You’re waiting on a delicious pizza, and you’re standing there holding your phone in one hand and your wallet in the other, thinking how much to tip for pizza delivery. The thing is, no one has any sort of definitive answer. Some people think they can tip two dollars and call it a day, and others think tipping less than 25% is an absolute crime against humanity (if you’ve ever read Reddit threads about tipping etiquette, you know how overzealous some people can get).
But let’s take a step back and approach it like a rational human being. There really is no single number that applies in every situation. There are just a few small criteria that when added together, should help you get to a number that feels…adequate. For you and for your beloved pizza delivery driver.
First: how far did the driver come from?
This one is a bit underrated. No one factors distance into their tipping sizes, but it is important. If you live three blocks from the pizzeria and the driver basically drove downhill for a long time, you could probably tip based on the baseline – anywhere from 10% to 15% of the bill or around somewhere between a flat 3-5 dollars if you’re not calculating percentages. If you lived within easy reach of takeout, then I believe this is an easy situation because, think—you ordered, it arrived, you ate. Not a big deal. But if you are living in the suburbs, or on the side of some rural road that winds through town 20 minutes, that delivery wasn’t a “normal” delivery. More gas, more time, more wrong turns or sketchy weather conditions. At this time, putting a little extra tip is just… “proper” tipping etiquette. Think of it as “taking up the extra inconvenience”.
Okay, but was the service really good?
Yes, and I know that the “just tip 20% no matter what” group may not like this, but come on! The experience matters! Seriously. If your pizza showed up hot & fresh, and maybe actually early, and the driver was polite (or at a minimum, wasn’t weirdly hostile), then hell yeah—go high! Tip 18%, 20%, add in a couple of bucks. They earned it!!
But if the pizza shows up COLD, CRUSHED, 45 MINUTES LATE, and the driver acts like they are mad you ordered dinner in the first place? That’s tough. It’s still their job, and typically not one person’s fault if just anything goes wrong with deliveries—kitchens get busy, GPS fails, traffic happens. But if the experience as a whole completely sucked, you can tip low. Just… maybe don’t stiff them completely unless you really had a horrible interaction. Like, maybe they threw the pizza on your porch, and peeled out… THAT could be classified as a “no tip” situation. Picture this: you’re doing that job in the middle of a snowstorm.
Seriously.
If you’ve ever driven in a deluge of rain or snow, or in one of those frigid January nights that prevented you from opening your car door, you can appreciate what we are saying: delivering pizza in that mess is no joke. Yes, they choose to do it, but it is still a nice thing to recognize the fact that someone is braving disgusting weather just so you don’t have to cook.
If it is coming down hard out there, and someone makes it to your door with your pizza not too much looking like it went over the handlebars of a bike, throw in a little extra.
It does not have to be extravagant—a few dollars over the price you typically put down should suffice. But, it’s worth something.
What did you order, anyway?
Did you just order a single medium cheese pizza with nothing else? An easy run. Or, did you place one of those $80 party orders with five pizzas, drinks, sides, dipping sauces, and weird half-and-half topping instructions? Yes, that is more work.
Then it means: more time at the restaurant. More bags to carry. Possibly more stairs to walk up.
Big or complicated orders deserve big tips. Even if the percentage seems scary high—like tipping $15 on a $75 bill.
If the driver has to transport a feast to your door, that’s basically the deal. Especially if it arrives in one piece.
Is there a ‘minimum tip’?
Most would say yes, and I would agree. Like, if you ordered one small thing and live a mile down the street, giving less than $2 or $3 just feels… wrong. Delivery jobs are not the highest paid, and tips comprise part of your delivery person’s income. Not that you need to feel guilty about this—it is how delivery economy works.
So, unless the driver offended your cat, or ran over your mailbox somehow, a couple bucks minimum is probably the decent floor. If you can pay cash and round it to the next five awkward, even better. It’s not about being precise. In general, fair is the goal.
One last thing: this is not Uber Eats.
It’s easy to forget that pizza delivery does not need to be ‘in the same lane’ as Uber Eats. Most pizzerias are not taking their chances on app drivers—usually, these are people who are directly employed by the restaurant. Their income does not rely on bonus fees or suggested tips on an app screen, and that little bit extra you finance does ultimately get to them while pizza is just one industry that has a tipping based economy.
So, if you are minding how much to tip, think about all of it. How far, how hard, how messy of day it is. Think about what you would like to hope someone might have thought of if you were traversing potholes in a ramshackle truck, bringing hot food to a stranger’s door. Then throw in a buck. That would be the average amount.
By the way, once you have tipped your pizza delivery driver, maybe take a moment to consider hotel housekeeping too. That’s an entire other way of tipping… and it’s just as complicated.
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