Tip Calculator

In the United States, sit-down restaurant tipping is generally 15–20% of the pre-tax total, with 18% as a common middle ground for standard service and 20% for very good service. Table service in fine-dining restaurants often expects 20%+. Some establishments include automatic gratuity for parties of 6 or 8+ — when present, this replaces (rather than supplements) a standard tip.

Outside sit-down dining: bartenders ($1–$2 per drink, or 15–20% of tab), takeout orders (10–15% if you wait or ask for special prep, often 0% on simple pickup, though norms have shifted upward post-pandemic), delivery drivers (15–20% with a $3–$5 minimum), hotel housekeeping ($2–$5/night), valet ($2–$5), and barbers/hairdressers (15–20%).

U.S. tipping norms differ substantially from much of the world. In Japan, France, and many other countries, tipping is uncommon or even mildly insulting. International travelers should check local norms; reflexive 20% tipping abroad can be inappropriate.

Most etiquette guides recommend tipping on the pre-tax subtotal. The reasoning: tax isn't service, and it's not the server's compensation base. In practice, on a $100 meal in a 9% tax jurisdiction, tipping 18% on pre-tax ($100) is $18, while 18% on post-tax ($109) is $19.62 — a $1.62 difference.

If you're unsure, the post-tax tip is slightly more generous and doesn't require thought. For larger bills the difference becomes meaningful enough that consistent pre-tax tipping is the better practice.

Even split: divide the total (with tip) by the number of diners. Simple, fair if everyone ordered comparably. Failure mode: one person had soup and water while another had a steak and three drinks; the soup-and-water diner subsidizes the steak-and-drinks diner.

Itemized split: each person pays for what they ordered, plus a proportional share of tax and tip. Fair when orders differ widely. Most modern POS systems support itemized splits; tip-calculator apps often do this automatically.

Hybrid: split the bill evenly, but the person who had drinks on a non-drinking table covers their drinks separately. Common in business meals where one person is being treated.

Tip more when: service was exceptional, the kitchen accommodated significant special requests, the meal lingered past expected turnover (occupying the table that would otherwise have hosted other paying tables), the server worked notably hard for difficult parties.

Tip less when: service was clearly poor (slow without explanation, mistakes that weren't corrected, indifferent attitude). Even in these cases, leaving 10% rather than 0% is the standard signal — a 0% tip can be ambiguous (forgotten? misunderstood?), while 10% is unambiguously a service complaint.

Don't reduce a tip for problems outside the server's control — kitchen errors, restaurant ambient noise, slow drinks because the bar is busy. The server doesn't control any of those and routinely subsidizes them out of their own tip pool when frustrated diners cut the gratuity.