Tip Calculator
Split a US check with sales tax, a tip and any service charge already on it — then see what rounding each share to a whole dollar actually collects, and the tip percentage the table really leaves.
$
%
%
%
$27.00
Exact share $26.68 · rounded up to the next $1
$16.60
19.53% of the pre-tax bill · you set 18%
$108.00
$85.00 bill + $6.40 tax + $16.60 tip
$1.30
$106.70 on the check · the extra lands on the tip
4 shares of $27.00 collect $108.00 — $1.30 more than the $106.70 on the check. The extra lands on the tip, which becomes 19.53% of the pre-tax bill.
What each rounding step costs
| Round to | Each pays | Over / short | Tip becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact cent | $26.68 | $0.02 | 18.02% |
| $0.05 | $26.70 | $0.10 | 18.12% |
| $0.25 | $26.75 | $0.30 | 18.35% |
| $0.50 | $27.00 | $1.30 | 19.53% |
| $1 | $27.00 | $1.30 | 19.53% |
| $5 | $30.00 | $13.30 | 33.65% |
How much to tip in the US
| Service | Customary tip | On this bill |
|---|---|---|
| Sit-down restaurant | 15–20% of the pre-tax bill | $12.75–$17.00 |
| Buffet | 10% of the pre-tax bill | $8.50 |
| Bar tab | $1–2 per drink, or 15–20% | $12.75–$17.00 |
| Food delivery | 10–15%, or $2–5 for pizza | $8.50–$12.75 |
| Takeout | No obligation; 10% for extra service | $8.50 |
| Taxi or rideshare | 15–20%, minimum $1 | $12.75–$17.00 |
| Hair salon or barber | 15–20% | $12.75–$17.00 |
| Counter service or tip jar | No obligation | — |
The arithmetic
Bill before tax: $85.00
Sales tax 7.53% × $85.00 = $6.40
Tip base: $85.00, the bill before tax
Tip 18% × $85.00 = $15.30
Check: $85.00 + $6.40 + $15.30 = $106.70
$27.00 × 4 = $108.00, $1.30 more than the check
Already left a tip and want to know what percentage it was? Use the percentage calculator.
This calculator is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice.
Tip calculator. What each person pays, and the tip the rounding leaves.
A tip calculator turns a bill, a sales-tax rate and a party size into the amount each person hands over — tip added, share rounded. It then closes the arithmetic that rounding opens: what the shares collect together, how far that sits from the check, and the tip percentage the table ends up leaving.
Bill, Check, and What Rounding Does to the Tip
A tip calculator answers one question — what does each person hand over — from three numbers: the bill before tax, the tip percentage and how many people are paying. Sales tax is the fourth. At 7.53%, the US population-weighted average combined state and local rate the Tax Foundation published for midyear 2026, an $85.00 bill carries $6.40 of tax before a cent of tip is added. An 18% tip on the pre-tax bill is $15.30, the check comes to $106.70, and four people owe $26.68 each.
Two words do different jobs here, and the fields on the page keep them apart. The bill is the pre-tax subtotal, which is what the field marked Bill before tax takes. The check is everything the restaurant is owed: bill plus tax plus tip, plus a service charge when one is printed on it. Etiquette guidance is written against the first of the two. The Emily Post Institute's general tipping guide gives "15-20%, pre-tax" for wait service at a sit-down restaurant, which is why the calculator opens on the pre-tax base and measures its norms against the bill rather than the check.
Then the table rounds. Four shares of $26.68 are awkward in cash and awkward on a card, so people push each share up to the next whole dollar: $27.00. Four of those collect $108.00 against a check of $106.70, which is $1.30 more than the restaurant is owed. That money does not come back as change — it lands on the tip. The $15.30 the table meant to leave becomes $16.60, and 18% becomes 19.53% of the pre-tax bill. Both numbers sit on screen without any interaction: the first card carries the rounded share with the exact one underneath it, the second reports the tip actually left, the third the total collected, and the fourth the gap, whose label changes with the sign — Over the check, Short of the check, or Splits exactly.
