Tipping guide by country: what is expected, what is polite, what is wasted

Almost every country on this page treats a tip as a gift you choose to give. What differs is how much of the money that looks like a tip is already in the price, and how much a visitor is expected to add. A French menu that says service is included, an Italian cover charge and a US server's 15–20% are three different things, and mixing them up is how people overpay or, less often, underpay.

This guide covers nine places for which we could read an official or institutional source: the United States, Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Türkiye. Thailand, Egypt and Morocco get a short section of their own because we found no official figure. Percentages appear only when a named source gives them, and each is marked as custom. Checked 2 October 2026.

Three layers sit behind the word tip. The first is law about wages and charges: who must receive tips, what a business has to disclose, and what counts as a charge rather than a gift. The second is custom, the amount people usually add, which tourism boards describe but no statute sets. The third is the bill itself, where a service charge, a cover charge or a "service included" line may already hold the money you would otherwise leave on the table.

Only the first layer is enforceable, and in most countries it protects staff or customers, not the amount of your tip. Wherever this page quotes a percentage, it is the second layer, and the callouts mark the first.

United States

Tipping a restaurant server is a custom with a wage rule behind it. Visit California, the state tourism board, advises tipping servers between 15% and 20%, depending on the level of service, adds a dollar per drink for bartenders unless the cocktail is complicated, 15–20% for a taxi or limo driver, and a few dollars for a rideshare driver. The same page frames these as rules of thumb, so they describe what is customary and carry no force of law.

The reason servers rely on tips is in federal wage law. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet 15 says an employer must pay a tipped worker at least $2.13 an hour in direct wages, and that the tip credit it can claim is at most $5.12 an hour, which is the gap to the $7.25 federal minimum. Tips received go to the employee, apart from a valid tip pool.

If a US bill already lists a mandatory service charge, the fact sheet says that charge is not a tip, so the line for a gratuity is still yours to fill in or leave.

Mexico

Mexico's consumer agency has a clear rule. In a release dated 10 May 2026, Profeco says a tip is a voluntary gratuity for a service received, that no provider can demand or set an amount, and that a tip cannot be added to the bill without the customer's consent. It points to Article 10 of the Federal Consumer Protection Law, which bars coercive commercial practices and charges for extras the customer has not requested or accepted.

Profeco advises reading the bill before paying and asking for any charge you did not agree to be taken off. How much to leave on top is custom, and the release does not name a percentage.

France

France writes service into the price. Under an arrêté of 27 March 1987, documents shown to customers must carry the words "Prix service compris", followed in parentheses by the rate used to pay for that service. The consumer-fraud authority, the DGCCRF, describes the pourboire as optional and says no profession can require it, unlike service, which is a percentage included in the bill.

So a French restaurant bill already pays for service. Any extra is a custom of your choosing, and none of the sources sets a percentage.

Italy

Italia.it, the national tourism site, says tipping is not compulsory and there are no established rules, but it is customary to leave close to 10% of the bill when you are satisfied. The page does not mention coperto.

Coperto is a price. The consumer association Unione Nazionale Consumatori wrote in September 2024 that extras such as coperto and servizio are legal if the customer is told before ordering, and it quotes the Lazio regional rule that price lists must be available before ordering and that extra costs for coperto are forbidden in that region. Regional law differs, so a line that is allowed in one place may be banned in another.

Germany

Berlin's official tourism site gives the most detailed guidance of any page we read. It says service is typically not included in bills in restaurants and cafés, that rounding up is standard practice among locals, and that 5–10% is suggested for casual spots and 10% for nicer places. If you pay by credit card, it advises giving the tip in cash if possible.

For taxis the page says locals usually round the fare up to the nearest euro if the ride was pleasant. For hotels it lists €1–2 per bag for porters, €2–3 a day for housekeeping and €5–10 for a concierge, depending on the service. It describes tipping in Germany as voluntary. The page is from Berlin's tourism office, and we did not find a national equivalent.

United Kingdom

The UK's rule concerns what happens to the money. GOV.UK guidance says that from 1 October 2024 employers, including agencies, must pass all tips, gratuities and service charges on to their employees. It also separates a mandatory service charge, which the customer is obliged to pay, from a discretionary one: if it is made clear that the charge is purely discretionary and there is no obligation to pay, it is a voluntary service charge.

The guidance asks businesses to make their literature consistent with what staff tell customers, so a menu line saying a charge is optional should match what the server says. We found no official percentage for the UK, so none is given.

Japan

The Japan National Tourism Organization answers the question in one line on its FAQ page: no, Japan does not have a tipping culture, and in restaurants, hotels, taxis and other services you only need to pay the amount shown on the bill.

For how to pay for the bill itself, see the money in Japan guide.

Australia

Tourism Australia says that hotels and restaurants do not add service charges to your bill and that tipping is always your choice. It adds that in upmarket restaurants it is common to tip waiters 10% of the bill for good service. That is custom, and it is stated for upmarket venues only.

Türkiye

Go Türkiye, the official tourism site, covers one case. At an esnaf lokantası, a local tradesman's restaurant, there is no service fee and you are not expected to pay a tip, though it is much appreciated. The page says nothing on sit-down restaurants, taxis or hotels, so those have no figure here. Cash matters for small tips: see our note on how much cash to carry.

Thailand, Egypt and Morocco

We searched the official tourism pages for all three and did not find a readable page that gives a tipping amount. The Morocco and Egypt pages carried no tipping guidance at all. A tip in any of the three is custom and no law we found sets it.

What the sources do show is how much each economy runs on cash. Our cash declaration guide cites the Bank of Thailand's 2021 survey, where cash was 86.8% of everyday payments, and Bank Al-Maghrib's 2024 report, where 68% of card operations in Morocco were cash withdrawals. A tip in those countries is more likely to be handed over as notes, and a card machine may not have a tip option.

Read the bill before you add anything. The words that matter are "service compris" in France, "servizio" and "coperto" in Italy, and "service charge" in English-speaking countries. A line like that is a price, and none of the sources treats a separate tip on top of it as an obligation.

• Carry small notes in local currency where cash is the norm. Berlin's tourism office advises giving the tip in cash when you pay by card.

• Ask what a charge covers if the bill is unclear. In the UK a discretionary service charge must be presented as optional, and in Mexico an unconsented tip line can be removed.

• Match the local range, not your own. A US-style 20% in Germany is above the 5–10% Berlin suggests, and in Japan the official answer is zero.

A tip is wasted when it duplicates a charge you have already paid, or when the culture does not use the practice. In Japan there is no tipping culture to join, and in France the service you would reward is in the price. A tip is well spent where the sources describe it as custom and the staff depend on it, which is how the US sources frame servers.

The UK's pass-on rule has applied since 1 October 2024, so tips and service charges paid in a British restaurant must be passed on to staff. Profeco's reminder on voluntary tips in Mexico is dated 10 May 2026. The Italian consumer article is from September 2024, and several of the other pages show no date, so check the page in each callout before a long trip.

Check the line in each country's callout, carry small notes for places that expect cash, and use the bill as your guide. If you are planning Europe, the tourist taxes guide covers a different charge that also lands on the bill, and the cash guide lists what you may carry across a border.