Tip Calculator — How Much to Tip, by Country
Enter the bill and see the tip, the total and what each person owes. The percentage follows what is actually customary where you are eating, which is not 20% in most of the world, and in several countries is nothing at all.
Servers are paid a reduced tipped minimum wage in most states, so the tip is not a bonus. It is the wage. Work it out on the total before tax.
Twenty Per Cent Is an American Number
Almost every tip calculator offers 15, 18 and 20 per cent, and all three are answers to an American question. In the United States a server can legally be paid a reduced tipped minimum wage, so the tip is not a reward on top of a wage. It is most of the wage. That single fact is why the expected rate is so much higher there than anywhere else, and why failing to tip is treated as something close to theft.
Carry that number to Sydney and it stops meaning anything. Australian hospitality staff are on a full minimum wage, and a 20% tip is not generous so much as confusing. Carry it to Tokyo and it is worse than confusing: leaving money on the table can embarrass the person who has to work out what to do with it.
What Is Customary Where
These are conventions, not rules, which is why they are ranges. They are drawn from travel guidance rather than anything official, and guides genuinely disagree at the edges, so where there is doubt the note says so rather than inventing a precise figure.
| Country | Sit-down restaurant | Service charge usually added? |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 18–20% | No |
| Canada | 15–20% | No |
| United Kingdom | 10–12.5% | Often |
| Ireland | 10–15% | Often |
| Australia | 0–10% | No |
| New Zealand | 0–10% | No |
| Germany | 5–10% | No |
| France | 0–5% | Often |
| Italy | 0–10% | Often |
| Spain | 0–10% | No |
| Netherlands | 5–10% | Often |
| Switzerland | 0–10% | Often |
| United Arab Emirates | 10–15% | Often |
| Singapore | 0–10% | Often |
| Japan | Not customary | No |
The Service Charge Trap
The most expensive mistake on this page is not tipping too little. It is tipping twice. A British, Irish or Singaporean bill very often carries a service charge of 10 to 12.5 per cent already, printed near the total where nobody reads. Add a tip on top and you have paid roughly a quarter of the bill in gratuity without meaning to.
In the United Kingdom that charge is described as discretionary, and the word is doing real work. A restaurant should take it off if you say so. That is worth knowing when the service genuinely failed, because the alternative — leaving the charge on and tipping nothing — penalises the staff rather than the kitchen.
Before Tax, Not After
In the United States and Canada the tip is conventionally worked out on the bill before sales tax. Tax is money the restaurant collects on behalf of the government; nobody served it to you. The reason this matters more than it used to is the card machine: those suggested percentages are almost always calculated on the taxed total, so pressing the 20% button costs more than 20%.
On a $80 meal with 8% sales tax, 20% of the pre-tax bill is $16. 20% of the taxed total is $17.28. It is not a scandal, but it is a consistent 8% more than you thought you were leaving, every time.
Everything That Is Not a Restaurant
A restaurant bill is the easy case, because at least the convention is a percentage. Most of the other situations where a tip is expected use a flat amount instead, and mixing the two up is how people end up leaving ten pounds for a coffee.
What follows is the American convention, because America is where most of these expectations come from and where they are strongest. In the United Kingdom, Australia and most of Europe the honest answer for nearly every line below is "nothing, or round up".
| Who | Customary in the US | The thing people get wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Food delivery | 15–20%, with a floor of about $5 | The delivery fee is not the tip; it goes to the company, not the driver. |
| Taxi or rideshare | 10–15% | Rounding up to the next note is normal and entirely acceptable on a short fare. |
| Hotel housekeeping | $2–5 per night | Leave it daily rather than in one lump at the end, because a different person cleans each day. |
| Bartender | $1–2 a drink, or 15–20% of the tab | Per drink is cheaper on a long night; percentage is cheaper on one round of cocktails. |
| Hairdresser or barber | 15–20% | If the owner cut your hair the tip is still customary, despite the old rule saying otherwise. |
| Counter service and coffee | Nothing expected | The tablet spinning round to face you is a prompt, not an obligation. |
Why the Suggested Amounts Keep Going Up
The screen that spins round to face you at the counter is doing something a tip jar never did. A jar is passive; a screen asks a direct question in front of the person serving you, with three buttons already chosen and the lowest of them higher than the rate that was normal a decade ago.
Two things follow from that. The first is that the default percentages drifted upwards, with 15, 18, 20 becoming 18, 20, 25 in a great many places, because nothing stops them drifting and the business setting them has no reason to pick the lower number. The second is that those percentages are usually calculated on the taxed total rather than the subtotal, so the 20% button is not 20% of anything you would recognise.
Neither is a scandal and neither is hidden. But the number on the button is a suggestion made by the business taking the money, which is a different thing from a convention, and the custom option is always there even when it takes an extra tap to find.
When the Service Was Genuinely Poor
In a country where the tip is the wage, withholding it punishes the server for things that are usually the kitchen's fault or the manager's. A slow table is rarely the fault of the person carrying the plates. The proportionate response to bad service is to tip at the low end of the range and say something to the manager, not to leave nothing and say nothing.
Where a British bill carries a service charge, asking for it to come off is the appropriate route when something went badly wrong. It goes through the restaurant rather than through the individual who carried your plates, which is the difference between a complaint and a punishment.
Working It Out Without a Phone
Ten per cent is the decimal point moved one place to the left. On £46.80 that is £4.68. Half of it again is five per cent, £2.34, so fifteen per cent is £7.02. Twenty is ten doubled. That covers every rate anyone uses, and it is quicker than unlocking a phone at a table of people waiting to leave.
Tip Calculator Questions
Do I tip on the total before or after tax?
A service charge is already on my bill. Do I still tip?
How do I work out a tip in my head?
Is it rude not to tip in Australia or Japan?
Should everyone pay the same tip, or tip on what they ordered?
What percentage should I use if I genuinely do not know?
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