Gift Budget Split Calculator

Divide one total gift budget across several recipients by relative priority — a recipient with weight 2 gets twice the allocation of one with weight 1.

Total Gift Budget ($)

How each share is worked out

Every share is the budget scaled by that person's slice of the total weight:

share = total budget × weight / sum of all weights

The page opens with $300 and weights of 2, 1 and 1. The weights sum to 4, so the first person takes 2/4 of the money - $150 - and the other two take $75 each. Add a fourth person at weight 1 and the sum becomes 5: the top share drops to $120 and each of the others to $60. Nothing is capped; the split is purely relative, so weights of 20, 10, 10 give exactly the same answer as 2, 1, 1.

Setting the weights

Weight is a ratio, not a dollar figure. Weight 2 means "twice whatever weight 1 gets", which is why the numbers move every time you add or remove someone.
Half-steps are allowed. The field steps by 0.5, so 1.5 covers a person who sits between two tiers.
Weight 0 is legal. The person stays on the list and is allocated $0 - useful for someone you have already bought for.
Names are optional. Leave one blank and it shows as Person 3.

A per-head average hides the tail. $300 over three people reads as $100 each, but the two or three names you genuinely cannot cheap out on are what decides whether the budget holds. Weight those first, see what is left for everyone else, and raise the total if the remainder has stopped being a real gift.

Frequently asked questions

How do I split a gift budget fairly between family members?

Give everyone weight 1, then raise it only where a bigger gift is genuinely expected. With $300 across four people at weights 2, 1, 1, 1 the shares are $120, $60, $60 and $60.

Do the shares add back up to the total?

They do, give or take a cent. Each share is rounded to two decimals for display, so a three-way split of $100 shows as $33.33, $33.33 and $33.33 and leaves a penny unassigned.

What happens if I give everyone the same weight?

You get a flat split. Ten people all on weight 1 divide the budget ten ways, which makes the tool a plain per-head calculator until you start differentiating.