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Tip Calculator

U.S. only tools

Three jobs in one page: tip and split a bill, work out what stacked discounts really come to, and see a price as a margin and a markup at the same time. Each one prints the decision that makes its answer defensible rather than only the number.

Tip Calculator - Danfio

https://danfio.com/tools/tip-calculator/ - printed from this page

Currency: USD ($) - display only, nothing was converted

Tip, discount or margin: each one asks for its own numbers, and only the fields below your choice are used.

$

The bill before sales tax — the figure the receipt prints just above the tax line.

Your local sales tax, used so the tip base and the final total both come out right.

The share you want to leave: 15% for ordinary service, 20% or more when it was good.

Tipping on the taxed total costs a little more each time; most US guidance tips on the pre-tax subtotal instead.

How many ways the bill is split; the per-person figure and the cent-level shares both depend on it.

Round up only when you want each person to pay a clean amount and are content to overpay by a few cents.

Leave blank to name the files tip-and-split.txt and .csv.

Results update as you type. Nothing leaves your device.

Currency symbol

Symbol only - nothing is converted and no exchange rate is used. Figures quoted in the explanation text stay as the sources publish them.

Tip on $100.00 at 18%

$18.00

$126.50 in total, which is $63.25 each for 2 people. The tip was calculated on the pre-tax subtotal.

Bill before tax
$100.00
Tax
$8.50 8.5% of the subtotal
Tip
$18.00
Total
$126.50
Each of 2 pays
$63.25
Tip as a share of the total
14.23%

The bill, line by line

LineAmount
Bill before tax$100.00
Tax at 8.5%$8.50
Bill including tax$108.50
Tip at 18% on the pre-tax subtotal$18.00
Total to pay$126.50
Each of 2 pays (exact, before rounding)$63.25
Total owed to the restaurant$126.50

Every line is money rounded to cents at the point it is calculated, so the lines add up on the page as well as in the till.

Each person's share

PersonPays
Person 1$63.25
Person 2$63.25
Adds up to$126.50

The cents divide evenly, so every share is identical.

The decisions behind this answer

  • The tip is on the pre-tax subtotal, which is the convention in US tipping guidance: the tax is not part of the service. The same percentage on the taxed total would be $19.53, about $1.53 more.
  • No rounding was applied, so the shares are the exact cents: the total collected is the total owed.
  • A tip is not a legal obligation in most places, and service charges added to a bill are not tips unless they are passed on. This page does arithmetic on numbers you give it and takes no view on how much anybody should tip.

The split is done in cents, so the shares always add up to what is actually paid: $10.01 between two people is 5.01 and 5.00, and the page says who pays the odd cent instead of rounding it away. If you round the shares up, it also says how much extra the table collects.

Stacked discounts multiply rather than add: 10% off then 15% off is 23.5% off, not 25%, because the second discount is taken from the price the first one left behind. And margin and markup are two names for the same profit - a 40 cost sold at 60 is a 33.3% margin and a 50% markup - so both are printed side by side.

About this tip calculator

Most people meet this page at a table with a bill and a minute to spare; the rest meet the same three questions behind a till or a price tag. It handles the tip and the split, two stacked discounts, and the margin on a single unit, so the awkward arithmetic of a shared bill and a small shop stays in one place instead of in three half-remembered rules.

The page is as careful about what it will not decide as about what it computes. It will not tell you what to leave - that is custom, country and service, not arithmetic - and it treats a restaurant’s service charge as part of the bill rather than as a tip. Margin on a unit is not a living, so overheads, card fees and unpaid hours stay outside the model.

How this tip calculator works

Tip: which base, and whether it matters

A tip percentage has to be applied to something. On a $100 bill with 8.5% tax, an 18% tip on the pre-tax subtotal is $18.00, while 18% on the taxed total of $108.50 is $19.53. Neither is wrong, but the answers differ by $1.53, and a page that does not say which one it used is only accidentally right.

US tipping guidance generally uses the pre-tax subtotal: tax is not part of the service being tipped. Other places quote tips on the total, because that is the number printed on the receipt. The page computes one and reports what the other would have been, so the question is answerable from the page rather than from an argument at the table.

