Tip Calculator

{{ effectiveTipBadge }} {{ basisBadge }} {{ splitBadge }} {{ warningCount }} note(s)

Bill subtotal:

Receipt amount before tax and tip.

Tax rate:

Optional tax percentage added before the final total.

Tip method:

Choose whether the tip is a percentage or a fixed amount.

Percent Fixed amount

Tip rate:

Percentage applied to the selected tip basis.

Tip amount:

Total fixed tip before splitting.

Tip basis:

Controls which receipt amount a percentage tip uses.

People:

Number of people sharing the receipt.

people

Per-person rounding:

Choose how the split should handle cents.

Service charge:

Optional charge added before the final total.

Currency symbol:

Formatting symbol for summaries, tables, charts, and exports.

Line item	Amount	Basis	Per-person impact	Copy
{{ row.item }}	{{ row.amount }}	{{ row.basis }}	{{ row.impact }}

Person	Pays	Tip share	Settlement note	Copy
{{ row.person }}	{{ row.pays }}	{{ row.tipShare }}	{{ row.note }}

Check	Status	Detail	Action	Copy
{{ row.check }}	{{ row.status }}	{{ row.detail }}	{{ row.action }}

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Restaurant receipts compress several decisions into one amount to sign. The menu price, sales tax, required charges, voluntary tip, and group split all describe money owed, but each one answers a different question. The subtotal shows the price before tax. Tax is usually added by rule. A service charge is already mandatory on the receipt. A tip is an optional gratuity chosen by the payer.

Tip percentage is only meaningful after choosing the tip base. Many diners use the pre-tax subtotal because sales tax is not service. Suggested tips printed by a receipt may use subtotal plus tax, and some groups choose to include a delivery fee, cover charge, or automatic service charge. The same 18% rate can therefore produce three different gratuity amounts on one bill.

Receipt parts flow from subtotal, tax, service charge, and tip into a split share

When more than one person pays, the arithmetic shifts from gratuity size to settlement. An exact card split can distribute every cent, but leftover pennies cannot disappear; they are assigned to particular payers. Cash-friendly rounding avoids awkward cents, yet it can collect more money than the receipt total, so the rounded share needs its own check.

Common receipt amounts and how they affect a tip calculation
Amount	What it means	Why it changes the answer
Subtotal	Price before tax, service charge, and tip	Often used as the service-only base for a percentage tip
Tax	Rate-based charge added to the subtotal	Including it makes an after-tax tip larger than a pre-tax tip
Service charge	Required charge already on the receipt	May already represent an automatic gratuity or fixed fee
Tip	Voluntary amount added by the payer	Can be calculated by percentage or entered as a fixed amount

Service charges deserve special attention because a required charge is not the same thing as a voluntary tip. In U.S. tax and wage guidance, compulsory service charges are treated as non-tip wages when paid to employees, even if the diner thinks of the charge as gratuity-like. For everyday payment, read the receipt wording before adding another gratuity, and keep the required charge separate from the voluntary tip unless the receipt or group agreement says otherwise.

How to Use This Tool:

Start from the printed receipt, then choose the tipping and sharing rules that match how the group plans to pay.

Enter Bill subtotal as the amount before tax, service charge, and tip. Use the receipt's pre-tax line when one is available.
Set Tax rate as a percentage. Enter 8.25 for 8.25%, and use 0 when tax is not part of the receipt.
Choose Tip method. Use Percent for normal percentage tipping, or Fixed amount when the total gratuity has already been chosen.
When using percent mode, set Tip rate and Tip basis. Enter 18 for 18%, not 0.18, and choose whether the percentage applies before tax, after tax, or after tax plus service charge.
Enter People for an equal split. The roster is rounded to a whole number and kept between 1 and 50 people.
Choose Per-person rounding. Use Exact cents for card payments, or a round-up option when each person needs a 0.50 or 1.00-friendly amount.
Open Advanced only when the receipt has a Service charge or when you want a different Currency symbol for display and exports.

If Receipt Check shows an input note, review the affected field before using the payment shares. Negative numbers are treated as zero, high rates are flagged for review, and round-up modes show any extra amount collected.

Interpreting Results:

Use Receipt total as the exact bill amount after subtotal, tax, service charge, and tip. Use Collected total only after checking the rounding mode, because it can be higher than the receipt total when every person is rounded up.

Tip is the gratuity amount. Effective tip rate expresses that gratuity as a percentage of the selected tip base, which is especially useful in fixed amount mode. A fixed 10.00 tip can look generous on a small subtotal and modest on a larger one.

Receipt Check is the best place to catch false confidence. A green or ready-looking total can still use the wrong basis if the receipt's suggested tip was after tax and the calculation was set before tax. Review Tax-on-tip delta, Service basis delta, Rate sanity, and Split boundary before collecting money from a group.

The chart views are interpretation aids, not separate rules. Tip Cost Mix shows how much of the final payment comes from subtotal, tax, service charge, and tip. Tip Rate Ladder compares common percentage choices and marks the current rate so the per-person difference is visible before anyone pays.

Technical Details:

Tip math is ordinary percentage arithmetic, but the chosen base and cent rounding determine whether two people see the same practical total. Currency amounts are rounded to cents for receipt totals and payment shares. Percentage tipping multiplies the selected receipt base by the entered rate, while a fixed gratuity uses the chosen amount directly and compares it with the same base to produce an effective rate.

