The common belief about tipping culture in America is that it’s out of control. Higher overall menu costs, rising mandatory service fees on food delivery apps, and the proliferation of tablet-based transactions mean tipping prompts now appear in situations where tipping was never the norm. As someone who works on the team running a payment platform processing thousands of payments daily, I can confirm that this belief is only half true, especially for small businesses.
Tipping fatigue is real, but it’s not preventing Americans from tipping altogether. Our 2025 analysis of 89,068 verified tipping transactions, across all 50 states, shows that Americans are more selective than ever about when and how much to tip.
