Venmo announced the launch of its newest in-app feature, Venmo Groups, which facilitates the splitting of bills among a group for ongoing expenses. This launch underlines consumers’ growing use of digital payment apps to divvy expenses among friends and family members.
By eliminating the need to designate one person to keep track of all expenses, Venmo Group enables all users to add expenses, see what amounts are due, and settle up. As long as the group exists, new expenses can be added and calculated.
Venmo users simply need to go to their “Me” page to access the new Groups feature. Users can create a new group under the “Group” tab. With a couple of taps, new members of the group can add expenses and settle bills.
“We know managing ongoing expenses in a group can be challenging, in particular when each member covers different costs with different amounts at different times,” Erika Sanchez, Vice President and General Manager at Venmo, said in a prepared statement. “As one of our most requested features, Venmo Groups offers a seamless solution for users to better track and settle shared expenses in group settings.”
“Consumers are increasingly using digital payments for all types of transactions, and it may be difficult to keep track of all of them,” said Elisa Tavilla, Director of Debit Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Venmo’s new feature allows users to better manage their various expenses, especially those that they regularly split with colleagues, family, friends, roommates, and others.
“Venmo Groups helps eliminate cumbersome spreadsheets and awkward social interactions, such as constantly having to ask your roommates for their share of the rent or utility bill. It seems like a valuable feature that will help Venmo users maintain healthy financial accounts and social relationships.”
Venmo Moves Forward Amid Growing Competition and Oversight
Venmo has been dipping into a variety of ventures and partnerships over the past several years. In its foray into cryptocurrency, Venmo enabled users to transfer digital assets between Venmo wallets, PayPal accounts, external wallets, and exchanges, building on the crypto trading capabilities it introduced in 2021.
The company has also pursued partnerships aimed at expanding digital payment use cases. One example was its collaboration with Hallmark, which allowed consumers to send money digitally through greeting cards, bridging traditional gifting experiences with modern payment preferences.
At the same time, the competitive landscape for peer-to-peer payments has become increasingly crowded. Venmo now competes not only with Cash App and Zelle, but also with Apple Cash and a growing number of digital wallet and payment platforms that offer bill-splitting and expense-management capabilities.
Regulatory scrutiny has also increased. Large payment apps such as Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App have faced growing attention from policymakers and regulators focused on consumer protection, fraud prevention, and data privacy. As digital payment platforms continue to play a larger role in consumers’ financial lives, balancing innovation with compliance remains a key challenge for the industry.
Bill Splitting Has Become a Core Payments Feature
The launch of Venmo Groups was an early sign that consumers wanted more sophisticated ways to manage shared expenses. Since then, bill splitting has become a core feature across the payments landscape.
Digital payment providers increasingly recognize that consumers don’t just need a way to send money—they need tools to organize and track ongoing financial obligations with friends, family members, roommates, and coworkers. Expenses such as rent, utilities, travel, event tickets, and restaurant bills are now routinely managed through payment apps.
Apple recently expanded its payments capabilities by introducing tools that allow users to scan receipts, divide expenses among multiple people, and send payment requests directly through Apple Cash. Cash App has also enhanced its payment request functionality, while PayPal continues to broaden its peer-to-peer offerings.
As competition intensifies, shared-expense management is evolving from a differentiating feature into a standard expectation among consumers.
Competition in P2P Payments Has Intensified
When Venmo Groups launched, Venmo was one of the most recognizable names in peer-to-peer payments. Today, the competitive landscape is significantly more crowded.
Zelle remains a dominant force due to its integration with hundreds of financial institutions and its ability to facilitate payments directly through online and mobile banking applications. Cash App continues to attract younger consumers, while Apple Cash benefits from deep integration within the Apple ecosystem.
At the same time, specialized services such as Splitwise have maintained a loyal user base by focusing specifically on expense tracking and reimbursement.
This competition places pressure on providers like Venmo to continually expand their capabilities and create more reasons for users to remain within their ecosystem.
The Growing Importance of Shared Expense Management
What began as a convenience feature has become an important component of the modern payments experience. Consumers increasingly expect payment apps to help them organize, track, and settle shared expenses with minimal effort.
Venmo Groups anticipated this trend by creating a collaborative approach to expense management that reduced friction for users managing recurring costs. As digital payments become more deeply integrated into everyday life, features that simplify group financial management are likely to become even more important.
The broader opportunity for payment providers extends beyond facilitating transactions. The winners in the next phase of peer-to-peer payments will be the platforms that make managing money with others as simple as sending a message.
Article updated: June 2026
