Upload. On a Mac, Numbers also opens these correctly without the encoding dance.

One more Excel quirk: it likes to reformat the Date column into whatever your regional settings prefer, which can turn 2026-05-01 into something ambiguous. If the dates matter, set that column's type to Text during the import preview.

Actually analysing it once it's open

Because the member columns are net change rather than amounts owed (see above), a spreadsheet can tell you things the app doesn't show:

• Sum a person's column to get their overall position across the whole group's history. Positive means they've paid more than their share over time.
• Sum all the member columns together — it should come out to zero. If it doesn't, something in the file is off.
• Filter out rows where Category is Payment to see only real expenses, excluding settle-up transfers. This is the one that makes "what did we actually spend?" answerable.
• Pivot by Category with Cost as the value to see where the money went — groceries versus dining out versus transport across a whole trip.
• Pivot by month using the Date column for a household running at a steady rate rather than a one-off trip.

Worth doing before you stop using an app: a year of shared expenses in a pivot table is genuinely more interesting than it sounds, and it's the analysis neither Splitwise's free tier nor most alternatives will do for you.

What Splitwise does not export

• Receipt images you attached to expenses
• Comments on expenses
• Who is in the group beyond the column headers — no emails or accounts
• Other groups, and anything filed under non-group "friend" expenses

If receipts matter to you, save them separately before you stop using the app — they aren't in the file.

When the export doesn't work

• Nothing downloads on mobile — some app versions email the file instead. Check the inbox for the address on your Splitwise account, including spam. Or just use the website.
• The file looks like gibberish, or dates look wrong — both are spreadsheet import artifacts rather than a broken export. See opening the export in Excel above.
• The export is empty or missing rows — confirm you're exporting the group rather than a filtered view, and that you scrolled the whole group so nothing is archived out of range.
• No export option at all — it's on the group settings screen, not your account settings. If it's genuinely absent, the web version is the fallback.

Export before you delete your account

This is the one with no undo. Deleting your Splitwise account removes your access to the data, and support can't retrieve it afterwards. Export every group you care about first, confirm the files actually open, and only then delete. The same applies before leaving a group — you lose visibility of its history. Our guide to deleting the account covers the right order to do it in.

What you can do with the file

• Keep it as a backup. A CSV opens in any spreadsheet app and will still open in a decade.
• Analyse it. A year of shared groceries in a pivot table is more interesting than you'd expect.
• Move it somewhere else. Splitpond reads supported rows from a one-currency group export. Drop the file on the homepage, review the entries and every warning before saving, then verify the imported totals and balances against the source. Mixed currencies and refunds are blocked rather than guessed. Here's what that migration looks like.

Splitwise's interface changes periodically; steps above reflect the app as of July 2026. Check Splitwise's own help centre if a menu has moved.