US Tipping Statistics: How Much and How Often Americans Tip

Dinner gets tipped far more often than takeout

In Bankrate’s 2025 survey, 70% of sit-down restaurant users said they always tipped, compared with 52% of food-delivery users and 12% of takeout-pickup users. That is a 58-point gap between dinner and pickup. Each percentage describes users of that service, so the survey does not tell us whether the same person tipped differently on two meals.

Outside food, 54% of haircut users and 43% of rideshare users always tipped; among home-repair users, just 9% did. These US tipping statistics track the habit, not the size of the tip. They also show why the work alone does not settle the expectation: home repair can be demanding, yet routine tipping there is rare.

Pickup is common; tipping every time is not

47% of adults picked up takeout at least weekly in 2025, according to the National Restaurant Association. Its definition includes restaurants, coffee shops, snack places and delis. Drive-thru use was nearly as common at 42% weekly; delivery reached 37%. Pickup is frequent, but Bankrate found that only 12% of pickup users always tip. The two studies count different groups, so those percentages cannot be multiplied into a national total of tipped orders.

Coffee-shop tipping varies widely

Bankrate’s 18% coffee figure means “always,” not “ever.” In Pew’s 2023 response table, 25% of coffee-shop users said they always or often tipped, 27% sometimes tipped, 23% rarely did and 25% never did. The surveys ask different questions, but both show habitual coffee tipping was a minority behavior. The coffee barista tipping guide covers what to do at the counter.

Tipping fell, recovered—and kept falling at coffee shops

“Are Americans tipping less?” depends on the starting year. Among sit-down restaurant users, the share who always tipped fell from 75% in 2021 to 65% in 2023, then recovered to 70% in 2025. It was up five points from the low, but still five points below 2021. That is a narrower and more useful finding than a blanket claim that Americans have stopped tipping.

Food delivery followed the restaurant dip, from 59% in 2021 to 50% in 2023, then 52% in 2025. Coffee was different: its “always tip” share slid from 23% to 18% without a single annual increase in the published series. Haircuts ended nine points below 2021, at 54%.

These are frequencies, not dollars. A customer who changes from tipping $1 on every coffee to $1 on half their visits leaves the “always” group, but the survey cannot calculate their monthly spending. The tip calendar can track an individual’s actual tips. To see what people leave on restaurant bills, we need payment records.

Restaurant tip rates barely moved across nine quarters

Bankrate measured how often people tip; Toast measured the tip value on eligible card and digital payments that included a tip. In Q2 2026, Toast’s average tip percentage was 19.1% at full-service restaurants and 15.8% at quick-service restaurants. Those are rates on selected payments, not the percentage of diners who left a tip.

Across nine quarters, the full-service rate stayed within 19.1%–19.4%; quick service stayed within 15.8%–15.9%. On a $100 calculation base, the full-service range is only 30 cents, while the Q2 2026 gap between the two restaurant types is $3.30. Use the tip calculator to apply a percentage to your own bill; these platform averages describe past payments, not a required rate.

What the 19.1% leaves out

Cash and eligible payments with no tip are excluded. Toast also includes taxes and fees in its calculation base, and the mix of restaurants on its platform can change. The 19.1% figure therefore describes tipped Toast payments, not all US restaurant bills.

In a different measure, Pew’s 2023 survey asked about a hypothetical meal with average food and service. Of all respondents, 57% said they would leave 15% or less, including 2% who would leave nothing; 25% chose 20% or more. Pew recorded intended behavior, while Toast counted tipped payments. That difference matters more than a small gap between two headline percentages.

State rates do not describe residents

Toast’s Q2 2026 overall restaurant rate was 21.4% in Delaware and 17.1% in California, a 4.3-point difference. At full-service restaurants the rates were 21.8% and 17.6%. The state table covers payments at participating restaurants, including visitors’ purchases; it does not measure how generously state residents tip everywhere they go.

For a real meal, the restaurant tipping guide explains customary ranges and when the bill’s service charge changes the decision. The observed rates above are context for that choice.

Delivery and rideshare tips are measured per trip

Outside restaurants, reports often switch from percentages to dollars per trip. Gridwise put the average delivery tip at $4.16 per trip in Q4 2025, down 0.7% year over year. Its rideshare figure reached a reported record of $1.58 per trip. The two services moved in opposite directions in the same report. Gridwise published the figures in its 2026 release.

The 0.7% decline is about three cents per delivery trip. Gridwise does not present $4.16 as a DoorDash-only average, and its public summary does not fully explain how zero-tip trips or trip weights enter either figure. The per-trip dollars cannot be compared with Toast’s restaurant percentages without the underlying bills. They also cannot tell us how many customers tipped at all.

The fee on a receipt is not the driver’s tip

The checkout total creates another easy mix-up. DoorDash separates its delivery and service fees from the voluntary Dasher tip and says the tip goes to the Dasher. If a receipt includes a $6 delivery fee, that $6 is not automatically a $6 tip; the tip line is the amount to check. DoorDash explains the fee breakdown.

The DoorDash and Uber tipping guides address a particular order or ride. Uber says tipping is optional. A platform-wide average is useful evidence of behavior, not a suggested amount for the next trip.

A tip screen can irritate someone who still tips

“Tip fatigue” describes frustration, not a count of people who stopped tipping. In Bankrate’s 2025 survey, 63% of adults held at least one negative view of tipping. Two complaints each drew 41%: employers relying too heavily on tips to pay staff, and tipping culture feeling out of control. Another 38% disliked screens with pre-entered amounts. Respondents could select more than one complaint. Bankrate’s findings include the questions.

Pew’s 2023 survey helps explain why the request itself can feel awkward: 72% said tipping was expected in more places than five years earlier, yet only 34% found it very or extremely easy to know whether to tip and 33% found it that easy to know how much. Asked whether tipping was a choice or an obligation, the largest group—49%—answered “it depends.” Pew’s results describe uncertain expectations, not the end of tipping. “It depends” also fits the service-by-service divide: a person can have a settled rule for dinner and no settled rule for pickup.

Some respondents said the screen changed what they left: 27% told Bankrate they tipped less or nothing when shown a pre-entered amount, while 11% said they tipped more. These are reports about their own behavior. The survey did not observe checkouts or establish that the screen caused the change.

Frequent tippers can also be critics

Age groups make that tension harder to ignore. Among 2025 sit-down restaurant users, 43% of Gen Z said they always tipped, versus 84% of baby boomers. Yet among all adults in those age groups, 57% of Gen Z and 68% of boomers held a negative view of tipping. Those are different survey denominators, but the broad contrast matters: the group more likely to tip routinely was also more likely to criticize the system. Bankrate’s age-group findings include the definitions and questions.

Service quality was a major tipping factor for 77% of adults in Pew’s 2023 survey.

Only 5% said quality played no role. Pew’s decision-factor results also found that social pressure and the cost of the tip were each major factors for about a quarter of adults. A screen can add pressure, but the survey does not reduce every tipping decision to that prompt.

Common questions about US tipping statistics