Once the shares settle on a whole dollar, the choice that felt important stops changing the answer. Tipping on the post-tax amount instead of the pre-tax bill raises the tip from $15.30 to $16.45, a difference of $1.15 — and both settle on $27.00 a head and 19.53%. A 15% tip does the same thing from the other side: its check is $104.15 and its exact share $26.04, and rounding up still lands on $27.00 and 19.53%. On a shared check the rounding step can move the tip further than a point or two of percentage does.
A service charge belongs in a separate box, and the calculator keeps it there. IRS Rev. Rul. 2012-18 describes a restaurant whose menu "specifies that an 18% charge will be added to all bills for parties of 6 or more customers" and rules that "the 18% charge is not a tip", because the customer had no unrestricted right to set the amount. The Department of Labor's 29 CFR 531.55 says the same of "a compulsory charge for service, such as 15 percent of the amount of the bill". Neither figure is a rate anyone is obliged to use — one federal source illustrates with 18%, the other with 15%. What both establish is that money the house dictates is a service charge rather than a tip, so the amount typed into Service charge already on the check is added to the check and never to the base the tip is calculated on.
Ten Settings on the Same $85.00 Bill, and the Tip Each One Leaves
| Setting on the $85.00 bill | Exact share | Each pays | Against the check | Tip becomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18% pre-tax, 4 people, rounded up to $1 | $26.68 | $27.00 | $1.30 over | 19.53% |
| Same, tipping on the post-tax amount | $26.96 | $27.00 | $0.15 over | 19.53% |
| Same, at 15% instead of 18% | $26.04 | $27.00 | $3.85 over | 19.53% |
| Same, at 20% | $27.10 | $28.00 | $3.60 over | 24.24% |
| Rounded to the exact cent | $26.68 | $26.68 | $0.02 over | 18.02% |
| Rounded down to the dollar | $26.68 | $26.00 | $2.70 short | 14.82% |
| Rounded up to $5 | $26.68 | $30.00 | $13.30 over | 33.65% |
| Two people instead of four | $53.35 | $54.00 | $1.30 over | 19.53% |
| Six people instead of four | $17.78 | $18.00 | $1.30 over | 19.53% |
| Counter service, no tip set at all | $22.85 | $23.00 | $0.60 over | 0.71% |
Seven Checks, Worked End to End
Four people, an $85.00 bill: the state the page opens in
The rate defaults are real US figures, and on an ordinary check they produce the state a group actually lands in. The seven lines in the collapsed fold read like this:
- Bill before tax: $85.00
- Sales tax 7.53% × $85.00 = $6.40
- Tip base: $85.00, the bill before tax
- Tip 18% × $85.00 = $15.30
- Check: $85.00 + $6.40 + $15.30 = $106.70
- $106.70 ÷ 4 = $26.68 each; rounded up to the next $1 that is $27.00
- $27.00 × 4 = $108.00, $1.30 more than the check
The sentence under the cards states the consequence in one line: 4 shares of $27.00 collect $108.00 — $1.30 more than the $106.70 on the check. The extra lands on the tip, which becomes 19.53% of the pre-tax bill. The server receives $16.60 where an 18% tip on its own would have left $15.30.
Pre-tax or post-tax: $1.15 apart, and the same $27.00 each
The setting people argue about most is the one a rounded split erases. Switch the toggle from Pre-tax to Post-tax and the tip is charged on $91.40 instead of $85.00, so it rises from $15.30 to $16.45. The check moves from $106.70 to $107.85 and the exact share from $26.68 to $26.96.
Round each share up to the next dollar and both roads end at $27.00 a head, $108.00 collected, and a tip of 19.53% of the pre-tax bill. The only thing that changed is the gap: $1.30 over on the pre-tax setting, $0.15 over on the post-tax one. Where the argument does bite is at the exact cent, where the two shares differ by 29 cents, and on a check paid by one person, where nothing absorbs the difference.
