How Much Less Rent Should You Pay for the Smaller Bedroom?

Usually between 10% and 31% less than the bigger bedroom, depending on how much smaller it is. On a $2,000 two-bedroom, a noticeably smaller room lands around $906 against $1,094. That's about 17% less. If the bigger room also has its own bathroom, the gap widens to roughly 26%.

Every guide on this explains how to run the calculation. Far fewer say what the number normally comes out to, which is the thing you actually want to know before raising it with a roommate. So here are the figures.

How much less, by situation

All of these are a $2,000 two-bedroom where the two of you share everything except the bedrooms:

• Slightly smaller, same everything else. About 10% less. $950 against $1,050.
• Noticeably smaller. About 17% less. $906 against $1,094.
• Much smaller, the classic box room. About 31% less. $817 against $1,183.
• Smaller, and the bigger room has an ensuite. About 26% less. $848 against $1,152.
• Smaller, and it has no real window. About 23% less. $872 against $1,128.

Why splitting by square footage overshoots

The advice you'll find almost everywhere is to divide the rent by each bedroom's square footage. It's simple, it feels objective, and it gives the wrong answer.

The reason: most of what you're renting isn't a bedroom. The kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, the hallway. In a typical apartment those come to roughly half the floor area, and both of you use them exactly the same amount. Splitting the whole rent by bedroom size charges one person more for a kitchen they share equally.

Do it by pure square footage and a room twice the size pays twice as much. Do it properly. Shared space split evenly, bedrooms split by what they are. That same room then pays about 45% more: a 59/41 split of the rent rather than 67/33.

What actually moves the figure

Roughly in order of how much it matters:

• A private bathroom. The single biggest factor, worth about 25% on that bedroom. It's the one thing you can't share your way around.
• Size. Real, but less than people assume, for the reason above.
• A window. A bedroom without one often isn't legally a bedroom at all. Most US jurisdictions require an egress window. So it's worth about 12% off rather than being a matter of taste.
• Closet space. Real but small, around 6%. There are lots of great in-room storage options these days. This could be your excuse to find a beautiful vintage armoire or chic clothes rack.
• Sharing the room. Two people in one bedroom split that bedroom's cost, but each still pays a full share of the kitchen and the utilities, because they each use those.

Worked through

$2,000 a month, two bedrooms, one noticeably smaller, nothing else different.

Shared space is about 45% of the rent in a normal apartment, so $900 comes off the top and splits evenly: $450 each. That leaves $1,100 for the two bedrooms. Scored against each other, the bigger one takes $644 and the smaller $456.

Add the $450 back and it's $1,094 and $906. The smaller bedroom pays 17% less, and the two together pay the rent exactly.

How to raise it with your roommates

Figure out who's taking what and fair pricing before anyone signs. Once the lease is signed it's hard to change things around; beforehand it's just logistics, and whoever takes the small bedroom gets to choose it knowingly rather than being handed it and billed the same.

The framing that works is options rather than a verdict. "Bigger room is $1,094, smaller is $906. Which do you want?" is a win-win situation for everyone. Someone gets the nicer room, and someone gets to save some money. If both of you want the nicer room, it might be a sign you should look for a nicer apartment in a higher price range. If both of you want the cheaper option, it might be a sign you should look at apartments with better pricing.

Common questions

Should the person with the bigger bedroom pay more? Yes, if it's meaningfully bigger or has something the other doesn't. About 11% more for a slightly bigger bedroom and around 21% for a noticeably bigger one. Even at the extreme, with one bedroom literally double the other, it comes to 45% more, which is a 59/41 split of the rent. All of those already include each person's even share of the shared space, which is why they're far smaller than the difference in floor area.

Is splitting rent by square footage fair? Only partly. It ignores that the shared space, usually about half the apartment, is used equally, so it charges the bigger bedroom for a kitchen both of you share.

How much more is an ensuite worth? Around 25% on that bedroom. It rates about level with room size in every survey on the question, and unlike size it can't be worked around.

What if one bedroom has no window? Take about 12% off it. In most of the US a room without egress isn't a legal bedroom, which makes it a real deduction rather than a preference.

Should a couple sharing a room pay more? They split that bedroom's cost between them, but each pays a full share of the shared space and the utilities. Two people use the kitchen twice as much as one.

What about splitting by income? Some households do it, and it's a legitimate choice. It's a different question from what a bedroom is worth, though, and mixing the two tends to make both harder to agree.

Work out an apartment's costs for your roommates, to decide who wants to go where

The rent split calculator does all of this for you: enter the rent, say what each bedroom is like, and it gives you a monthly figure per person plus a message you can paste into the group chat. It publishes the logic and numbers behind the calculation, so anyone can check the number.

It's free, there's no signup, and if you're also splitting the groceries and the wifi bill, Tabster keeps a running tab for that too.