Tip $5 or 20% of the food total — whichever is more — for standard food delivery in the US, and more for bad weather, long distances or large orders. On a $47.50 order, 20% is a $9.50 tip. Delivery fees do not go to the driver, so they never replace the tip.
Food delivery tipping is more confusing than restaurant tipping, because the checkout screen shows three different charges — the food, a delivery fee and a service fee — and none of them is the tip. The driver who brings the food to your door in the rain is paid mostly in tips, like a waiter, but the fee you already paid does not reach them. The rule is simple once you separate the charges: the tip is 20% of the food, with a $5 floor, and the fees are something else entirely.
The Standard: 20% or $5, Whichever Is More
For a normal delivery — a restaurant meal or a pizza brought to your door in reasonable weather — the standard tip is 20% of the food total, with a $5 minimum. The two parts of the rule cover different orders:
| Order total | 20% of food | Tip to leave |
|---|---|---|
| $15.00 | $3.00 | $5.00 (minimum applies) |
| $23.50 | $4.70 | $5.00 (minimum applies) |
| $47.50 | $9.50 | $9.50 |
| $60.00 | $12.00 | $12.00 |
| $85.00 | $17.00 | $17.00 |
| $120.00 | $24.00 | $24.00 |
The $5 floor matters because small orders are the worst-paid deliveries. A $15 order tipped at 20% is only $3.00, and the driver still drove to the restaurant, waited for the food, drove to your door and climbed your stairs. Fifteen percent is the acceptable floor for an ordinary delivery — $7.13 on a $47.50 order — but 20% is the rate drivers actually hope for, and it is the rate this post recommends.
Worked example: a $47.50 dinner order at 20% gives a $9.50 tip and a $57.00 food-plus-tip total, before any fees. At 18% the tip is $8.55 and the total is $56.05; at 15% it is $7.13 and the total is $54.63. The difference between 15% and 20% on this order is $2.37 — small to you, meaningful to the driver. A free tip calculator gives the same figures for any order total in one tap.
The Delivery Fee Is Not a Tip
This is the single most important fact in delivery tipping, and the one most people get wrong. The delivery fee does not go to the driver. It goes to the restaurant or the delivery platform — DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub — to cover their operating costs. The driver’s pay is a base amount plus your tip, and the fee is not part of either.
The same applies to the service fee, the small-order fee and the “busy” or surge fee. None of them is a tip, and none of them reaches the driver as a tip. Some platforms pass a portion of a delivery fee to the driver as base pay, but that is not the same as a tip, and it is not something you can verify from the checkout screen. The safe assumption is simple: if the checkout screen labels it a fee, it is not a tip.
What this means in practice: if your checkout shows $47.50 of food, a $3.99 delivery fee and a $4.99 service fee, your total before tip is $56.48 — and the tip is still 20% of the food, $9.50, not 20% of $56.48. Tipping on the fees would overpay by about $1.80, and tipping nothing because “I already paid a fee” underpays by $9.50. Tip on the food total only.
How Much to Tip Pizza Delivery
Pizza delivery has its own tradition, because it is the oldest and most common form of delivery in the US. The standard is the same 20%-or-$5 rule, with a few pizza-specific habits:
- One pizza, $15–20 order: $5.00. The $5 floor is doing the work here — 20% of a $18 order is only $3.60.
- Two or three pizzas, $40–50 order: 20% — on a $47.50 order that is $9.50.
- A big order, $85+ for a party: 20% — on an $85 order that is $17.00, and 25% ($21.25) is generous for a large order that took two trips or a heavy carry.
- Cash is still king for pizza. Many pizza drivers prefer cash tips because they get them immediately and in full, while app tips can take days to arrive and are sometimes pooled. If you can tip in cash, do.
Pizza chains sometimes add a delivery charge of $3–5 to the bill. That charge is not a tip either — it is the same delivery fee as above, and it goes to the store. Tip on top of it.
How Much to Tip Grocery Delivery
Grocery delivery is heavier, slower and more work than a pizza run, and the tip should reflect it. The standard is 20% of the grocery total, with a $5 minimum, and most regulars tip more:
- Small order, $30–40 of groceries: $7.00–$8.00 — 20% of $40 is $8.00, and the driver still carried bags up your stairs.
