Tip calculator

How to use it

1. Enter the bill amount and choose a tip percentage.
2. Set how many people are splitting it.
3. Turn on rounding to round each share up to a whole unit.

In much of Europe the service charge is already on the bill

A discretionary service charge of 12.5% is common in London restaurants. It is discretionary in law and removable on request, and since the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 took effect in October 2024 employers must pass tips to staff in full. In France service is included by law and the printed figure is what you owe. In Italy a coperto is a per-person cover charge, not a gratuity.

Adding a percentage on top of a bill that already includes service is the commonest way to overpay abroad. Germany and Austria round up and state the total when handing over the card rather than leaving coins. The Netherlands and Scandinavia treat service as covered. In Japan tipping is uncommon enough that leaving change behind is more likely to cause confusion than pleasure.

The American percentage is wage structure, not generosity

The US federal tipped minimum cash wage is 2.13 dollars an hour, with tips expected to close the gap to the standard minimum. That is why 18 to 20% reads as expected rather than optional there, and why the convention calculates on the pre-tax subtotal, since the tax is not the server’s. Card terminals now commonly default to 18, 20 and 25% computed on the post-tax total, which quietly moves the figure upward.

Splitting introduces its own arithmetic. A bill rarely divides cleanly, so a remainder of a penny or two has to land on somebody. Rounding each share up rather than to the nearest unit means the pot collected meets or exceeds the bill, whereas rounding to nearest reliably leaves the table short. Where the split is uneven because people ordered differently, the tip should be apportioned in the same ratio as the food, not shared equally.

Questions