How Much to Tip — and the 5-Second Way to Work It Out
Tipping anxiety is really arithmetic anxiety plus etiquette uncertainty. Both are solvable in a paragraph each.
The norms (US baseline)
| Situation | Typical tip |
|---|---|
| Restaurant, table service | 15–20% |
| Food delivery | 10–15% (min. a few dollars) |
| Bar, per drink | $1–2, or 15–20% on a tab |
| Taxi / rideshare | 10–15% |
| Hairdresser / barber | 15–20% |
| Hotel housekeeping | $2–5 per night |
Outside the US, norms differ sharply: in the UK a 10–12.5% service charge is often already on the bill (check before adding more), much of Europe rounds up modestly, and in Japan tipping can even read as rude. When abroad, the bill and local custom outrank any table on the internet.
The 5-second method
Move the decimal for 10%: an £84 bill → £8.40. Add half of that again for 15% (£12.60), or double it for 20% (£16.80). That’s the whole trick — no phone required, though the tip calculator adds the split and settles rounding disputes instantly.
Splitting without the argument
Compute tip on the whole bill first, then divide the total — splitting first and tipping individually produces six different answers and one awkward pause. Total ÷ people, done. If amounts were genuinely unequal, one person pays and everyone transfers — the maths stays clean and the friendship survives.
One honest note
The percentage is convention, not law — what matters is that it reflects the service and you can compute it confidently. The percentage guide has the underlying formulas if you want them cold.
Questions people ask
Do I tip on the pre-tax or post-tax amount?
US convention is pre-tax, and no one will object if you tip on the total — it’s slightly more generous and easier to compute.
What if service was genuinely poor?
Tipping less and briefly telling the staff or manager why is more useful than silently leaving nothing — servers can’t fix what they don’t hear about.