Tip Calculator

Tipping conventions vary by country and service, but the arithmetic is always the same: choose a percentage of the pre-discount bill, add it to the total, and divide by diners if splitting. Common U.S. restaurant practice centers on 15–20% for table service, 10–15% for delivery, around 10% for takeaway counters where tipping is optional, and roughly 15–20% for bars, rideshares and personal services — with wide regional variation worldwide, including no-tip cultures (Japan, South Korea) where the practice can even offend.

Whether to tip on the pre-tax or post-tax subtotal is a perennial debate; pre-tax is the traditional base. On an $86.50 pre-tax bill with 8% tax ($93.42 total), 18% pre-tax adds $15.57 while 18% post-tax adds $16.82 — a $1.25 generosity gap most servers won't notice but your budget might across a year of dining. If a service charge already appears on the bill, no additional tip is generally expected — that charge is the house's gratuity mechanism, though checking whether it reaches staff is fair game.

Splitting mechanics deserve care because money disputes ruin meals. Even splits work when orders are similar; with mixed orders (one steak, three salads), itemize first, then split only the shared items, tax and tip proportionally. A practical method: each person pays their items plus their share of tax (items ÷ subtotal × tax) plus their share of tip. Apps and the per-person row here handle the even case; for uneven tables, run the shared portion through the calculator and add personal items manually.

Tipping on discounted or comped amounts follows one principle: tip on the value of service received, not the reduced price. A $40 bill with a $20 coupon still involved $40 of service — tipping 20% on $40 ($8) rather than on $20 ($4) is the widely advised etiquette. Similarly, gift cards and loyalty redemptions don't reduce the server's work. Happy hour deserves the same logic applied to full menu prices.

Large parties trigger special rules: many restaurants add automatic gratuity (often 18–20%) for groups of 6–8+, which replaces voluntary tipping rather than stacking on top of it. Always scan the bill for 'service charge', 'gratuity' or 'service fee' lines before adding more — double-tipping is the most common and most avoidable tipping error. When service is genuinely poor, the constructive move is speaking to a manager rather than zeroing the tip silently, since tip pools often share the cut with bussers and runners who weren't at fault.

The 10-5-1 mental shortcut from the percentage guide makes any tip instant: 10% is the bill with the decimal moved, 5% is half of that, 1% is the bill divided by 100. For $86.50: 10% = $8.65, 5% = $4.33, so 15% = $12.98, 18% = 15% + 3×1% = $12.98 + $2.60 = $15.58, and 20% = 2×10% = $17.30. Three numbers memorized, every tip covered.