How Much to Tip: A Complete Guide

By Nathan Hays · Updated July 28, 2026

Tipping should be simple, but the "right" amount changes with the service and the country you're in. This guide gives you clear, accurate numbers for every common situation. When you're ready to work out an exact amount, our free tip calculator does the math and splits the bill in seconds.

How much to tip, by service

These are typical expectations in the United States, where tipping is a significant part of many workers' income. Amounts are guidelines, not rules: adjust for the quality of service.

Tipping at restaurants, in detail

Pre-tax or post-tax?

The customary approach is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal, because the tax isn't part of the service. In practice, many people tip on the final total simply because it's easier, and the difference is only the tax portion, usually small. Either is perfectly acceptable.

Here is what the gap actually looks like. Say food and drinks come to $60 and sales tax adds 8%, making the total $64.80. A 20% tip on the $60 subtotal is $12; the same 20% on the $64.80 total is $12.96. The difference is 96 cents. Even on a $200 dinner in a high-tax city, tipping on the total instead of the subtotal costs you a few dollars, not a meaningful amount. One thing worth knowing: the suggested tip amounts printed at the bottom of a receipt or shown on a card reader are usually calculated on the post-tax total, and sometimes on the total including fees, so the button labeled 20% is often a little more than 20% of the food.

What the percentages signal

In American dining, 20% is now the standard tip for normal, satisfactory service; what was once "good service" money has become the everyday default. 15% reads as the minimum and suggests something was lacking, while 25% or more is a warm gesture for service that truly stood out.

Fast mental math at the table

Find 10% first by moving the decimal one place to the left. On an $84 check, 10% is $8.40. Double it for 20% ($16.80). For 15%, add half of the 10% figure ($8.40 plus $4.20 is $12.60). For 18%, take 20% and subtract a tenth of it. Most people then round to a whole dollar, which is entirely normal and usually rounds up. If you would rather not do any of this while everyone is putting their coats on, the calculator handles it and splits the result at the same time.

A quick reference for common bills

Service charges, auto-gratuity, and large parties

Many restaurants automatically add gratuity for large parties, commonly six or more people, and some now add a service charge to every bill. When gratuity is already on the check, the tip is handled and you do not need to add anything. The habit worth building is a five second scan of the itemized total before you reach for a pen, looking for a line that reads "gratuity," "service charge," "admin fee," or a note printed at the bottom of the menu.

A worked example: a party of eight runs up $340 in food and drinks, and the restaurant adds an 18% auto-gratuity of $61.20. The check comes to $401.20 before tax. That $61.20 is the tip. If the server split the check nine ways, kept a complicated order straight, and never let a glass go empty, an extra $10 or $15 in cash is a kind gesture, but nobody is expecting it and no one will think less of you for paying exactly what is printed.

It is worth knowing that a service charge and a tip are not the same thing. A tip belongs to the staff. A service charge is revenue to the business, and how much of it reaches the people who served you depends on the house policy. The same is true of the "kitchen appreciation" and "living wage" surcharges some restaurants now print on the bill; those are the restaurant's own pricing decision, not gratuity. If the distinction matters to you, asking the server or manager where the service charge goes is a completely reasonable question. When a mandatory charge is already 18% or more, an additional tip is genuinely optional.

Cash or card: who actually gets your tip

Both are acceptable, and no server will judge you for using the card line. The practical differences are speed and simplicity. Cash left on the table reaches the staff the same night. A tip added on a card runs through the point of sale system and typically reaches the server in a paycheck, sometimes after processing fees and always after payroll deductions.

The bigger thing most diners never see is tip pooling. In many restaurants the server does not keep the full amount you leave. Houses run either a pool, where tips are collected and divided among the front of house, or a tip-out, where the server passes a share to the bussers, food runners, bartenders, and hosts who made the meal work. So a generous tip rarely lands in one pocket, which is a good argument for tipping on the whole experience rather than only on the person who took your order. Under US federal rules, owners, managers, and supervisors may not take a share of employees' tips.

Two practical notes. If you tip cash, hand it to your server or leave it on the table rather than passing it to a manager. And for delivery, tipping inside the app and tipping in cash both reach the driver, while the delivery fee generally does not; our food delivery tipping guide breaks down which charges go where.

