How Americans Are Tipping in 2026

In 2026, tipping remains routine at sit-down restaurants and for food delivery. In other services, customers are making more selective decisions about whether to leave a gratuity and how much to add. Recent surveys connect those changes with higher food and transportation costs, along with growing frustration around digital tip prompts. Full-service restaurant tip percentages have changed only slightly, while larger cutbacks appear in delivery, hotels, rideshare, and other services.

The 2026 tipping report brings together current survey and transaction data across major service categories. The figures reflect a tipping culture in which gratuities remain common, with clear differences across services. 

Where Americans Tip Most Often in 2026

Sit-down restaurants lead all other services in tipping frequency. In Omni Calculator’s February 2026 survey, 93% of U.S. adults said they always or often tip after a sit-down meal. Food delivery came next at 77%. Personal care services reached 66%, including hair salons, barbers, nail salons, and spas.

Tipping is less common in the remaining categories. Just over half of respondents regularly tip taxi or ride-hailing drivers. Bars and nightclubs follow at 46%. Hotel staff and coffee shops are lower, at 38% and 36%. 

Frequency and tip size do not always move together. Regular tipping can continue even when the percentage becomes smaller. There is no single standard tip in the USA that applies to every service category. 

How We Track Tipping Changes in 2026

This report uses three national consumer surveys to track changes in tipping habits. Omni surveyed 500 U.S. adults in February. Popmenu surveyed 1,000 consumers in March. LendingTree used a QuestionPro survey of 2,000 adults ages 18 to 80 during February 4–10. Those surveys capture behavior that payment records miss, such as skipped tips and reactions to checkout prompts. They also record whether consumers say they are spending less than a year ago. 

Toast provides the restaurant tip percentages. Its quarterly reports use card and digital tip transactions processed through Toast. Full-service and quick-service restaurants are reported individually, with takeout shown on its own. The survey results and payment data do not always tell the same story. Hotel or delivery tips may fall even when restaurant percentages stay unchanged. 

What Is Changing Tipping Behavior in 2026? 

Food costs have continued to rise. By August 2026, the Consumer Price Index was 3.4% higher than a year earlier. Prices for food away from home rose at the same rate. Full-service meals increased 3.5%, and limited-service meals 3.2%. LendingTree found that 49% of Americans considered food difficult to afford. Twenty-five percent said they were tipping less. Sixty-six percent said inflation had affected how they tip. 

Tip requests are also showing up more often. In Omni's survey, 62% said they had been asked for gratuities in more situations than two years earlier. Half disliked preset tip choices on payment screens. Sixty-six percent said they felt pressure to tip when an employee could see the payment screen. Forty percent said they avoid certain businesses because of tip prompts. 

Popmenu reported that 42% were more comfortable skipping gratuities for certain services. In these surveys, the decline in tipping appears through smaller percentages and more skipped tips in situations where gratuity is optional.

What the Data Says About Tipping in the Restaurant Industry

Consumers say they are cutting restaurant tips, but the change is much smaller in actual payment data. In Popmenu’s March survey, 35% said they were reducing restaurant tips. Toast recorded only a slight change in full-service restaurant tipping, from 19.3% in Q1 2026 to 19.1% in Q2. The latest Q2 averages also differ by restaurant type. Full-service restaurants averaged 19.1%, compared with 15.8% at quick-service restaurants.

Among orders where customers added a card or digital gratuity, the average was 13.8%. 

Tipping in the Hotel Industry in 2026

Americans tip hotel staff less consistently than restaurant servers. Omni found that 38% of respondents always or often tip housekeepers, bellhops, and porters. Popmenu found that 19% of consumers were reducing tips for housekeeping or bellhop service in 2026. Restaurant and grocery delivery tips saw larger cutbacks in the same survey.

A hotel stay can involve several tipping decisions. A guest may tip housekeeping several times, use bell service once, or never use valet parking at all. Some travelers have very little direct contact with hotel staff during the entire stay. For that reason, one average tip figure would say little about the whole hotel industry. National 2026 research provides more data on tipping frequency and reported cutbacks than on the exact dollar amounts guests leave for hotel services. 

Delivery Tips Are Falling at the Higher End

Higher delivery tips became less common by March 2026. In Popmenu’s September 2025 survey, 23% of respondents left delivery drivers 20% or more. Six months later, that share was 15%. Tips of 15% stayed at 27%. For grocery delivery, 24% said they were cutting back. Only restaurant tipping had a larger share of respondents reporting cutbacks. 

LendingTree also found fewer delivery orders. Sixteen percent had stopped using food delivery to save money. Gen Z reported larger changes. Twenty-six percent said they skip tips on takeout or delivery, and 29% said they now tip less for restaurant food.

Tipping Taxi and Rideshare Drivers in 2026

Taxi and rideshare trips have a lower tipping rate than restaurant service. In Omni’s survey, 52% said they always or often tip the driver.

Popmenu’s March survey found some consumers cutting back. Nineteen percent said they were leaving less for taxis or ride services. The published results group Uber, Lyft, and traditional taxi trips together. Intracity transportation prices were also higher in 2026. By August, they were up 8.5% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What Makes Americans Tip More in 2026?

In Omni's survey, 66% of respondents said service quality influences how much they tip. The bill amount came next at 35%, followed by personal tipping habits at 31% and the customer's financial situation at 25%. Only 9% chose suggested percentages on payment screens. Poor service often leads to a smaller tip. Fifty-four percent said they reduce their usual gratuity after a bad experience. Another 15% said they usually leave no tip. In Toast and Resy’s 2026 survey, 77% said they tip more at restaurants they visit regularly. 

Where Americans Are Pulling Back

Survey and transaction data show that tipping culture in 2026 remains relatively stable at full-service restaurants. Reported cutbacks appear more often in delivery and travel-related services. Consumers are also more willing to skip digital tip prompts when gratuity is optional. Service quality remains the strongest reported influence on tip size, far ahead of suggested percentages on payment screens.

References:

1. https://www.omnicalculator.com/reports/tip-survey
2. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_09112026.htm
3. https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/grocery-shopping-habits-survey/
4. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fed-up-consumers-cut-tips-for-restaurants-grocery-delivery-hotels-taxisride-services-and-others-according-to-popmenus-latest-study-302736449.html
5. https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/data/restaurant-tipping-trends
6. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm
7. https://blog.resy.com/newsroom/the-regulars-report-2026-resy-toast/