Tip, service charge and per-person split — worked out before the card machine reaches you.
Open the tip calculator →The most common tipping mistake in the UK is not the percentage — it is tipping twice. Many restaurants add a "discretionary service charge" of 12.5% to the bill, and the card terminal then offers a tip prompt on top of that. Unless the service was exceptional, that is 25%.
Look for a line reading service charge, optional service or gratuity before deciding.
| Situation | Usual |
|---|---|
| Sit-down restaurant | 10–12.5%, or nothing extra if service charge already added |
| Ordering at the bar in a pub | Not expected |
| Café / coffee shop | Not expected; change in the jar if you like |
| Takeaway collection | Not expected |
| Food delivery | £1–3, or 10% |
| Taxi | Rounding up is normal |
| Hairdresser | Around 10%, common but not obligatory |
| Hotel housekeeping | £2–5 per night, left at the end |
Norms differ sharply abroad. The US expects 18–22% at restaurants because tipped wages are lower. Japan does not tip at all and it can cause genuine awkwardness. Much of continental Europe rounds up rather than percentages.
Simplest, and fine when everyone ordered similarly. Divide total including tip by the number of people, then round each share up to the nearest pound — the small surplus covers the person who ends up paying the card.
Fairer when one person had three courses and another had a salad. Apply the tip and service charge proportionally to each person's subtotal rather than splitting them evenly, or the light eater subsidises the tip too.
Usually the least painful. One person pays, everyone sends their share. Round up when you send — the payer has taken on the risk and the admin.
The calculation happens in your browser, works with no signal in a restaurant basement, and leaves no record on any server.
Since October 2024 employers must pass on card tips in full, so the old advice to always tip in cash matters less than it did. Cash still reaches the individual most directly.
Convention is to tip on the whole bill, though some people exclude an expensive bottle of wine on the grounds that carrying it took no more effort than carrying a cheap one. Both are defensible.
Less so than in the US, and it is not expected everywhere. Removing a discretionary service charge because the service was poor is entirely legitimate.
Unit converter · Subscription tracker · UK tax estimator · Net worth tracker
Palarid is free and private. See all tools → · Trust Centre · About