Rounding down: three people pay $26.00 and one pays $28.70
Rounding up is the default direction, and the one that raises the tip. Set the direction to Down instead and each of the four shares drops to $26.00. That collects $104.00 against a $106.70 check — $2.70 short — and the page stops describing an even split, because there is no longer one: three shares of $26.00 plus one of $28.70 cover the check.
The tip falls with it, from $15.30 to $12.60, which is 14.82% of the pre-tax bill instead of 18%. Down is the direction to use when one person at the table is settling the difference on a card and everybody else is handing over cash, because it names what that last person owes.
The $5 step: a $26.68 share becomes $30.00 and the tip hits 33.65%
Rounding to $5 sounds like the same idea as rounding to $1, scaled up for convenience. On this bill it turns a $26.68 share into $30.00. Four of those collect $120.00 against a $106.70 check, $13.30 over, and the tip lands at 33.65% of the pre-tax bill.
The first table on the page prices every step against the current check, which is what makes the jump visible before anyone pays it:
| Round to | Each pays | Over / short | Tip becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact cent | $26.68 | $0.02 | 18.02% |
| $0.05 | $26.70 | $0.10 | 18.12% |
| $0.25 | $26.75 | $0.30 | 18.35% |
| $0.50 | $27.00 | $1.30 | 19.53% |
| $1 | $27.00 | $1.30 | 19.53% |
| $5 | $30.00 | $13.30 | 33.65% |
The $0.50 and $1 rungs give the same answer here, which happens whenever the exact share sits in the top half of a dollar: $26.68 rounds up to $27.00 either way. The quarter is the step to pick when 18% was the intention and a whole dollar overshoots it — $26.75 leaves 18.35%, thirty cents over the check.
An 18% service charge, with and without a tip on top
Large parties often arrive at a check that already carries a charge, so the page has a field for it. Type 18 into Service charge already on the check, leave the tip at 0, and the total is $106.70 — the same figure an 18% tip with no service charge produces, because the arithmetic is identical while the legal status of the money is not. Each of four people pays $27.00 and the sentence under the cards notes that under IRS rules a service charge is not a tip.
Leave the 18% tip in place on top of that charge and the check climbs to $122.00. Each person now pays $31.00, the table collects $124.00, and the money handed over above bill and tax comes to $32.60 — 38.35% of the pre-tax bill. Adding a customary tip to a check that already carries one is the most expensive move this page can show you: it puts $15.30 more on the check than the plain 18% tip does, where even the $5 rounding step adds $13.30.
New York City at 8.875%, and the double-the-tax shortcut
New York City's combined rate is 8.875% — the city's 4.5%, New York State's 4%, and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375%, as the city's Department of Finance sets it out. That rate is what makes the double-the-tax shortcut work there: 8.875% doubled is 17.75%, which lands a quarter of a point under the 18% this calculator opens on.
Enter 8.875 into the sales-tax field on the same $85.00 bill and the tax becomes $7.54, the check $107.84 and the exact share $26.96. Rounding up to the dollar costs the table $0.16 in total and leaves 18.19%, the tightest fit on this page between an 18% intention and a whole-dollar split between what a group intended and what it paid. The shortcut travels badly, though: at the national average of 7.53%, doubling the tax leaves 15.06%, which is the bottom of the customary range rather than the middle.
A table of eight on $250.00, and a solo $19.99 lunch
Party size changes how much the rounding costs, and it does not change it in the direction most people expect. Eight people on a $250.00 bill face $18.83 of tax and $45.00 of tip, a check of $313.83 and an exact share of $39.23. Rounded up to $40.00 each, the table collects $320.00 — $6.17 over — and leaves 20.47% instead of 18%. The overshoot has more room to grow with the number of people, because every share rounds up separately: eight shares can each absorb up to a dollar where four can absorb four, so eight shares can each absorb up to a dollar.
