How Much to Tip, Country by Country
Last updated: September 6, 2026
Tipping is the part of a bill that travels worst. The habit you grew up with is not a rule, and applying it abroad goes wrong in both directions: leave twenty per cent in Tokyo and you have caused confusion, leave nothing in Chicago and you have underpaid someone's wage. This is what is actually expected, and — more usefully — how to tell before the bill arrives.
The short version
Look at the bill before you decide anything. If it says service charge, servizio, coperto, Bedienung or a percentage on its own line, the tip is already there and adding another is optional generosity, not politeness. Where service is not included, the norm ranges from nothing to twenty per cent, and the difference is about how staff are paid rather than how good the meal was.
The one question that answers most of it
Are the staff paid a full wage? Where they are — most of Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand — a tip is a bonus, and ten per cent is generous. Where they are not, as in the United States, the tip is the wage, and treating it as optional is a pay cut for somebody. Almost every regional difference below follows from that one fact.
The second question is whether it is already on the bill. Restaurants in much of southern Europe add a service charge or a cover charge by default, and it is easy to tip twice without noticing — see service charge versus tip for how to read those lines.
Europe
| Country | Typical | Usually included? |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 10–12.5% | Often, as an optional service charge |
| Ireland | 10% | Sometimes, for larger groups |
| France | Round up, or 5% | Yes — service compris by law |
| Italy | Round up | Often a coperto per person |
| Spain | Round up, or 5% | Rarely |
| Portugal | 5–10% | Rarely |
| Germany | 5–10%, said aloud when paying | Sometimes |
| Austria | 5–10% | Sometimes |
| Switzerland | Round up | Yes |
| Netherlands | Round up, or 5–10% | Yes |
| Belgium | Round up | Yes |
| Denmark, Sweden, Norway | Nothing expected | Yes |
| Finland | Nothing expected | Yes |
| Poland | 10% | Rarely |
| Czechia, Hungary | 10% | Sometimes |
| Greece | 5–10% | Sometimes a cover charge |
| Turkey | 10% | Sometimes |
In Germany and Austria the mechanism matters as much as the number. You do not leave coins on the table; you say the total you want to pay as you hand over the money or the card — “fifty” on a bill of forty-six. Leaving the change behind reads as having forgotten it.
In France service compris is not a courtesy, it is the law: the price you see includes service. Rounding up is common, fifteen per cent is not.
North America
| Country | Typical | Usually included? |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 18–22% at table service | Only for groups of six or more |
| Canada | 15–20% | Only for large groups |
| Mexico | 10–15% | Sometimes |
In the United States the tipped minimum wage is substantially below the standard one in many states, and the difference is expected to come from tips. That is why the American number is so much higher than everywhere else, and why leaving ten per cent reads as a complaint rather than as a modest tip. Watch for a large-group gratuity already added; the card terminal will still cheerfully suggest another twenty per cent on top.
Asia and the Pacific
| Country | Typical | Usually included? |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | None. Genuinely none | No, and none expected |
| South Korea | None | No |
| China | None | No |
| Singapore | None | Yes, 10% service charge |
| Hong Kong | Round up | Yes, 10% |
| Thailand | Round up, or 10% | Sometimes |
| Vietnam | Round up | Sometimes |
| India | 5–10% | Often |
| UAE | 10–15% | Often a service charge |
| Australia | Round up for good service | No, and wages are full |
| New Zealand | Round up | No |
Japan is the case people get wrong most confidently. Leaving money on the table is not read as generous; it is read as though you have left something behind, and staff may well follow you into the street to return it. The service is included in the price and in the culture. If you want to acknowledge something exceptional, say so.
How this interacts with splitting the bill
A tip should be split the same way the food was. If you split by item, the tip splits in proportion to what each person ordered — the person who had a starter and tap water should not pay the same tip as the person who had the tasting menu. If you split evenly, the tip is even too, and that is consistent rather than generous.
The common mistake is splitting the food by item and then the tip per head, which quietly transfers money from the light eaters to the heavy ones. It is a small amount and it happens every single time.
A worked example
Four people, a bill of €120, and one of them ordered €15 of it. A fifteen per cent tip is €18. Split per head that person pays €4.50 of the tip on a €15 meal — thirty per cent. Split in proportion they pay €2.25. Neither is dramatic; one is defensible and one is not.
What to actually do
- Read the bill before you calculate anything. Find any line that is a percentage, a cover charge, or the word service.
- If service is included, that is the tip. Anything further is optional.
- If it is not, use the local norm — not the norm from home.
- Apply the tip in the same proportion you are splitting the food.
- In cash countries, hand it over rather than leaving it, and say the total you mean to pay.
MyShare adds a tip across a split in the same proportion as the items, so the arithmetic in that example happens without anybody doing it. See how to split a bill fairly for the four ways of dividing the bill itself.
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