Tip Calculator and Bill Splitter

How to use the tip calculator

1. Enter the Bill before tax (the subtotal on the receipt) and the Tax on the bill (GST/HST, QST, PST…). Leave the tax empty if your receipt has none.
2. Type a Tip (%) or click one of the common percentages: 10%, 15%, 18%, 20% or 25%.
3. Choose to Calculate the tip on The amount before tax or The total with tax.
4. Enter the Number of people sharing the bill.
5. To avoid coins, pick how to Round each share up: To the next 0.25, To the next whole unit or To the next multiple of 5 (in the selected currency). Keep No rounding to split to the cent.

You immediately see what Each person pays, the Tip, the Total with tip, the Tip per person and the Actual tip rate after rounding. If the total cannot be split exactly, a message tells you who pays one cent more. Copy puts the result on your clipboard, ready to send to the group.

How the tip and the shares are calculated

• tip = base × tip % / 100, where the base is the bill before tax or the total with tax, rounded to the cent
• total = bill + tax + tip
• share = total / number of people

Example with the default values: a $86.50 bill with $11.25 of tax, an 18% tip on the amount before tax and 3 people. The tip is $15.57 and the total $113.32. Split three ways, that is $37.78 for one person and $37.77 for the other two, so the shares add up exactly to the bill. With To the next whole unit, everyone pays $38.00: the total becomes $114.00, the extra $0.68 goes to the tip, and the actual tip rate rises to about 18.8%.

Tip before or after tax?

Etiquette guides in Canada and the United States usually suggest tipping on the amount before tax, since the tax is not part of the service. Many payment terminals, however, calculate the suggested tip on the total including tax, which makes the tip slightly larger: with 13% HST, 18% of the after-tax total is about 20.3% of the meal. Choose the option that matches your habit; this tool shows both clearly.

Usual ranges in North America are 15% to 20% at a sit-down restaurant, and less for counter service or take-out. Tipping customs differ a lot between countries: in much of Europe, service is included and a small round-up is enough.

Rounding up without surprises

Rounding each share up is handy when everyone pays in cash or sends a transfer. The tool rounds every share to the same amount, so nobody pays less than the others, and it shows the resulting tip in dollars and as a percentage. If you prefer an exact split, keep No rounding: shares then differ by at most one cent.