Venmo begins rolling out receipt scanning that splits bills by item, with tax and tip

Venmo began rolling out a receipt-scanning feature today, Nov. 9, that turns a photo of a restaurant check into individual payment requests. The PayPal-owned app says it will be available to all users in the coming weeks, so some people will not see it yet.

The pitch is simple. Nobody at the table has to do the math on who had the appetizer.

How the feature works

From the Venmo home screen, a user taps the "V" at the bottom to start a payment, then selects "Scan receipt." They can take a new photo or upload an existing one. Venmo reads the receipt and itemizes it automatically.

The person organizing the split then assigns each line to whoever ordered it and can adjust those assignments. Venmo adds each person's share of tax and tip and sends the requests.

That means one friend can cover a round of drinks, dessert can go to the people who ate it, and the rest of the check gets divided among everyone else. It is a better fit for a messy table than an even split.

The process is request-based. Venmo's announcement does not say a scan automatically pulls money from anyone's account. Friends still get a request.

"Splitting the bill is one of the most common things people do on Venmo, but it can also be one of the most tedious," Alexis Sowa, Venmo's general manager, said in a press release. "With receipt scanning, a pile of math goes away with a single photo."

Where it fits with Groups and Apple

Receipt scanning covers the items on a single check. For longer-running shared costs such as rent, subscriptions or a vacation, Venmo points users to Venmo Groups, which it introduced in 2023. PayPal describes the new tool as an extension that integrates with Groups.

Venmo says the feature works regardless of which mobile device people in the group use. Apple moved first on this. With iOS 27, released a few months ago, iPhone users can point Visual Intelligence at a receipt and split the bill using Apple Cash.

Apple's version works inside Apple's ecosystem. Venmo's pitch is that it works across devices. Cash App and Zelle users are also part of the competitive picture, since a group that splits bills on one app tends to pull in everyone else.

The user data behind it

Venmo cited research from Morning Consult, a market intelligence firm the company commissioned. It found that 40% of adults ages 18 to 22 said they usually pay for group expenses first and collect everyone's share later.

Of those adults, 20% said they pay for exactly what they ordered, and 15% said they divide the total evenly. The survey was paid for by Venmo, which has an obvious interest in the finding that fronting the bill is common among young people.

PayPal says the feature suits group dinners, treating friends, travel and group grocery runs. The payments-industry trade outlet PYMNTS tied the launch to PayPal's strategy of turning Venmo into a broader financial services platform beyond simple peer-to-peer transfers. PayPal has not laid out any revenue plan for this specific feature.

What Venmo has not said

The announcement is thin on rollout details. Venmo has not given a minimum app version, a separate price for the feature, or a country-by-country schedule. It has not said how tips are divided among diners beyond saying the app adds each person's share.

The feature is free to try as far as the announcement indicates, but Venmo has not stated that explicitly. Users who open the app today may not find the scan option at all, and Venmo's only timeline is "a few weeks."

It is unclear whether the item-by-item approach actually gets used. Venmo Groups has existed since 2023, and the company has not released usage figures for it. How many people adopt receipt scanning once it reaches every account is something Venmo has yet to disclose.