- Normal order, $60–85 of groceries: 20% — on a $60 order that is $12.00, on an $85 order that is $17.00.
- Large order, $120+ with heavy items: 20–25% — on a $120 order, 20% is $24.00 and 25% is $30.00. Cases of water, bags of dog food and bulk packs are real physical work.
- Bad weather or a long carry: add $3–5 on top, or move to 25%.
When to Tip More
The standard rate covers a normal delivery. These situations call for more:
Bad weather. Rain, snow, ice or extreme heat: add $3–5, or move from 20% to 25%. On a $47.50 order, 25% is $11.88 instead of $9.50 — a $2.38 difference that means a lot to someone driving in a storm. If the weather is bad enough that you would not want to drive in it, the driver deserves the uplift.
Long distance or hard access. A delivery to a fifth-floor walk-up, a gated community with a long walk from the gate, or an address 20 minutes from the restaurant: add $3–5.
Large or heavy orders. More than $85 of food, multiple bags, a catering-size order: 20–25%. On an $85 order, 25% is $21.25.
Late night. Deliveries after 10 PM: add $2–3. Fewer drivers are working, and the ones who are deserve the premium.
When It Is OK to Tip Less
Tipping less than 15% is justified only when the delivery itself — not the food — was the problem:
- The food arrived cold because the driver took another delivery first
- Items were missing and the driver never checked the bag
- The driver was rude or refused to come to the door
A late delivery caused by the restaurant, a wrong item packed by the kitchen, or bad food quality are not the driver’s fault — do not punish them for it. And a genuinely bad delivery still deserves 10%: the driver did drive to you, and a zero tip with no explanation teaches nobody anything. If the problem was serious, report it in the app as well.
Cash, App or Both?
Tipping in the app is the default on DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub: you set the tip at checkout, and the driver sees it before accepting the order. That last point matters — drivers can decline low-tip orders, so a good tip set at checkout gets your food picked up faster.
Tipping in cash is preferred by many drivers: it arrives immediately, in full, and it is not visible to the platform. If you tip in cash, set the app tip to $0 or the minimum and hand the cash to the driver — but tell the driver, because a $0 app tip with no note looks like a no-tip order and may be declined.
Adjusting after delivery is possible on most apps: you can raise the tip for up to a few hours after the food arrives. Use it when the service was better than expected, not as a reason to set a low tip at checkout.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should you tip for food delivery?
Tip $5 or 20% of the food total, whichever is more. On a $47.50 order, 20% is $9.50. On a $23.50 order, 20% is $4.70, so the $5 minimum applies instead.
Is $5 a good tip for delivery?
Yes for small orders — it is the minimum, and it is generous on anything under $25. On a $15 order, $5 is 33%. On a $47.50 order, $5 is only 10.5%, so 20% ($9.50) is the right amount there.
Do delivery drivers get the delivery fee?
No — the delivery fee goes to the restaurant or the platform, not the driver. The same applies to service fees and surge fees. Only the tip goes to the driver as a tip, so the fee never replaces it.
How much do you tip a pizza delivery driver?
20% of the food total, with a $5 minimum. On a $47.50 pizza order, that is $9.50. Cash is preferred by many drivers because they receive it immediately and in full.
How much do you tip for grocery delivery?
20% of the grocery total, with a $5 minimum — and 25% for large or heavy orders. On a $120 grocery order, 20% is $24.00. Add $3–5 for bad weather, heavy items or a long carry upstairs.
Should you tip on the total including fees?
No — tip on the food total only. Fees go to the platform, not the driver, and tipping on them inflates the tip for no reason. On a $47.50 food order, the tip is $9.50 regardless of the fees added at checkout.
Try It Yourself
Before your next order, work out the tip on the food total — not the checkout total — and set it in the app before the driver is assigned, because drivers see the tip before accepting. A free how much to tip tool gives you the 15%, 18% and 20% figures in one tap, so you can pick the rate and move on. For the restaurant version of the same question, how much should you tip at a restaurant covers the 15–20% standard and the service tiers, and how to split the bill shows how to divide a shared order fairly. For the wider picture of who else expects a tip in the US, see tipping etiquette in the US.