The ranges people actually use
What follows is convention, not law and not obligation. It is what a broad slice of American customers do often enough that a server, driver or stylist plans around it. Regions differ — a big city with a high cost of living tends to run at the top of every band, and rural and small-town practice tends to sit lower and rely more on cash. None of that makes anyone wrong.
| Situation | Conventional range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant, table service | 18-20%, with 15% read as the low end and 25% as generous | The range crept up over the last two decades. Older guidance said 15%; most people under 50 now start at 18 or 20. |
| Food delivery | 15-20%, with a floor of about $4-5 on a small order | Percentages break down on cheap orders. Driving four miles for a $9 sandwich costs the driver the same as for a $60 one. |
| Rideshare and taxi | 10-20%, or a flat $2-5 on a short trip | Many riders tip a flat amount rather than a percentage. Heavy bags or a long wait push it up. |
| Bar, drinks only | $1-2 per drink, or 20% on a running tab | A tip on the first round tends to be repaid in attention for the rest of the night. Cocktails that take three minutes to build sit at the top. |
| Hotel housekeeping | $3-5 per night, more for a suite or a family room | Leave it daily with a note, not in a lump at checkout — the person who cleaned Tuesday may not be working Friday. |
| Hairdresser, barber, nail tech | 15-20% of the service price | If the salon owner cut your hair, some people skip it and some do not. Both are normal. |
| Movers | $20-40 per mover for a half day, $40-60 each for a long or difficult day | Given to each person, not to the crew lead to divide. Stairs, heat and a piano all move it up. |
| Hotel bellhop, valet, curbside skycap | $2-5 per bag or per car | Cash, at the moment of service |
| Furniture or appliance delivery | $10-20 per person if they carry it in and set it up | Some companies prohibit it. If they decline, that is why. |
| Counter service — coffee, bakery, fast casual, a food truck | No settled convention. $1 or a small percentage is common; nothing is also common. | See below. This is the live dispute. |
If you want the arithmetic done rather than estimated in your head, the tip calculator handles the percentage and the rounding, and the bill splitter divides a group check without anyone doing long division on a napkin.
Pre-tax or post-tax
Convention says the percentage goes on the pre-tax subtotal. In practice, most people tip on whatever number is largest on the screen because that is the number in front of them, and in a state with a modest sales tax the difference on a $60 dinner is under a dollar. It is not worth an argument in either direction. What does matter is a bill where a large discount, a coupon or a comped item has cut the total: the work was the same, and the conventional move is to tip on what the meal would have cost.
The counter-service problem
A tip screen on a card reader costs a business almost nothing to enable, and it appeared at counters where nobody had ever tipped: hardware stores, self-serve frozen yogurt, oil-change bays, an airport kiosk where you carried your own sandwich to your own table. The suggested defaults are often higher than the old table-service norm, and they are presented at the one moment when a stranger is watching you decide.
Two honest positions exist and both have serious people behind them. One is that the counter worker is doing skilled work for pay that has not tracked the cost of living, the money reaches them, and a dollar is a dollar. The other is that the tip screen has been used to shift a labor cost onto the customer at the point of sale, that the pressure is deliberate, and that agreeing to it everywhere makes it permanent. This page is not going to tell you which one you hold. It will say that neither answer is rude, that the person at the register is not the one who installed the screen, and that hitting the no-tip button on a self-serve transaction is not a moral failure.
A workable personal rule, if you want one: tip when someone did something for you beyond handing over a finished item — made a drink to order, carried a tray, sat you down, came back to check. Skip it when you would have been just as well served by a vending machine. Then apply it consistently and stop relitigating it in line.
Service charges, and reading a bill before you tip
A growing number of restaurants add a line to the check — a service charge, a kitchen appreciation fee, a large-party gratuity, a health-and-wellness surcharge, a credit-card processing fee. These are not all the same thing, they are not all distributed the same way, and how they are treated is governed by a mix of federal and state rules that differ by state and keep changing. Do not take anything you read online, including this page, as a statement of what the law requires anywhere in particular.
| Line on the check | What to do |
|---|---|
| Automatic gratuity for a party of six or more | That is the tip. Adding more on top is optional and generally unnecessary unless the service was exceptional. |
| A percentage "service charge" with a tip line still open below it | Ask what the charge covers and whether it goes to the staff. Restaurants that have replaced tipping usually say so on the menu and on the check. |
| A flat surcharge with a stated purpose | Read it. Some are for staff benefits, some are cost recovery for the business. They are different things wearing similar language. |
| A tip already filled in on the merchant copy | Check the total you are signing. Errors here are usually genuine, and they are still yours to catch. |
If a bill confuses you, the useful question is one sentence and it is not confrontational: "Does the service charge go to the staff, or should I still leave a tip?" Anyone working the floor has been asked before.