Rounding is the second decision. Splitting $71.50 four ways gives $17.875 each, which is not money. Rounding up to the next dollar means four payments of $18.00 and $72.00 collected against a $71.50 bill; the page prints the 50 cents of difference rather than quietly keeping it or quietly losing it.

Why the shares are split in cents, not by division

Dividing a total by the number of people gives fractions of a cent, and rounding each share on its own loses or invents money that somebody has to cover. Splitting whole cents instead - a base share for everybody, then the remainder handed out one cent at a time - guarantees that the parts add up to exactly the amount collected.

That is why $10.01 between two people is $5.01 and $5.00 rather than two shares of $5.005, and why the page names who pays the odd cent when the shares are not identical. It is the same arithmetic a till does when it splits a bill, and it is why the column on this page adds up when you check it.

Stacked discounts: a smaller base each time

When a shop says "an extra 15% off the sale price", the 15% comes off the reduced price rather than the original. So 10% then 15% is 0.9 × 0.85 = 0.765, which is 23.5% off - not the 25% that adding the two percentages together suggests. The gap grows with longer chains: 20%, 10% and 5% come to 31.6% rather than 35%.

The page shows the price after each step, so the shrinking base is visible, and it prints three readings side by side: the first discount alone, the real sequence, and the tempting sum. Prices are where the "add the percentages" mistake costs the most, because it is the buyer who makes it.

One thing the arithmetic cannot check is whether the original price was ever charged. A discount from an inflated reference price is not a discount, and no calculator can tell that from the numbers it is given.

Margin against markup

Both are profit, measured against different things. Margin is profit divided by the selling price; markup is profit divided by the cost. Buy for 40 and sell for 60 and the profit is 20, so the margin is 20 ÷ 60 = 33.3% and the markup is 20 ÷ 40 = 50%.

That is not a technicality. A shop that wants a 40% margin on a cost of 40 has to charge 66.67, because 40% of the price has to be profit; charging 56 is a 40% markup and only a 28.6% margin. The difference is more than 10 of price per unit, and it is the most common pricing error in small businesses.

The page prints the price needed for a target margin, the cost allowed at a given price, and the conversion between the two measures in both directions - a 50% markup is a 33.3% margin, a 50% margin is a 100% markup, and the two meet only at a zero cost.

What this page does not decide

It does not tell you how much to tip: that depends on the country, the service and whether the bill already carries a service charge, and a calculator that states a social norm as a fact is worse than no calculator. It does not know whether a service charge reaches the staff, and it does not treat one as a tip.

It does not know your tax rate, your card fees, your shipping or your overheads. Gross margin on a unit is not profit, and a pricing decision made here still has to survive those numbers - the page says so rather than presenting a margin as a living.

Worked examples

Each example below was run through the calculator on this page when the site was built, so the numbers match what you see when you enter the same inputs.

A $100 bill, tipped before tax, split two ways

What to work out: Tip and split the bill · Bill before tax: $100.00 · Sales tax: 8.5% · Tip: 18% · Tip is calculated on: The pre-tax subtotal (most common in the US) · Split between: 2 people · Rounding: No rounding - split the cents exactly

Tip on $100.00 at 18%

$18.00

$126.50 in total, which is $63.25 each for 2 people. The tip was calculated on the pre-tax subtotal.

Bill before tax: $100.00 · Tax: $8.50 · Tip: $18.00 · Total: $126.50

$18.00 tip on the pre-tax subtotal, $126.50 in total, $63.25 each. Tipping the same 18% on the taxed total would be $19.53, which is $1.53 more - the tax being tipped on.

Four people rounding up to whole dollars

What to work out: Tip and split the bill · Bill before tax: $71.50 · Sales tax: 0% · Tip: 0% · Tip is calculated on: The pre-tax subtotal (most common in the US) · Split between: 4 people · Rounding: Round each share up to the next dollar

Tip on $71.50 at 0%

$0.00

$71.50 in total, which is $18.00 each for 4 people. The tip was calculated on the pre-tax subtotal.

Bill before tax: $71.50 · Tax: $0.00 · Tip: $0.00 · Total: $71.50

$17.875 each becomes $18.00, so the table collects $72.00 against a $71.50 bill. The 50 cents is stated rather than kept: rounding up has to be a decision somebody made.

