Dividing a restaurant bill at the table is a small social ritual that goes wrong just often enough to be stressful: someone under-tips, someone overpays, and the math gets argued over dessert. This calculator settles it in seconds — tip at any percentage, see the total, and split it per person, with tax treated the way it should be.
The standard in the US is 15–20% of the pre-tax bill (20% for good service); customs differ elsewhere, so pick whatever percentage fits your situation. Everything updates live as you type, which means no more passing one phone around the table.
Part of the Everyday Calculators collection on CountCrunch.
How to calculate a tip
Example: $86.40 bill, 20% tip, 4 people → tip $17.28, total $103.68, $25.92 each.
Tip on the pre-tax or post-tax amount?
Custom says pre-tax: you tip for the service and the food, not for the government's cut. On a $100 bill with 8% tax, 20% of the pre-tax $100 is $20.00; 20% of the $108 total is $21.60. The calculator lets you enter the tax separately and tips the pre-tax amount by default — which also means servers get a consistent percentage regardless of local tax rates.
Splitting the bill fairly
Equal splits are simplest, but if one person had the lobster and everyone else had salad, equal is not fair. The honest approach: each person pays for their items plus their share of shared plates, tax and tip proportional to their subtotal. For quick mental math, the "double the tax" trick works where tax is ~8–10%: double the tax line for a ~16–20% tip.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I tip at a restaurant?
In the US, 15–20% of the pre-tax bill is standard — 20% for good service, 15% for adequate. Customs vary by country; in some places a service charge is already included, so check the bill first.
Do you tip on tax?
Standard etiquette says no — tip on the pre-tax subtotal. Tipping on the total including tax quietly inflates the tip by the tax rate.
What is 20% of $50?
$10. A quick way: 10% is $5, double it.
How do you split a bill three ways?
Add the tip to get the total, then divide by three. $120 bill + 20% tip = $144, so $48 each. The calculator does this instantly for any number of people.
Should I tip on a discounted bill?
Etiquette says tip on what the full price would have been — the server did the same work. If a coupon cut the bill in half, tip on the original amount.