At the other end, set People sharing to 1 and the calculator is rounding the whole check rather than a share. A $19.99 lunch carries $1.51 of tax and $3.60 of tip for a check of $25.10; rounding that up to $26.00 leaves $4.50 on a $19.99 bill, or 22.51%. The same 90 cents of rounding is worth 4.5 points of tip on a lunch that size, where the $6.17 the table of eight overpaid was worth 2.5 points on their $250.00. Small checks are where the quarter step earns its place.
The Arithmetic, Including the Part That Runs After the Split
- = The bill before tax — the subtotal the first field asks for, $85.00 in the state the page opens in.
- = The sales-tax rate as a decimal. The field opens at 7.53%, so t is 0.0753; New York City's 8.875% is 0.08875.
- = The tip rate as a decimal, applied to the bill before tax by default. 18% means p is 0.18.
- = How many people are sharing the check. Set it to 1 and the whole check gets rounded.
- = The rounding step, held in cents: 1, 5, 25, 50, 100 or 500 — the exact cent through to the five-dollar rung. The direction toggle decides whether each share moves up to the next multiple of u, down to the previous one, or to the nearer of the two.
Four multiplications and one division produce the number on the first card. Tax is 7.53% of the bill, $6.40. The tip base is the bill itself on the pre-tax setting, or bill plus tax on the post-tax one. The tip is 18% of that base, $15.30. The check is the three added together, $106.70, and the exact share is the check divided by the party:
Every amount is held and rounded in cents, so that share is published as $26.68 and rounded to the chosen step from the unrounded value, never from an already-rounded one. The rounding step u is one of six: the exact cent, $0.05, $0.25, $0.50, $1 or $5. The direction toggle decides whether the share moves up to the next multiple, down to the previous one, or to whichever is nearer.
The second half of the formula is the part that stops most calculations too early. Whatever the group collects above the bill and the tax is the tip, whether anyone intended it or not:
On the opening state that is $108.00 collected minus $85.00 of bill and $6.40 of tax, so $16.60 of tip. As a share of the pre-tax bill:
The identity is what makes the two directions readable at a glance. Round down and the same subtraction returns $12.60, or 14.82%. Round to $5 and it returns $28.60, or 33.65%. It also explains why a service charge shows up inside the effective percentage: the money is on the check, so the table is handing it over, and the page counts everything above bill and tax as what the servers were paid.
How to Use the Tip Calculator at the Table
Nine controls sit in four rows, and only the first two need touching. Everything else has a working default, so a bill and a party size produce a complete, explained answer on their own.
1. Enter the bill before tax and how many people are sharing it. This is the subtotal printed above the tax line, not the total at the bottom of the receipt.
2. Set the sales tax if you know it. The field opens at 7.53%, the US population-weighted average combined rate, and your receipt will show the exact local figure — 8.875% in New York City, 10.13% on average in Louisiana, and nothing at the state level in Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon. Leave Service charge already on the check at 0 unless a percentage is actually printed on your check.
3. Pick what you are tipping for and how much. The Tipping for menu writes a customary preset into the tip field: choosing Buffet sets 10%, Food delivery sets 15%, Counter service or tip jar sets 0%. Typing your own number flips the menu to Custom. The Pre-tax and Post-tax buttons decide which amount the percentage applies to.
4. Choose the rounding step and the direction. Up is the default and the usual table behavior; Down is what you want when one person is covering the remainder; Nearest keeps the group closest to the tip you set. The step runs from the exact cent to $5.
Four cards answer at once, two by two on a wide screen and stacked on a phone. The first is what each person pays, with the exact unrounded share printed beneath it and a copy button beside it. The second is the tip actually left, in dollars, with the effective percentage and the percentage you set below it. The third is the total the group collects, broken into bill, tax and tip. The fourth is the gap, and its label changes with the sign: Over the check, Short of the check, or Splits exactly.
Under the cards, one sentence at full size states the reconciliation in plain English rather than as a caption. If the shares fall short, it names the last share explicitly. If the step you picked more than doubles the exact share, it says the step is wrong and to pick a smaller one.