Ten percent off, then an extra fifteen

What to work out: Discount, including stacked discounts · Original price: $100.00 · First discount: 10% · Second discount, taken after the first: 15%

10% off $100, then 15% off that

$76.50

$23.50 off in total, which is 23.5% of the original price - not 25%.

Original price: $100.00 · After the first discount: $90.00 · After both: $76.50 · Saved: $23.50

$76.50, which is 23.5% off the original price - not the 25% that adding the two percentages gives. The second discount comes off 90, not off 100.

A 40% margin on a 40 cost

What to work out: Margin and markup on a price · What it costs you: $40.00 · What you sell it for: $60.00

$40.00 cost, sold for $60.00

33.33%

That is a 33.33% margin and a 50% markup: the same $20.00 of profit, measured against the selling price in one case and against the cost in the other.

Cost: $40.00 · Selling price: $60.00 · Gross profit: $20.00 · Margin (of the price): 33.33%

A 33.3% margin and a 50% markup on the same sale. Charging 66.67 would be a 40% margin; charging 56 would be a 40% markup, which is only a 28.6% margin.

Frequently asked questions

Should I tip on the pre-tax amount or the total?

US tipping guidance usually uses the pre-tax subtotal, because tax is not part of the service. Plenty of people tip on the total for simplicity, and on a $100 bill the difference at 18% is about $1.53. The page computes whichever you choose and shows what the other would have been, so the choice is visible rather than assumed.

How do I split a bill when the total does not divide evenly?

Split it in cents: everybody pays the same whole number of cents, and the remaining few cents are handed out one at a time. $10.01 between three is $3.34, $3.34 and $3.33. Rounding each share up instead collects a few cents more than the bill, which the page reports as a difference rather than hiding.

Is a 20% tip on the pre-tax amount the same as 18% on the total?

Nearly, which is a useful rule of thumb: with tax around 8-10%, tipping 18% on the total and 20% on the subtotal land within a few cents of each other. The arithmetic is on the page if you would rather check it on your own tax rate than take a rule of thumb.

Why is 10% off then 15% off not 25% off?

Because the second discount comes off the reduced price. 100 less 10% is 90, and 15% of 90 is 13.50, so the final price is 76.50 - a 23.50% reduction. Percentages of different bases cannot be added, and the page shows the price after each step so the shrinking base is visible.

What is the difference between margin and markup?

Margin is profit divided by the selling price; markup is profit divided by the cost. Buy at 40 and sell at 60 and the profit is 20, which is a 33.3% margin and a 50% markup. Margin is always the smaller number, and a business that charges "cost plus margin" thinking the two are the same under-charges.

How do I price something to hit a target margin?

Divide the cost by one minus the margin: for a 40% margin on a cost of 40, that is 40 ÷ 0.6 = 66.67. Adding 40% to the cost gives 56, which is a 28.6% margin - a mistake worth more than 10 per unit here. The page does the division and also shows the cost a given price allows.

Does this handle service charges or automatic gratuities?

It treats a service charge as part of the bill rather than as a tip, because in most places a charge added by the restaurant is not passed on as a tip and sometimes is not passed on at all. If a bill already carries a charge, put it in the pre-tax amount so the tip percentage is calculated on what you have actually been asked to pay.

Assumptions and sources

  • US Internal Revenue Service, Publication 531 (2026) and Publication 15-B (2026): a mandatory service charge is generally wages rather than a tip, which is why this page does not treat one as a tip.
  • Retail margin and markup are standard accounting definitions: margin = (price − cost) ÷ price, markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost.
  • Splitting a bill in cents rather than in decimal shares keeps the parts equal to the whole - the reason 0.1 + 0.2 comes to 0.30000000000000004 rather than a clean total.
  • The arithmetic follows one shared rule across the site, including cents that do not divide evenly and the 10%-then-15% discount stack.
  • A tip is not a legal obligation in most places, and how much to leave is a matter of custom and choice: this page does arithmetic on the numbers you enter, and nothing here is financial or legal advice.

Last reviewed 2026-09-15. Runs locally on your device; keep backups; no financial advice applies. Read the full disclaimer.

Where a figure on this page comes from an official agency — HUD, IRS, FICO or a state body — the site keeps a dated snapshot of the source page in its sources library, and a scheduled job re-checks that snapshot, so the number can be traced back to the document it came from.

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