When the service was bad
Separate the food from the service. A cold entree, a forty-minute kitchen and a menu price that went up are not the server's doing; being ignored for twenty minutes at a half-empty table is. If it is the kitchen, say something while there is still time to fix it and tip normally. If it is genuinely the service, most people drop to 10-15% rather than to nothing, because zero reads as an oversight and communicates nothing. Speaking to a manager, calmly, does more than a punitive tip ever will.
Leaving nothing plus a note is a genre with a bad history. If you feel strongly enough to write something, say it to a person or in a review with your name on it.
Cash, cards and who actually receives it
Card tips are traceable and generally arrive on a paycheck; cash arrives sooner. Many restaurants pool and share tips with bussers, runners and bar staff, so the person who took your order is often not keeping the whole amount either way. For housekeeping, valet, movers and anyone working outside a point-of-sale system, cash is not just preferred — it is frequently the only route that reaches them. Carrying a few small bills before a hotel stay or a moving day is worth the trip to an ATM.
Travel, and the reverse mistake
American tipping norms are not global. In Japan, tipping can cause genuine awkwardness and is often refused. Much of continental Europe rounds up or leaves small change on top of a bill that already includes service. Australia and New Zealand tip lightly and inconsistently. Tipping 20% abroad out of habit is not generous so much as confused, and in a few places it is mildly rude. Look up the country you are going to alongside the rest of your trip preparation, and budget for the local practice rather than exporting yours.
Building it into what you spend
Tipping is not a rounding error in a household budget. Two restaurant meals a week at 20% is a real monthly line, and the delivery habit is usually larger than people estimate because the tip sits alongside a delivery fee and a service fee that are not tips at all. If you are trying to get a handle on where money goes, count it as its own category rather than folding it invisibly into food — budgeting basics covers the mechanics, and the receipt splitter is useful when a shared bill has to come apart line by line afterward.
Two things can both be true: the ranges above are what people do, and the system that produced them is one a lot of Americans would not design again. Tip according to the convention, decline the parts of it you think are a shakedown, and skip the part where anyone is made to feel bad about either choice.
Questions people ask
Do I tip on the pre-tax or post-tax total?
The convention is pre-tax, and on a typical restaurant bill the difference is small enough that most people just use whatever number the screen shows. Where it matters more is a discounted bill — a coupon, a gift card, a comped dish. The server did the same work either way, so the usual practice is to tip on what the meal would have cost before the discount came off.
Am I supposed to tip at a coffee counter now?
There is no settled answer, and anyone who tells you there is one is describing their own habit. The tip screen showed up at counters where tipping was never customary, and the defaults it suggests are often higher than the old table-service norm. A consistent personal line works better than deciding in the moment: tip when someone made or carried something for you, skip it on a straight over-the-counter handoff. The employee did not install the screen, and declining is not an insult to them.
How much should I tip a delivery driver?
15-20% of the order, with a practical floor of about four or five dollars. Percentages fail on small orders — a driver covering four miles for a nine-dollar sandwich is doing the same work as for a sixty-dollar family order, so a flat minimum protects the low end. Bad weather, a long distance, walk-up apartments, or a driver who followed the delivery instructions properly are all reasons to go above it.
What about the mandatory service charge on my check?
Read the line before you add anything. An automatic gratuity for a large party is the tip and needs nothing on top. A percentage service charge with an open tip line underneath is worth one question to your server: does it go to staff, or is a tip still expected. How these charges must be labeled and distributed varies by state and has been changing, so do not assume the practice you saw in another city applies where you are.
Should I still tip if the service was bad?
Usually something, but less. Separate what the server controlled from what they did not: slow food, a hot dining room and menu prices are the kitchen and the owner, while being ignored at a half-empty table is the service. Most people drop to around 10-15% for genuinely poor service. Leaving nothing communicates nothing except that you might have forgotten, and if the problem is worth registering, saying it calmly to a manager reaches someone who can change it.