The one rule that holds almost everywhere: tip on the pre-tax subtotal. Tax is collected for the government, so tipping on it inflates the tip by the local tax rate.
In the UK and much of Western Europe a 10–15% service charge is often added automatically. Check before adding anything: tipping again can mean double-tipping.
In Japan, South Korea and several other countries high service is simply the cultural default, not something tied to extra payment.
Tax and tip follow what each person ordered, so the $12 salad does not quietly subsidise the $40 steak, and the shares add back to the exact grand total.
Wherever tipping happens at all (US, Canada, the Caribbean, parts of Asia and the Middle East), tax is added by the government, not earned by the server, so the tip is conventionally based on what the food and drink actually cost.
Split $102.40 three ways and the exact share is $34.1333… Everyone at $34.13 leaves the table a cent short; everyone at $34.14 pays a cent too much. The fair answer is two at $34.13 and one at $34.14, and the page says which. Rounding everyone up to a whole unit is a bigger tip, and the page shows how much bigger.
Multiple 2026 tipping guides note that 15% — long the textbook "standard" — now reads as a sign something went wrong; 18–20% has become the baseline for ordinary good service, with 22–25% reserved for genuinely excellent service. This tool's US/Canada presets reflect that shift rather than the older, lower figures still repeated in a lot of older advice.
No — it's the actual, well-documented difference. Service staff in the UK and most of Western Europe are paid at least a legal minimum wage regardless of tips, and in many cases a 10–12.5% "service charge" is already added to the bill before you'd add anything else. Always check the bill first; if a service charge is already there, an additional tip is a bonus, not an expectation.
Genuinely different, not just a lower number — tipping isn't customary and can come across as odd or even mildly insulting, since excellent service is considered the cultural standard rather than something that warrants extra payment. The regional note for this preset says so directly rather than suggesting a percentage that doesn't apply.
Because "evenly" quietly overcharges whoever ordered less and undercharges whoever ordered more — fine among close friends who don't mind, but not actually fair when a table has very different orders. Proportional splitting means everyone's share of tax and tip matches their share of what was actually ordered, verified to sum back to the exact same grand total as splitting evenly would.
That the tip is calculated on the pre-tax subtotal unless you choose the after-tax total, and that no service charge or gratuity has already been added to your bill — if one has, tipping on top is paying twice. The presets are customary norms drawn from etiquette guidance, not rules; they vary by city, venue and occasion, and they drift over time. Tax and tip are split in proportion to each person's share rather than evenly. The arithmetic is identical in any currency.
Releases in which this page changed, newest last. Derived from the archived copy of every release, not from notes written afterwards — so it reflects what actually shipped. Site-wide passes are left out; they are in the full changelog.