Two tables follow. What each rounding step costs is open by default and always shows six rows, one per step, priced against the check on screen — what each person pays, how far that lands from the check, and what the tip becomes. How much to tip in the US is collapsed and lists eight service categories with their customary ranges and what those ranges come to on the bill you typed in. That third column is a straight percentage of the bill, so it does not enforce the per-item minimums the labels carry: at a $2.00 fare the taxi row still shows a percentage, while its label reads 15-20%, minimum $1. Below both, a fold called The arithmetic prints seven monospace lines with your own numbers, from the bill through to the collected total.
The address bar tracks every control, so the link is the split. It carries nine parameters — bill, people, tax, service, tip, base, roundTo, roundDir and included — and omits any that are still at their default, which keeps a shared link short: send ?bill=142.60&people=6 and the recipient opens on your bill and party with everything else at its default. The rounding step travels in cents, so ?roundTo=25 is the quarter and ?roundTo=500 is the $5 step. If you have already paid and want the percentage you left rather than the one you meant to leave, the percentage calculator does that division directly.
Mistakes That Cost Real Money on a Shared Check
- Reading the first card as the exact share. It says $27.00 because rounding up to the dollar is switched on, and the unrounded $26.68 is printed directly beneath it. A calculator that answers $26.68 for the same inputs is not disagreeing with this page; it is stopping before the rounding step.
- Rounding to $5 because it is easier than rounding to $1. On an $85.00 bill that pushes each share from $26.68 to $30.00 and the tip from 18% to 33.65%. The step is the most powerful control on the page and the one people set without thinking. Check the first table before choosing anything above a dollar.
- Tipping on top of a service charge without reading what it is. An 18% charge plus an 18% tip puts the table at 38.35% of the pre-tax bill. The IRS treats an automatic charge as a service charge rather than a tip, so it is money the house has already collected into its own receipts; anything you add is a second decision.
- Treating 18% as an official rate. It is not one. Rev. Rul. 2012-18 uses 18% as an example of a large-party charge and 29 CFR 531.55 uses 15% as an example of the same thing. Two federal documents, two illustrative figures, no legal minimum.
- Forgetting that rounding down leaves somebody holding the difference. Four shares of $26.00 collect $104.00 against a $106.70 check. Somebody pays $28.70. If the group agreed on round numbers and nobody agreed to be that person, the check does not get settled.
- Reading the customary-range column as a floor. It multiplies the published percentage by the bill on screen and nothing else, so on a very small check the taxi and bar rows can print a figure below the minimum their own labels state — 15-20%, minimum $1 for a cab, $1-2 per drink at a bar. On small checks the flat minimum wins.
- Arguing about pre-tax versus post-tax on a check that is about to be rounded. The two settings differ by $1.15 of tip on an $85.00 bill and land on the same $27.00 a head once each share goes up to the next dollar. On a check paid by one person, or split to the exact cent, the difference survives; on a rounded group split it usually does not.
The Words on the Receipt and on the Page
Bill
The pre-tax subtotal: food and drink, nothing added. It is what the first field takes and what US etiquette guidance is written against — Emily Post's "15-20%, pre-tax" for wait service means 15-20% of this number.
Check
The full amount owed: bill plus sales tax plus tip, plus a service charge when one is printed. It is the figure divided among the party, and the one the gap on the fourth card is measured against.
Exact share
The check divided by the number of people, before any rounding. On the opening state it is $26.68 for four people, and it sits under the headline figure so a group can see what rounding added.
Rounding step
The multiple each share is pushed to: the exact cent, $0.05, $0.25, $0.50, $1 or $5. Combined with the direction — up, down or nearest — it decides what each person actually hands over.
Over the check
The difference between what the shares collect and what the check owes, shown unsigned with a label that names the direction. Money over the check goes to the server as extra tip; money short of it has to come from somebody at the table.
Effective tip
Everything the group hands over above the bill and the tax, expressed as a percentage of the pre-tax bill. It is the tip the server receives, which is not always the percentage anyone chose: four shares rounded up to $27.00 turn an 18% intention into 19.53%.
