Tip Calculator
Work out the tip, split the bill and round per-person totals without phone-at-the-table math. 100% free, no signup. Everything runs in your browser.
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This tip calculator does the restaurant math while you are still holding the card reader: bill amount, tip percent, how many people are splitting, and you instantly get the tip, the total, and each person's share. Quick buttons cover 10, 15, 18, 20 and 25 percent, and a round-up option turns an awkward per-person amount like $23.87 into a clean $24 while showing you the effective tip percent that rounding produced.
It runs entirely in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and it keeps working with one bar of signal in a restaurant basement, which is exactly where you need it.
How to use
- Enter the bill amount from the check.
- Tap a quick tip button, or type any custom percentage.
- Set how many people are splitting the bill.
- Read the tip amount, the grand total, and what each person owes.
- Toggle round up if you want each share rounded to a clean number.
- Check the effective tip percent to see what the rounding actually did.
Why use our tip calculator?
I built this after a dinner where eight of us spent longer working out the split than we spent on dessert. The math is trivial, and that is precisely why nobody wants to do it at 10pm with sales tax, a shared appetizer, and one person who only had a salad. Type two numbers, tap one button, done, friendship intact.
The round-up feature is my favorite part because of what it shows rather than what it does. Rounding $23.87 up to $24 feels harmless, but the effective tip percent readout tells you the truth: you meant to tip 18 percent and you actually tipped about 18.6. Small, honest, and occasionally the exact number that settles a table argument about whether the round-up was generous or trivial.
As for how much to tip, I deliberately keep the tool from preaching. Norms genuinely differ: 18 to 20 percent is standard at US sit-down restaurants, while the UK and Australia lean toward 10 percent or a service charge already on the bill. When I want an authoritative US answer, I check the Emily Post Institute tipping guide, which covers everything from restaurants to hotel housekeeping.
One thing I refuse to do is silently decide whether you tip on the pre-tax or post-tax amount. People hold strong opinions on both sides. Enter whichever subtotal you believe in, and the percentages behave exactly as you expect, no hidden assumptions.
If percentages themselves are the sticking point, the percentage calculator handles every variant of that math, and the sales tax calculator untangles the tax line that sits just above the tip.
Who is this tool for?
The classic case is dinner with friends. Six people, a $214 bill, a 20 percent tip: that is $42.80 on top and $42.80 each all-in, and the calculator gets there before anyone has opened their banking app. Toggle round up and everyone owes a flat $43, with the effective percent shown so the table knows the rounding cost pennies, not dollars.
Visitors to the US use it constantly, because American tipping culture is genuinely confusing if you did not grow up with it. Nothing costs what the menu says: tax gets added at the register and the tip goes on top of that. Being able to preview the real total before ordering takes the sting out of the first week of a trip. Run the numbers a couple of times and the whole system stops feeling hostile, which is more than I can say for most first encounters with American restaurant checks.
It also earns its keep checking automatic gratuities. Many US restaurants add 18 or 20 percent for parties of six or more. Enter the pre-gratuity subtotal with the same percentage and confirm the math matches the line on the check, before you accidentally stack a second tip on top of the first.
Frequently asked questions
Etiquette sources say tipping on the pre-tax subtotal is perfectly acceptable, while plenty of people just tip on the total because it is the number in front of them. The difference on a typical meal is well under a dollar per person. Enter whichever amount matches your philosophy.
For table service, 18 to 20 percent is the widely accepted standard, with 25 for exceptional service. Counter service and takeout are more discretionary, often a dollar or two or 10 percent. The quick buttons cover that whole range.
No, and I will not pretend otherwise. It splits equally between the number of people you set. If someone only had a salad, run the tool twice with two subtotals. For genuinely tangled group bills, equal split plus goodwill is usually cheaper than the argument.
When you round each share up to a clean number, the extra cents are really additional tip. The effective percent recalculates what you actually tipped after rounding, so you see 18 percent became 18.6, not a mystery.
Generally no. If the bill already includes a service charge or automatic gratuity, that is the tip. Adding more is a choice for exceptional service, not an obligation, in the US or anywhere else.
Yes, it is pure math and does not care about currency. Enter pounds in London or dollars in Sydney and use a local percentage. If you are traveling and thinking in two currencies at once, the currency converter pairs nicely with it.
No. Every calculation runs in your browser. I never see your bill, your tip, or how many friends you ate with, and honestly a tip calculator that phones home would be a strange thing to build.