Cent distribution has two separate jobs. The receipt total is rounded to the nearest cent after subtotal, tax, service charge, and tip are combined. Exact splitting divides those cents across the group and gives any leftover pennies to the earliest payment rows; round-up modes replace each exact share with the next 0.50 or 1.00 increment.

Formula Core:

The core calculation separates the receipt components before deciding how the total is split.

\begin{matrix} Tax & = & Subtotal \times \frac{TaxRate}{100} \\ B_{tip} & = & Subtotal + selected tax amount + selected service charge amount \\ Tip & = & B_{tip} \times \frac{TipRate}{100} \\ Total & = & Subtotal + Tax + ServiceCharge + Tip \\ EffectiveTipRate & = & \frac{Tip}{B_{tip}} \times 100 \\ RoundingAdjustment & = & CollectedTotal - Total \end{matrix}

Tip formula symbols and meanings
Symbol	Meaning	Source in the calculator
Subtotal	Pre-tax bill amount	Bill subtotal
TaxRate	Tax percentage entered as a whole percent	Tax rate
B_tip	Selected tip base	Tip basis
TipRate	Percentage applied to the tip base	Tip rate
CollectedTotal	Total collected from all payment shares	Payment Shares

When fixed amount mode is selected, the entered tip replaces the percentage formula for Tip. The selected base still matters for the displayed Effective tip rate, calculated as tip divided by tip base.

Input rules and rounding behavior
Rule	Behavior	Result impact
Negative amounts or rates	Treated as zero	Prevents a receipt part from subtracting from the bill
People	Rounded to a whole number and limited to 1 through 50	Controls how many payment rows appear
Exact cents	Divides cents evenly and assigns any leftover pennies to the earliest people	Collected total equals Receipt total
Round up to 0.50 or 1.00	Raises each person's share to the next selected increment	Can create a positive Rounding adjustment
High rate review	Tax rates or effective tip rates above 35% are flagged	Helps catch rate-entry mistakes such as using 48 instead of 18

The service charge field is intentionally separate from the tip amount. Official U.S. guidance treats compulsory service charges differently from voluntary tips for tax and wage purposes, so keeping the charge visible helps avoid accidentally tipping on an automatic charge when that is not intended.

Limitations and Privacy:

The result is a payment aid, not tax, wage, legal, or etiquette advice. It cannot decide local tipping customs, employer policy, whether staff receive a service charge, or whether a group should split an itemized meal equally.

The split is equal across the whole receipt; it does not assign different menu items to different people.
Currency symbols change display labels only. They do not perform exchange-rate conversion.
The calculation runs in the browser after the page loads. If you bookmark or share a URL that includes entered values, those values can be visible in that URL.

Worked Examples:

Two-person dinner with exact cents

A 48.75 Bill subtotal, 8.25% Tax rate, 18% Tip rate, and Subtotal before tax basis gives a Tip of 8.78 and a Receipt total of 61.55. With two people and Exact cents, Payment Shares shows 30.78 for one person and 30.77 for the other because one leftover cent has to be assigned.

Automatic service charge with round-up sharing

A 120.00 subtotal, 8% tax, 18.00 Service charge, and 20% tip on Subtotal plus tax and service charge uses a 147.60 tip base. The Tip is 29.52 and the Receipt total is 177.12. If four people round up to 1.00, each pays 45.00, the Collected total is 180.00, and Rounding adjustment is +2.88.

Fixed tip for a small bill

A 32.00 subtotal, 9% tax, and a fixed 6.00 tip produces a 40.88 Receipt total. With two people, exact shares are 20.44 each. Effective tip rate is 18.75% because the fixed tip is compared with the displayed tip base.

Rate typo caught before payment

A 40.00 subtotal with a 48% tip creates a 19.20 Tip and 59.20 Receipt total. Receipt Check marks Rate sanity as Review because the effective tip rate is above 35%, which is a cue to confirm that 48 was not meant to be 18.

FAQ:

Should I tip before or after tax?

Use Subtotal before tax when the tip should apply only to the meal or service price. Use an after-tax basis when the receipt's suggested tip or the group's agreement includes tax.

How should I handle an automatic service charge?

Enter it as Service charge so it stays separate from the voluntary tip. Include it in the Tip basis only when the receipt or group decision calls for tipping on that charge too.

Why is Collected total higher than Receipt total?

A round-up mode raises every person's share to the next 0.50 or 1.00 increment. The difference appears as Rounding adjustment, which can be returned as change or used to lower one person's payment manually.

Can this split different orders by person?

No. Payment Shares divides the whole receipt equally. Use an itemized bill splitter when people ordered different amounts or agreed to pay for their own items.

Is my bill information sent away for calculation?

The tip and split math runs in your browser after the page loads. Treat shared or bookmarked URLs carefully if they include receipt values, because anyone with that URL may be able to see those values.

Glossary:

Subtotal: The receipt amount before tax, service charge, and tip.
Tip base: The amount used to calculate a percentage tip.
Service charge: A required charge already included on the receipt before any optional tip.
Effective tip rate: The tip amount expressed as a percentage of the selected tip base.
Receipt total: The exact bill amount after subtotal, tax, service charge, and tip.
Collected total: The sum collected from all payment shares after the selected rounding rule.
Rounding adjustment: The difference between the collected total and the exact receipt total.

References:

Topic no. 761, Tips - withholding and reporting, Internal Revenue Service.
Tip recordkeeping and reporting, Internal Revenue Service.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, U.S. Department of Labor.