Tip
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Tip Calculator
Enter the bill, pick a tip rate, and split it between as many people as you like. What makes this one different: you choose whether the tip is figured on the pre-tax subtotal or the after-tax total, and every rounding decision is written down under the result instead of hidden.
Quick answer: on an $84.00 bill with 8.5% tax, an 18% tip on the pre-tax subtotal is $15.12, the total is $106.26, and three people pay $35.42 each. Try your own numbers below — the defaults are exactly this example.
Tip is calculated on
The long-standing etiquette convention is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal — the tax goes to the government, not to your server. Tipping on the post-tax total is also common and a little more generous; this switch changes the base, nothing else.
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Tax
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Grand total
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Tip per person
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Total per person
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Pre-tax or after-tax? The one choice that changes the answer
Most tip calculators quietly pick a base for you. The traditional etiquette answer — the one in Emily Post and most tipping guides — is that the tip is a percentage of the pre-tax subtotal, because tax is money you owe the government, not a service the restaurant provided. Plenty of people tip on the after-tax total anyway, out of convenience or generosity, and nobody at the table can tell the difference from the receipt.
The gap is real but small. On the $84 example above, tipping 18% after tax means figuring the percentage on $91.14 instead of $84.00, which gives a $16.41 tip and a $107.55 total — about $1.29 more. TipCalc shows both bases with a switch so the choice is yours and the arithmetic matches the choice.
How the rounding works
Money here is rounded half-up to the nearest cent at the step where it is computed: the tax first, then the tip on whichever base you selected, then the grand total as bill + tax + tip. When a total is split, the shares are penny-exact — if $106.26 is divided three ways it comes out even, but when it does not, the leftover cents go one each to the first shares, so the parts always add back up to the total exactly. If you switch on round-up, the total is lifted to the next whole dollar and the difference is added to the tip, labelled as round-up in the formula line. No silent fudging, in either direction.
Need the percentage, not the tip?
If you are doing general percentage maths rather than a restaurant bill — a discount, a tax rate, a percentage change — a dedicated percentage calculator handles those question shapes with the working shown, and this site stays focused on tips and splitting.
Related tools on TipCalc
Reverse Tip Calculator
Already paid? Enter the bill and the total you handed over and find the tip rate you actually left.
Split Bill Calculator
Split evenly, or by shares when one person ordered the lobster and someone else had a salad.
Tipping Guide
Usual ranges by situation — restaurants, delivery, bars, salons, taxis and hotels.
Tipping by Country
How customs differ around the world, from the US 15–20% norm to Japan, where tipping is generally not done.
Tip on $100
The full table for a $100 bill at 10–30%, plus per-person splits.
Tip on $50
The full table for a $50 bill at 10–30%, plus per-person splits.
Common tip amounts, answered
Tip on $50 — 20% is $10.00, total $60.00 · Tip on $75 — 20% is $15.00, total $90.00 · Tip on $100 — 20% is $20.00, total $120.00 · Tip on $200 — 20% is $40.00, total $240.00. Each page has the full 10–30% table and the split for two, three and four people.
Frequently asked questions
- How much should I tip at a restaurant?
- For sit-down service in the US, 18–20% of the pre-tax subtotal is the current norm for good service, 15% is acceptable, and 25% or more signals an exceptional experience. The tipping guide covers other situations, from delivery to hotel housekeeping.
- Should the tip be calculated before or after tax?
- Etiquette says before tax; habit often says after. The difference on a typical check is a dollar or two, and it always favours the server when you use the after-tax base. This calculator lets you switch bases and shows the tip each way instead of deciding for you.
- Why don't the per-person amounts always match to the cent?
- Because totals rarely divide evenly. $100 split three ways is $33.34, $33.33 and $33.33 — one share carries the leftover cent. TipCalc assigns leftover cents to the first shares and says so, so the shares always sum back to the exact total.
- What does "round the total up" actually change?
- It lifts the grand total to the next whole dollar — $106.26 becomes $107.00 — and adds the $0.74 difference to the tip. It is a tidy way to be slightly more generous without doing mental arithmetic at the table.
- Is my bill stored anywhere?
- No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent to or kept on a server. See the privacy page.
TipCalc Pro — coming soon ($9/month).
Planned: saved group splits you can reuse every Friday, itemised receipt splitting (assign dishes to people), and shareable split links. The everyday calculator above stays free, and Pro is not on sale yet.