About Tip or Nah?

Tip or Nah? answers one question, fast: do you actually have to tip here?

Not how much. There are hundreds of calculators for that. The question that nags you at the counter is different. The screen flipped around, it's asking for 25%, and you want to know whether a tip is genuinely expected or whether you can tap zero and walk out without being the villain.

Why it exists

Tipping in the US used to live in a few clear places: the restaurant table, the bar, the cab. Then payment tablets put a tip prompt on everything, from the muffin you grabbed to the self-checkout to the register at a clothing shop. Pew Research found 72% of Americans now say tipping is expected in more places than five years ago, and only about a third find it easy to know whether or how much to tip. That confusion, and the guilt that rides along with it, is what this site is built to clear up.

The one rule: fair to you, fair to workers

Every verdict follows a single principle. We'll tell you to skip the counter prompt without guilt. We'll also tell you, just as plainly, to tip your server, your delivery driver, and your stylist well, because those are tipped-wage jobs where people count on the money. Anti-guilt is not anti-worker. Knowing where tipping really matters is what lets you tip those people properly.

How we research it

Verdicts and ranges aren't our opinion. Each one is anchored to public guidance from etiquette authorities and consumer research: The Emily Post Institute's tipping guide, Pew Research Center and Bankrate survey data, Consumer Reports, NerdWallet, and the U.S. Department of Labor for wage facts. Every page lists the sources behind its verdict, and the full list lives on the sources page. We review the ranges as new survey data is published. Our method is set out on the methodology page.

Who's behind it

Tip or Nah? is written and maintained by Milan, an independent maker who got tired of being guilt-tripped by a screen at every counter. It's not a bank or a payment company. We make money from ads, not from telling you to tip more or less. Spotted a verdict that's out of step, or a situation we're missing? Get in touch — we update when the evidence says we should.