Tip Calculator

How the tip is worked out

A tip is the bill multiplied by the percentage: tip = amount × percentage ÷ 100. On a $64.80 dinner at 18%, that is $64.80 × 0.18 = $11.66, for a total of $76.46. The split, the rounding and the pre-tax option only change which amount is multiplied and how the result is shared out.

If you are working it out in your head, start from 10%, which is the bill with the decimal point moved one place left: $6.48 on $64.80. Double it for 20% ($12.96). Add half of it again for 15% ($9.72). For 18%, take 20% and knock off a fifth of the 10% figure. The calculator does the same arithmetic to the cent.

Splitting $76.46 three ways is where mental arithmetic usually goes wrong. It comes to $25.4867 each, which no one can pay. Three payments of $25.49 overpay by a cent and three of $25.48 leave the table two cents short; the exact answer is that two people pay $25.49 and one pays $25.48, and the calculator spells that out beneath the share so the payments add up to the bill exactly.

Tipping on the amount before tax, or on the total

In the US and Canada, sales tax is added at the bottom of the bill rather than included in menu prices. Etiquette guides generally say the tip is worked out on the subtotal before tax, on the reasoning that the tax is not part of the service. In practice many people tip on the total because it is the number in front of them, and that is simply a little more generous.

The difference is easy to see with numbers. On a $100 dinner in New York City, where the combined sales tax rate is 8.875%, the tax is $8.88. An 18% tip on the $100 subtotal is $18.00; on the $108.88 total it is $19.60. Tick the pre-tax option, enter the tax line from the receipt, and the tip is calculated on the subtotal while the tax is still added to what you pay.

Card terminals that suggest tip percentages may calculate them on the total including tax, and sometimes after other charges, so a suggested 20% can be a little more than 20% of the food and drink. If the base matters to you, this is the quickest way to check it.

Rounding, and what it really costs

Rounding is about convenience: nobody wants to leave $11.66 in cash or split a bill into shares ending in odd cents. There are three ways to do it, and they are not the same. Rounding the tip up turns $11.66 into $12.00 and leaves everything else alone. Rounding the total up makes the whole bill a whole number, so the tip absorbs whatever is needed. Rounding each person's share up does the same thing per person, which is the one to pick when everybody is paying separately.

Every option rounds up, never down, because rounding a tip down quietly cuts the percentage you chose. The calculator then reports the effect: how much the rounding added, and what the tip now is as a percentage. A $59.00 bill split between two people is $29.50 each; rounding each share up makes it $30 each, so the total is $60 and the tip on a $50 subtotal has gone from 18% to 20%. Either way, you see it before you pay.

The tool splits a bill evenly. If one person ordered the lobster and another a side salad, work out each person's items first and use the calculator on each part — an even split is only fair when the orders are roughly similar.

Tipping customs differ from country to country

Tipping norms are local customs, not rules, and they change over time; what follows describes common practice.

In the United States and Canada, tips are a large part of what restaurant servers earn. US federal law allows employers to pay tipped workers a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour, provided tips bring their pay up to the federal minimum wage, although several states — California and Washington among them — require the full state minimum wage before tips. Around 15–20% of the pre-tax bill is customary for table service, with 18–20% now common, and restaurants often add an automatic gratuity for large groups.

In the United Kingdom, many restaurants add a discretionary service charge, frequently 12.5% in London. If it is on the bill you do not add a tip on top, and because it is discretionary you can ask for it to be removed if the service was poor. Since October 2024, employers in Great Britain have been required by law to pass tips and service charges on to their workers in full.

In Australia and New Zealand tipping is not expected, though rounding up or leaving around 10% for good service is appreciated. In Japan tipping is not customary and money left on the table may be returned to you. In much of continental Europe service is included in the price — in France menu prices include service by law — and leaving small change or rounding up is a courtesy rather than an expectation. When in doubt, read the bill: if a service charge is already on it, the tip has been paid.