Tip base
The amount the tip percentage multiplies. Pre-tax uses the bill; Post-tax uses bill plus sales tax. A service charge is never part of it, because a charge the house sets is not a tip.
Service charge
An amount an establishment adds to the check itself, such as an automatic gratuity for a large party. IRS Rev. Rul. 2012-18 holds that such a charge "is not a tip" because the customer cannot set the amount, and 29 CFR 531.55 treats it as part of the employer's gross receipts.
Sales tax
The state and local tax added to the bill. The Tax Foundation put the US population-weighted average combined rate at 7.53% at midyear 2026; five states levy none at the state level, and New York City reaches 8.875%.
Tipping and Splitting — Frequently Asked Questions
How much should you tip at a sit-down restaurant?
15-20% of the pre-tax bill, according to the Emily Post Institute's general tipping guide. On an $85.00 bill that is $12.75 to $17.00. The calculator opens at 18%, just above the midpoint of that range, and prints the range against whatever bill you type in.
Do you tip on the pre-tax or the post-tax total?
Etiquette says pre-tax: Emily Post's guide specifies "15-20%, pre-tax" for wait service. The difference is small — on an $85.00 bill at 7.53% tax, an 18% tip is $15.30 pre-tax against $16.45 post-tax. Round the shares to a whole dollar and both land on $27.00 each.
If everyone rounds up to the next dollar, where does the extra money go?
Onto the tip. Four shares of $27.00 on a $106.70 check collect $108.00, and nobody gets the extra $1.30 back as change — the server keeps it. An 18% intention becomes 19.53% of the pre-tax bill, which is what the second card reports as the tip actually left. The gap and that percentage get cards of their own because on a shared check, rounding can move the tip further than a point or two of percentage does.
How do you split a check that doesn't divide evenly?
Three ways, and the calculator prices all of them. Round every share up to the next dollar and the group overpays a little, with the surplus going to the server: $27.00 each on a $106.70 check. Round to the nearest cent and the split is as fair as arithmetic allows, but it does not come out clean either — four shares of $26.68 collect $106.72, two cents over, because a share of 26.675 has to land on a cent. Round down and one person covers the remainder: three shares of $26.00 plus one of $28.70. Those are the three directions the page offers, and the one you pick moves the tip by several points.
What happens if the rounded shares come up short of the check?
The page says so and names the missing amount. Set the direction to Down on the opening state and four shares of $26.00 collect $104.00 against a $106.70 check, $2.70 short. The sentence under the cards then reads as three shares of $26.00 plus one of $28.70, and the tip drops from 18% to 14.82%. Short is a legitimate setting rather than an error — it is how a table pays in cash while one person settles the balance on a card.
There is already an 18% gratuity on the check. Do I tip on top of it?
You are not expected to. The IRS treats an automatic charge as a service charge and not a tip, so it is the restaurant's money rather than a gratuity — 29 CFR 531.55 makes a compulsory charge part of the employer's gross receipts, and whether any of it reaches the server is the house's decision. Whether the service earned more on top of it is your call, and the arithmetic of that call is steep: 18% on top of an 18% charge takes the same $85.00 bill from $106.70 to $122.00, and the total handed over above bill and tax to 38.35% of the bill.
Is an automatic gratuity legally a tip?
No. IRS Rev. Rul. 2012-18 states that an 18% charge added to bills for parties of six or more "is not a tip", because the customer had no unrestricted right to determine the amount. The Department of Labor's 29 CFR 531.55 reaches the same conclusion for "a compulsory charge for service, such as 15 percent of the amount of the bill". The two documents illustrate with different percentages, which is the clearest evidence that neither sets a rate.
Does doubling the sales tax give you the right tip?
Only where the tax is close to 10%. New York City's combined rate is 8.875%, so doubling it gives 17.75%, a quarter of a point under 18%. At 7.53%, the US average, the same trick leaves 15.06% — the bottom of the customary range. In a state with no sales tax it gives nothing at all.
