Tip Calculator

Work out the tip and split the bill properly: tip on the pre-tax subtotal or the total, split by item with tax and tip prorated, and get warned when a service charge is already on the bill.

Every convention this page applies is named in the result rather than assumed. Your numbers stay in this browser.

Enter the bill before tax and how many people are splitting it. Tax, an existing service charge, and the tip basis are all optional.

The bill

The subtotal, before sales tax and before any service charge.

Sets the customary tip rates, the currency, and whether service is normally included. Every default can be overridden below.

Tax and service charge

Read straight off the receipt. Use this or the rate above, not both.

Common in the UK and Europe, and standard for US parties of six or more. Where one is present, a further tip is usually not expected.

The tip

On a 100 dollar bill with 8.75% tax, a 20% tip is 20.00 pre-tax and 21.75 post-tax. Whichever you pick is named in the result.

Splitting the bill

Splitting by item shares tax, service and tip in proportion to what each person ordered. Fill in as many rows below as there are people.

Results

How to read this: the verdict describes how much room your numbers leave, not a decision or an offer. Change any input to see how much the result moves.

Assumptions and formula

This calculator applies the tip to whichever base you choose — the pre-tax subtotal or the post-tax total — names that choice in the result, and reports the tip as a percentage of both.

Money is held to the cent throughout and rounded once, at the point it is reported. Each person’s share of the tax, the service charge and the tip is allocated by largest remainder, so the individual amounts always add up to exactly the grand total rather than falling a cent short. An existing service charge never enters the tip base.

Worked example

A fixed-rate monthly repayment scenario produces a payment schedule that reduces principal until the balance reaches zero.

Frequently asked questions

Should I tip on the amount before or after tax?

The standard US convention is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal. On a $100 bill with 8.75% sales tax a 20% tip is $20.00 before tax and $21.75 after it, so the difference is a tip on the tax rather than on the service. Most calculators pick one basis silently and never say which. This page asks, names the basis it used in the result, and reports your tip as a percentage of both the subtotal and the post-tax total, because card terminals differ on which figure their suggested percentages refer to. It also warns you when a service charge is already on the bill, where a further tip is usually not expected.