Tipping used to be pretty straightforward — mostly something you did at sit-down restaurants or for the occasional delivery from a pizza joint that staffed its own drivers. 

But now, with the boom in gig work and on-demand convenience — think food delivery apps, grocery drop-offs and everything in between — figuring out how much to tip (and who actually gets what) has gotten a lot trickier.

You’ve probably seen those extra charges — delivery fees, service fees — and wondered: Where does that money go? Does the driver get any of it? And if not, how much should you be tipping on top of all that?

It’s not as clear-cut as it used to be.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about tipping on delivery

Anxiety about tipping is real. A 2023 report from Pew Research Center indicates that only about a third of people are confident about when they should tip and how much. The same report reveals that 76% tend to tip on food delivery, however. If only a third of those 76% are confident in how much to tip, assuming that their confidence isn’t mired in incorrect or outdated information, only about 25% of everyone ordering food delivery is tipping appropriately or at all.

I dug into some of the top food delivery services for information about who gets paid for what, whether you’re ordering a meal for one person, lunch for the whole office or groceries for the week, in hopes of answering the question of how much should you actually be tipping for food delivery? Naturally, the best answer is, “it depends,” but here’s a look at various platforms and scenarios, with some authoritative advice on considerations to make when factoring in a tip.

How are restaurant delivery drivers paid?

While some restaurants have always been in the delivery game — looking at you, pizza joints — for many restaurants food delivery is made possible only through apps such as DoorDash, GrubHub şi UberEats. Even if you call a restaurant directly for a delivery order, chances are good that your order will still get outsourced to one of those services. 

If you’re looking to save a little money by cutting out the middleman, you’re welcome to ask your favorite restaurants whether they employ their own delivery staff. A popular theme on Reddit has users offering up lists of regional or city-specific lists of what restaurants operate independent delivery.

Assuming you’re dealing mostly with third-party delivery services in most cases, I’ve consolidated some information from DoorDash, GrubHub şi UberEats about what drivers are paid — information that they all make readily available — which rely on similar structures and procedures.

• Generally speaking, delivery or service fees indicated in your order go to the platform you ordered through and/or the restaurant, not the driver, although they may in part help support driver pay.
• Drivers are not paid a set hourly rate but typically a fee per delivery, which is variable based on factors such as distance, expected time commitment and desirability of the particular job.
• Incentives are often available for peak times, as well as completing a certain number of deliveries in a specified time frame.
• In certain markets there may be a guaranteed minimum pay for drivers who sign on during unexpectedly slow times and, occasionally, fees are built into the app to support these economics as well.
• Drivers are responsible for their own car-related expenses, including gas.

• 100% of tips added by the customer go to the driver but the driver may only see the total payout for the delivery, which doesn’t delineate between the base rate and the tip, or merely indicates an expected tip. (So they don’t necessarily know that you’re a generous tipper but they’ll definitely know if you indicated no tip, even if you plan to tip in cash upon delivery).

How much should you tip for restaurant delivery?

While you may not know exactly how much your delivery driver is making, you can bet that tips are needed to push them over the minimum wage threshold. Toast, a point-of-sale resource for restaurants, suggests that third party delivery services warrant a 15% to 20% tip.

Tip more than 20% during inclement weather

You also have your common sense and courtesy to rely upon when setting a tip. While a $2 tip may reflect about 20% of a $9.99 dinner special for your favorite General Tso’s, if you’re ordering it from a place across town in the middle of a blizzard, those $2 are harder won for your driver or delivery person than if they’re just zipping it from around the corner. 

Order size matters

While 20% on large orders starts to look like a pretty hefty bonus for the driver, consider the additional time and effort needed to ferry multiple bags or boxes from the restaurant to you and how much more time is required than for small orders for the same amount of driving. 

And if you’re order is small, consider tipping at a higher percentage because 15% or 20% of a $15 tab is not commensurate with the effort on the part of the driver to get your food there safely.

GrubHub shared some advice for tipping for food delivery and suggests 20% but nothing less than $5. Other factors to keep in mind:

• Drivers may be able to bundle smaller orders together for nearby deliveries, but for a large order it might require use of the entire vehicle, so an additional 3% to 5% is warranted.
• Inclement weather can make for a miserable or even dangerous work day. They’re out there delivering so you could stay warm and dry, so an extra few dollars is a good act of gratitude.
• If you’re living in a fifth-floor walkup, or if the elevator in your building is compromised, that’s also something you should be considering tipping a little extra for. They won’t be privy to that information in advance when deciding to take on the delivery.

How are grocery shoppers/drivers paid?

In some ways, grocery delivery works just like restaurant delivery but, of course, the primary difference is that your driver is also doing the work of assembling your grocery order. (Having acted as my own Instacart shopper for an examination of Instacart prices, I can attest that this is not simple.)

Much like with restaurant apps, the service fee and delivery fee built into platforms such as Instacart do not go to the shopper/driver. Like the restaurant delivery services outlined above, shoppers earn a base pay that is calculated for specific deliveries, not based on time spent on the clock, and they rely upon tips to result in a wage that is worth their time.

According to a representative from Instacart:

• Shoppers are paid by the batch, which may include multiple deliveries. They are always given upfront information like store location, number of items and units, and approximate delivery distance, to decide whether they want to shop the batch.
• They also see the full Instacart payment offered, as well as the expected customer tip, before accepting a batch. (While you may indicate a tip at the time the order is placed, you also have the opportunity to adjust the tip after the service.)
• Some of the factors that make up batch pay include the number of items and units in the batch, how heavy those items are, the expected time it will take for a shopper to shop all of the items in the batch, and the estimated distance that a shopper will need to drive. 
• Shoppers can always choose the batches that they want to shop and they’re never penalized for not accepting a batch.

How much should you be tipping for grocery delivery?

Restaurant deliveries benefit from association with restaurants, where people at least expect to tip when dining in person, so providing a tip for delivery isn’t out of the ordinary. Grocery stores don’t have the same association. You wouldn’t tip your cashier when shopping in person, although your personal shopper is doing more than just bringing your prepared order to you, which makes the question of what to tip a little murkier. The base rate for grocery shopping, however, also factors in more time than that of a delivery driver.

If your driver is also your shopper, 20% should be the minimum

Amenify, a platform providing home services for residential buildings, suggests tipping between 10% and 20% for grocery delivery. The special circumstances described above — inclement weather, challenging order or delivery logistics, or special handling — should warrant a little extra generosity.

This is again complicated somewhat by the delivery apps themselves. Not every app or market allows you to choose a tip at the time of checkout. While you can add a tip after the shop is complete in just about every platform, your shopper is working without the benefit of that knowledge. 

Instacart does allow the possibility of adding a tip up front, but the pre-populated tip amounts indicate tips of 2.5%, 5%, 10%, and 15%. You can enter a custom tip amount but as a built-in suggestion it doesn’t err on the side of generosity.