Tip calculator
American practice is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal, though tipping on the total is common and nobody objects. On a $84.50 bill the difference at 18% is roughly a dollar. If the bill already carries a service charge, the service charge is the tip.
Multiply the bill by the tip percentage and divide by a hundred to get the tip, then add it to the bill for the total. Fifteen to twenty per cent is the usual range for table service in the United States; much of Europe rounds up instead, and in Japan tipping is not expected at all.
How to use it
A quick way to do twenty per cent in your head: move the decimal point one place left to get ten per cent, then double it. Eighty-four fifty gives 8.45, doubled to 16.90. For eighteen per cent, take the twenty per cent figure and subtract a tenth of it, so 16.90 less 1.69 is 15.21, which is exactly what the panel shows.
Every money row is rounded to the nearest cent for display, and on a split that rounding does not always close. The defaults are the clearest example: 99.71 between two people is 49.855, shown as 49.86 each, so two people paying the figure on screen hand over 99.72 and leave a cent on the table. It can go the other way just as easily. The same bill at 15 per cent split three ways totals 97.18 and shows 32.39 each, which collects 97.17 and lands a cent short. Nobody has ever minded, but if you want the total to come out exactly, give one person the remainder rather than trusting the displayed figure three times over.
Where the tip is calculated from is a separate question from what it should be. The percentage is applied to whatever number is in the bill field, so if you type the grand total from the bottom of the receipt, you are tipping on the tax as well. On an 84.50 total carrying 8 per cent sales tax the pre-tax subtotal is 78.24, and 18 per cent of that is 14.08 rather than 15.21. Just over a dollar, on this bill.
What people use it for
- Working out what each person hands over on a shared restaurant bill
- Deciding a tip on the pre-tax subtotal rather than on the total
- Checking whether a service charge on the bill already is the tip
- Settling a bar tab split between more people than turned up
- Landing on a round total by nudging the percentage rather than the sum
- Sanity-checking the suggested tips a card terminal prints on the slip
Questions
Convention says tip on the pre-tax amount, though tipping on the total is normal and the gap is small. This calculator applies the percentage to whatever number you type in, so it is your choice which one you enter.
About a dollar on this page’s default bill. At 8 per cent sales tax an 84.50 total is 78.24 before tax, and 18 per cent of that is 14.08 against 15.21 on the full amount.
Then the tip has been paid. A line reading service charge or gratuity means the staff have had their share, and anything further is optional.
Because each one is rounded to the nearest cent, and on the defaults that happens to round up. Two people owe 49.855 each, shown as 49.86, so the pair hand over 99.72 against a 99.71 total. It goes the other way just as easily: at 15 per cent split three ways the total is 97.18 and each share shows 32.39, which collects 97.17 and lands a cent short. Give the remainder to one person if you want it exact.
Run the calculator once per person on their own share of the bill, or work out the total here and divide by hand. There is no per-item split.
Yes, the split field takes any number from one upwards. Set it to one to see the whole tip and total without a split.
It is rounded to the nearest whole number, so 2.5 becomes 3. Half a person cannot pay a bill.
Because the tipping question is overwhelmingly an American one. The arithmetic is a percentage and a division, so the figures are correct in any currency; read the symbol as whatever you are paying in.
Fifteen to twenty per cent for table service, with eighteen a common middle. Counter service and takeaway carry no expectation, though a tip jar is normal.
Roughly a dollar or two a drink, or the same fifteen to twenty per cent on a tab. Ordering a round of complicated cocktails is usually tipped nearer the top of that.
Practice varies widely. Rounding up is common in much of Europe, ten per cent is typical in the UK when service is not included, and in Japan tipping can cause awkwardness rather than pleasure.
Nudge the percentage rather than the bill. Moving 18 to 18.3 on this bill lands the total on 99.96, and 18.5 takes it to 100.13, so the round figure sits between the two.
Not necessarily all of it. Many restaurants pool tips across the floor and the kitchen, and the split is set by the house rather than by you.
On what the meal would have cost. The work was the same whether or not you paid full price for it.
Cash reaches staff faster and without a processing fee, though it is harder to account for. Either is normal.
Usually yes: most card terminals calculate their suggestions from the charged total, tax included, and it is the usual reason a suggested percentage looks higher than you expected.
No. The bill, the percentage and the split stay in this page and are not sent anywhere.