How Much to Tip

How much to tip: the standard percentages

American tipping runs on percentages for table service and on flat amounts for almost everything else, and mixing the two up is the most common source of over- and under-tipping. Sit-down restaurant service is a percentage of the bill. A hotel housekeeper, a bellhop, a bartender pouring a single drink and a barista at the counter are all flat-dollar situations where a percentage produces absurd numbers.

Here is the range that most US etiquette guidance and hospitality workers would recognise as normal in 2026.

The Emily Post Institute's tipping guide is the closest thing to an American standard on etiquette, and it lines up with the table above. When in doubt, tip on the higher end for personal services and on the lower end for anything transactional.

Worked example: a $68 dinner bill split three ways

Three people, one check, $68 before tax. Put the bill into the calculator, set the tip to 20% and the split to 3:

• Tip at 20%: $13.60
• Total: $81.60
• Per person, tip only: $4.53
• Per person, all in: $27.20

Now compare the percentages people argue about. At 18% the tip is $12.24 and the total $80.24. At 15% the tip is $10.20 and the total $78.20. The spread from 15% to 20% is $3.40 on the whole table, about a dollar per person. That is the entire size of the argument most people have about tipping, which is worth remembering before it becomes a social problem.

Add sales tax and a second question appears. Suppose the tax rate is 7%, so the bill shown is $72.76 and the $68 is the pre-tax subtotal. Tipping 20% on the pre-tax amount gives $13.60; tipping 20% on the taxed total gives $14.55. The difference is 95 cents. Etiquette guidance says the pre-tax amount is correct, and the calculator will show you both, but nobody has ever been criticised for rounding up.

One more variable worth testing: split the same $68 between six people at 20% and each person pays $13.60. The tip does not change with the number of diners, only the per-person share does. That is why the calculator shows the split separately from the tip.

Worked example: delivery, rideshare and counter service

Percentage tipping breaks down outside restaurants, and this is where people get it wrong in both directions. Take a $45 delivery order. At 15% the tip is $6.75, bringing the total to $51.75; at 18% it is $8.10 and $53.10; at 20% it is $9.00 and $54.00. Those are reasonable numbers because the order is large.

Now shrink the order. A $14 sandwich delivered has a 15% tip of $2.10, less than the driver's cost of making the trip worth it. This is why delivery guidance almost always puts a floor under the percentage: $3 to $5 regardless of order size. On the $14 order, $5 is a 36% tip, and that is the correct number. The percentage rule assumes the base is large enough to produce a fair dollar amount, and on small orders it is not.

Rideshare works the same way. A $24 airport ride at 12% is $2.88, which is fine. A $6 short hop at 12% is $0.72, which is not, round up to a dollar or two instead. Drivers keep the entire tip, so a small one still lands in full.

Counter service is the reverse case. If you order at a counter and carry your own food, there is no table service to tip for, and $1 to $2 in the jar is generous rather than expected. A takeout order that was assembled and packed for you sits in between: 10% is a reasonable reading, or $2 to $3 on a typical family order. On a $40 takeout order, $2 is 5% and $4 is 10%, either is defensible, and neither is rude.

Tipping on tax, on alcohol, on takeout and on service charges

Four smaller questions come up constantly. Tax. The etiquette position is to tip on the pre-tax amount, since sales tax is not part of the service. Most people tip on the total because it is faster. The difference is under a dollar on a typical dinner, so pick whichever you will do consistently.

Alcohol. Bottles of wine create an awkward edge case: a 20% tip on a $90 bottle is $18 for a task that took fifteen seconds, while the same 20% on a $14 pasta is $2.80. Many people cap the wine tip at around 10% to 15% and tip the food normally, which is a well-established compromise. If you are running a tab at a bar rather than ordering wine with dinner, the per-drink rule, $1 to $2 per drink, is easier and usually comes out similar.

Takeout. No table service means no percentage obligation. A dollar or two for a bag handed over a counter, around 10% for a large order that was carefully packed, and nothing at all are all defensible. Nobody in the US hospitality industry treats a counter jar as compulsory.

Service charges. This is the one that costs real money by accident. A service charge of 18% or 20% added automatically to a bill is not the same thing as a tip, it is usually revenue to the restaurant, sometimes shared with staff and sometimes not. A gratuity line added automatically, by contrast, usually is a tip. If the bill says "service charge", ask before adding another 20% on top. If it says "gratuity", you are done.

Tipping when service is bad, and how tips reach the worker

The etiquette consensus on bad service is more forgiving than most diners expect: tip 15% and speak to a manager rather than dropping to 5%. The reasoning is that the server is rarely the cause of a slow kitchen, a broken card machine or an understaffed floor, and a punitive tip mostly punishes the person with the least control. Reserve a genuinely low tip, under 10%, for service that was rude or neglectful rather than merely slow, and say something at the time if you can.

It also helps to know where the money goes. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, a tipped employee is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. Employers may pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and claim a tip credit of up to $5.12 an hour toward the $7.25 federal minimum. Working 40 hours at that cash wage earns $85.20 in direct wages, so the server needs $204.80 in tips in that week to reach $290, the federal minimum. Everything above $204.80 is theirs on top. Many states set a higher cash wage or ban the tip credit entirely, and the Department of Labor's tipped-employee table lists the current rules by state.

Two consequences follow. First, tips are not a bonus on top of a normal wage for many US servers, they are most of the wage, which is why the social pressure around them is stronger than in countries where tipping is genuinely optional. Second, tips are taxable income for the worker, and they have to be reported. The IRS's tip recordkeeping and reporting page sets out how that works.

This page is a general guide to common US tipping practice, not tax, financial or legal advice. It does not take your individual circumstances or tax situation into account, and the amounts are conventions rather than rules.

How tipping has changed, and what to do when you are unsure

Tipping in the US has drifted upward over the past two decades. Fifteen percent was the standard for table service in the 1990s; twenty percent became the default during the 2010s, and it has held there. At the same time, tip prompts spread to places that never had them, tablet checkout screens at bakeries, food trucks and retail counters now offer 20%, 25% and 30% buttons before you have received anything.

The result is that people feel more tipping pressure and less clarity than they used to. Three habits cut through it. Decide the percentage before you look at the screen, based on the service you received rather than the number the terminal suggests. Use flat amounts outside table service, where percentages produce nonsense on small orders and excessive amounts on large ones. And tip in cash where you can for housekeeping, valets and delivery drivers, since cash is immediate and unambiguously the worker's.

When you genuinely do not know, the safest default is the one the person receiving it would recognise as normal for that job: 20% for table service, 15% for a service professional who spent an hour with you, and a few dollars for anyone who did a small task well. Tipping is a convention, not a law, with one exception. A service charge is a line item on a contract, and it is not optional.

For a second opinion on any specific case, the Emily Post guide covers far more categories than most people need, and the Department of Labor table is the authority on what the worker is legally owed before tips. Between those two sources, almost every tipping question has a defensible answer.

Nothing on this page is tax or financial advice, and the calculator does not know your tax situation or your local customs.