Counter service, takeout, buffets, and open bars

Coffee shops and counter service

Tipping here is genuinely optional. Rounding up or dropping a dollar in the jar is a nice thing to do, especially for a drink that took real work, and skipping it for a drip coffee is not rude. The tablet that spins around and offers 15%, 20%, and 25% has made a lot of people feel cornered; "no tip" is a legitimate button.

Takeout

No obligation, but someone packed the order, checked it, and bagged it. A dollar or two is a fair gesture, and around 10% is generous for a large or complicated order, catering-sized pickups, or anything that clearly took the staff a while to assemble.

Buffets

Roughly $1 to $2 per person, or about 10% of the bill, is customary. You are serving your own plate, but staff are still bringing drinks, clearing plates, and resetting the table, which is why a buffet is not a no-tip situation.

Open bars and hosted events

At a wedding or corporate event with an open bar, gratuity has usually been built into the contract, and a sign or a card on the bar often says so. When it has not, $1 to $2 per drink in cash is the norm even though the drinks are free. Tipping a few dollars on the first round tends to be remembered for the rest of the night. At a regular cash bar, $1 to $2 per drink or 15-20% of the tab both work; see the bartender tipping guide for the details.

Tipping on discounts, coupons, and comped items

The rule that covers almost every case: tip on what the bill would have been at full price. The discount came out of the restaurant's margin, not out of the server's work.

An example. Two entrees at $22 each, and a buy-one-get-one coupon takes $22 off. The check reads $22, but the server carried the same two plates, refilled the same glasses, and ran the same card. A 20% tip on the $44 pre-discount value is $8.80, not the $4.40 that the printed total suggests. The same logic applies to gift certificates, restaurant week menus, birthday freebies, and a dish the kitchen comps because it came out wrong.

One useful distinction: a lower menu price is not a discount. Happy hour prices, lunch specials, and early-bird menus are simply what the food costs at that hour, so tip on what is printed. It is coupons, vouchers, comps, and loyalty credits that call for tipping on the original amount.

This carries over to personal services. If a salon runs a promotion or your stylist waives a service, tip on the standard price of the work performed. Our hairdresser and nail salon guides use the same rule.

When service falls short

Start by separating what your server controls from what they do not. Attentiveness, accuracy, pacing, and honesty about a delay are theirs. Slow kitchens, a dish that isn't what you imagined, understaffing on a Saturday night, and the prices on the menu are not. Cutting the tip for a kitchen problem punishes the wrong person.

If something is wrong, say so quietly while there is still time to fix it, to the server first and the manager after. Most problems that end in a bad tip could have been solved at minute ten. It also gives the restaurant a chance to comp or remake the dish, which is the outcome you actually wanted.

If you do decide to reduce the tip, 15% is the practical floor for service that was simply disappointing. Below that, the number stops being feedback and becomes a formal complaint, and a zero tip only communicates anything if you also explain why; otherwise the server will assume you forgot, or that they were disliked for reasons nobody explained. And if you object to a mandatory service charge, take it up with the manager rather than the server, who did not set the policy.

The reverse deserves a mention too. When a server saves a birthday, handles an allergy carefully, or holds an entire section together alone during a rush, 25% or more is how that gets recognized, and it is remembered.

Splitting the bill and the tip

To split fairly, add the tip to the bill first, then divide the total by the number of people, not the other way around. That way the tip is shared evenly along with the meal. Our tip calculator shows each person's exact share automatically, so there's no mental math and no awkward rounding at the table.

When one person ordered a $45 steak and another had a $12 salad, an even split stops feeling fair. The clean approach is to apply the same tip percentage to each person's own items, so everyone pays 20% of what they ordered rather than 20% of the average. Splitting the tip evenly while itemizing the food is the usual compromise when the gap is small and nobody wants to run the numbers.

Tipping around the world

Tipping customs vary dramatically by country. In some places a generous tip is expected; in others it can cause confusion or even offense. These are general norms for travelers; customs do evolve, especially in tourist areas.

These are the headlines; the dedicated tipping-by-country guide covers 15 countries and regions in depth, including how to spot an included service charge. When you're unsure, a small round-up is almost always a safe, polite choice.

Frequently asked questions

More tipping guides

• How much to tip a hairdresser or barber
• How much to tip a tattoo artist
• How much to tip at a nail salon
• How much to tip a bartender
• Tipping customs by country
• How much to tip for food delivery
• Tip calculator FAQ: good tips, splitting, and per person