Calculate tips, split bills with sales tax, and view tipping customs for all 50 states and 10+ countries.
Total = Subtotal + Tax + Tip · Per-person = Total ÷ number of people
Suppose you have a $84.50 bill and want to tip 20%.
Sales tax rates vary by state and change over time; tipping norms are customs rather than requirements. Verify current rates with your state revenue department.
Quick start: provide your numbers and the math happens on the spot — calculate tip by state customs. Everything runs locally; nothing is uploaded.
FreeToolHub US Tip Calculator (Regional) is a free browser-based tool — calculate tip by state customs. No signup, no upload; everything runs locally in your browser.
Calculate tip and split the bill. State-specific defaults: NYC 20%, CA 18%, Midwest 15%. Round up/down, large party auto-gratuity. Free, no signup.
This calculator prices gratuity the way locals actually tip, not with one national number. You enter the pre-tax bill, pick your state, and the tool loads that region's customary percentage — 20% in New York, 18% in California, lower across much of the South and Midwest — then computes the tip, the after-tax total, and a per-person split for any group size. Round-up and round-down buttons snap the total to whole dollars for cash payments, and a quick-service versus full-service toggle keeps counter-service tips honest instead of defaulting sit-down rates onto a coffee order.
Diners splitting a group dinner use the per-person field to settle exact shares including tip, avoiding the awkward Venmo shortfall. Travelers crossing state lines check whether the 15% they tip at home reads as generous or cheap where they are eating. Delivery customers distinguish driver tips from service fees that never reach the courier. Anyone doing mental math at a loud table appreciates instant totals with tax handled correctly — tipping on pre-tax subtotal by default, since that is the etiquette-correct base in the US.
(1) Enter the bill amount; the tool shows the pre-tax subtotal separately when you add tax. (2) Select your state to load its customary tip range, or type any custom percentage. (3) Set the party size for the split view. (4) Read the results: tip amount, grand total, and each person's share, with round buttons to clean up cash amounts. The percentage presets refresh to your state every time you change it.
US tipping customs cluster regionally rather than by law. New York City and the West Coast sit at the top with 18–20% expected at full-service restaurants; the Midwest and South commonly run 15–18%; and 2020s inflation has pushed suggested screens everywhere toward 20%+, even where custom lags. Counter service, coffee, and takeout sit in the 0–10% range as optional. Tipped-wage states, where servers earn as little as $2.13 federal sub-minimum, justify the full custom more than states requiring full minimum wage plus tips — one reason Seattle diners tip slightly less on paper than Atlanta diners. The state presets in this calculator track these norms so you never have to guess at the table.
The percentage is a message, not a tax. In US full-service restaurants, 18% reads as standard service, 20% as good-to-great, and 15% signals something went wrong — while counter-service and coffee shops have drifted toward a 10% or round-up norm rather than the sit-down scale. Taxis and rideshares cluster at 10-15%, food delivery higher (15-20%, since the driver's base pay often assumes it), and tour guides or salon stylists run 15-20% of the full bill. This calculator handles the two practical frictions: splitting across a group (equal or custom shares) and rounding — per-person rounding to whole dollars keeps cash settlements clean, while rounding the total preserves exact splits on card payments. The tax question is regional etiquette: in the US, tipping on the pre-tax subtotal is the traditional rule; in many other countries service is already included and 5-10% extra is a bonus rather than an obligation.
Traditional US etiquette says pre-tax — the tip rewards service, and sales tax funds government, not the server. In practice most people tip on the post-tax total because it is the number on the bill, and the difference is a few percent. This calculator can show both when tax is included.
Per-person rounding divides the bill, tips it, then rounds each share to whole dollars — simple for cash, though the sum can drift a dollar or two from the exact total. Total rounding keeps every share mathematically exact and is the right mode for card payments.
The standard tip varies by region: 20% in NYC and Northeast urban areas, 18% in California and West Coast, 15-18% in the Midwest and South. For taxis/rideshare, 15-20% is standard. Bartenders typically get $1-2 per drink or 15-20% of the tab. This tool applies region-appropriate defaults automatically and lets you adjust for service quality (below standard, standard, above standard).
Convention is to tip on the pre-tax subtotal, though many people tip on the total bill for simplicity. For a $100 bill with 8% tax ($108 total), 20% on pre-tax = $20; 20% on post-tax = $21.60. This tool calculates tip on the pre-tax amount by default, which is the etiquette-correct method. You can toggle to post-tax if preferred.
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