Finance

Tip calculator and bill splitter

Enter the bill, choose a tip percentage, and split it. Handles the awkward cases: uneven shares, rounding to whole notes, and service charges already on the bill.

If the restaurant already added service, enter it here — the tip is then calculated on the pre-service amount.
Each person pays
—
Bill—
Service charge—
Tip—
Total—

Every figure on this page is calculated in your browser. No amount you type is sent to a server, stored, or used to profile you.

How to use this tip calculator

Enter the bill, tap a tip percentage or type your own, and set the number of people. The per-person figure updates instantly. It is built for one-handed use at the table, so the number you actually need is the largest thing on the screen.

The service charge field

This is the field most tip calculators leave out, and it causes real overpayment. When a restaurant has already added a service charge — common in the UK, France, Italy and increasingly elsewhere, usually 12.5% — a naive calculator applies your tip to a total that already contains service. You end up tipping on the tip.

Enter the service charge percentage here and the tip is calculated on the pre-service bill instead. In most cases where service has already been added, the right additional tip is zero, and the correct use of this field is simply to see the true total you are being asked to pay.

The rounding options

Round each share up gives everyone a whole-number amount to hand over. Nobody deals in coins, and the small excess goes to the tip. This is the option for splitting cash.

Round the total up to the next 5 or 10 is the European habit: an €87.40 bill becomes €90. The calculator tells you what effective tip percentage that rounding produced, which is useful because rounding up a small bill can be a surprisingly generous tip and rounding up a large one can be almost nothing.

Splitting a bill fairly when the meals were not equal

An even split is fine when everyone ate similarly. It stops being fair when one person had a starter, a main and three drinks and another had a salad and tap water. The convention that avoids arguments:

  1. Each person totals their own items.
  2. Shared items — a bottle of wine, a table of sides — divide equally among the people who had them.
  3. Tax and tip are added proportionally, not equally. If your food came to 30% of the bill, you pay 30% of the tip.

To do that here, run the calculator once per person: enter their subtotal as the bill, keep the same tip percentage, and set the split to one. Adding a shared bottle of wine divided by four is quick arithmetic in comparison.

The exception is when the group has agreed in advance to split evenly. Then it splits evenly, and recalculating after the fact reads as bad faith regardless of who ate what.

Tipping norms, briefly and honestly

Tipping expectations vary enormously and the confident advice you find online is often out of date. Broad picture, worth verifying locally:

  • United States and Canada: 18–20% is now standard for table service, and it is not optional in practice — tipped staff are often paid a sub-minimum base wage on the assumption that tips make up the difference. 15% reads as dissatisfaction.
  • United Kingdom: 10–12.5%, and very often already added as a discretionary service charge. You are entitled to ask for it to be removed if service was poor. No tip at a pub bar.
  • Continental Europe: service is generally included by law. Rounding up, or leaving 5–10% for good service, is normal. American-style percentages are not expected.
  • Japan, South Korea, China: tipping is not customary and can cause genuine awkwardness. Do not do it in restaurants.
  • Australia and New Zealand: not expected, since hospitality wages are relatively high. 10% for exceptional service is a compliment, not an obligation.

These are norms, not rules, and they shift. When travelling, the reliable move is to observe what locals do or ask your accommodation on arrival.

What to tip on: before or after tax

Where tax is added at the till rather than included in menu prices — most of the United States and Canada — the traditional convention is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal, since the tax is not part of the service. In practice many people tip on the total because it is easier, and the difference on an $80 bill is a couple of dollars. Enter whichever figure you prefer as the bill amount; the calculator does not assume one for you.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I tip at a restaurant?

It depends entirely on where you are. In the United States and Canada, 18–20% is standard for table service because tipped staff are often paid a sub-minimum base wage. In the UK it is 10–12.5% and frequently already added. In much of continental Europe service is included and rounding up is enough. In Japan and China, tipping is not customary at all.

Should I tip on the pre-tax or post-tax amount?

Traditionally on the pre-tax subtotal, since tax is not part of the service. Many people tip on the total for simplicity, and the difference is small — around $2 on an $80 bill. Enter whichever figure you prefer as the bill.

Do I still tip if a service charge is on the bill?

Usually not. A service charge is the tip, already added. Enter its percentage in the service charge field so the calculator shows you the true total without stacking a second tip on top. If service was genuinely poor, in most countries you can ask for a discretionary charge to be removed.

How do I split a bill when people ordered different amounts?

Each person totals their own items, shared items divide among those who had them, and tax and tip are added proportionally rather than equally. Run the calculator once per person, using their subtotal as the bill and a split of one.

Is 15% still an acceptable tip in the US?

It has drifted. Fifteen percent was standard through the 1990s and 2000s, but 18–20% is now the expectation for table service, and 15% is read by many servers as a signal of dissatisfaction. Counter service and takeaway are a different matter, where no tip is still normal despite the prompts on payment terminals.

Does this work offline?

Yes. Once the page has loaded, it needs no connection — which is the point, since restaurant Wi-Fi is unreliable and roaming data is expensive. Add it to your home screen before travelling.