The Beatles song that ends with “the love you take is equal to the love you make” is “The End,” written by Paul McCartney.
“The End” closes the climactic medley on the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. McCartney wanted the track to finish with a concise, meaningful couplet, giving the album a philosophical final statement after its sequence of contrasting songs. The full closing lyric begins, “And in the end,” before reaching the famous line about love.
Recording began on 23 July 1969, when the working title was “Ending.” The finished track features a rare exchange of guitar solos by McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon, followed by Ringo Starr’s only Beatles drum solo. Its brief orchestral and vocal conclusion leads into a short, unresolved piano chord associated with “Her Majesty.”
The lyric is sometimes misquoted as “the love you get is equal to the love you give,” including in a later Lennon interview. The actual Beatles lyric uses “take” and “make,” making “The End” the canonical answer.