How much should I tip for delivery, a buffet, a taxi or a haircut?
This page follows the Emily Post Institute: 10-15% for food delivery, or $2-5 for a pizza; 10% of the pre-tax bill at a buffet; 15-20% of the fare for a taxi, with $1 as a floor; 15-20% at a hair salon; $1-2 per drink or 15-20% of the tab at a bar. Published guides disagree, and the gap is worth knowing about rather than averaging away: Kiplinger's 2026 tipping guide puts taxi and rideshare at 10%-20%, which reaches five points below the figure this page prints. Pick the service from the menu and the customary range gets written into the tip field and priced against your bill.
Do I have to tip at a counter or for takeout?
Emily Post says there is no obligation for either, with 10% suggested for takeout only when the order is large, complicated, or brought out to the curb. Choosing Counter service or tip jar sets the tip to 0% and the page still totals bill and tax. One thing to watch: at 0% on an $85.00 order split four ways, rounding each share up to the dollar still hands over $0.60, which the page reports as a 0.71% tip.
Why does rounding to $5 push the tip so high?
Because the step is applied to each share, not to the check. A $26.68 share rounds to $30.00, and four of those collect $120.00 against a $106.70 check — $13.30 over, or 33.65% of the pre-tax bill. Doubling the step does not double the cost of rounding, it multiplies it by whatever it takes to reach the next multiple. The first table shows all six steps side by side so the jump is visible before anyone pays it.
How do I work out what percentage I already tipped?
Divide the tip by the pre-tax bill. Leave $20.00 on an $85.00 bill and you tipped 23.53%. If the receipt only shows the total you paid, subtract the bill and the tax first, then divide. The percentage calculator handles that division directly, and this page handles the forward direction.
How accurate is this tip calculator?
Every amount is held in cents and rounded the way a receipt is, so the tax on an $85.00 bill at 7.53% is $6.40 rather than a fraction of a cent more. The exact share is not rounded before the rounding step is applied, which is what keeps the six rungs of the table consistent with each other. Halves round the way US currency displays them: a share of 26.675 shows as $26.68. Any per-person figure the tool prints is an exact multiple of the step you chose.
Is this tip calculator free to use?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no account and no app, which is the point when the check is on the table and four people are looking at their phones. The rate defaults are published figures — the 7.53% tax and the 18% tip both have a source listed below the tool, and the calculator can be embedded on another site.
Can I send the split to the rest of the table?
Yes. The address bar tracks all nine controls, so copying the URL sends the exact state: ?bill=142.60&people=6 opens on that bill and party size. Parameters still at their default are left out to keep the link short, so anything you did not change resolves to the same default on the other phone. The rounding step travels in cents — ?roundTo=25 is the quarter, ?roundTo=500 is the $5 step.
Sources & References
- Emily Post Institute, General Tipping Guide — the customary ranges behind this calculator's eight service categories and its 15–20% sit-down restaurant default
- Pew Research Center, "Tipping Culture in America" (11,945 US adults surveyed Aug. 7–27, 2023) — the finding that 57% say they would tip 15% or less for an average meal at a sit-down restaurant, which is why this page names the disagreement between etiquette guides and on-screen presets instead of picking one silently
- Pew Research Center, "Services Americans do and don't tip for" — how tipping frequency varies by service, behind the takeout and counter-service rows that carry no obligation
- IRS, Tip recordkeeping and reporting — the distinction between a tip and a service charge that the calculator's service-charge branch relies on
- IRS, Rev. Rul. 2012-18 (Internal Revenue Bulletin 2012-26) — the ruling that an automatic large-party gratuity is a service charge and not a tip, and the source of the 18% figure
- 29 CFR 531.55 — the Department of Labor regulation treating a compulsory service charge as part of the employer's gross receipts rather than as a tip
- Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, Midyear 2026 — the US population-weighted average combined rate this calculator opens on
- New York City Department of Finance, NYS sales tax — the 8.875% combined city rate behind the "double the tax" rule of thumb