Tipping and price levels by country: how much and how you hand it over
You pick the country, enter the amount on the bill and say what you are paying for. The tool gives the usual tip in the local currency and, for comparison, in euro, plus the total with the tip and whether rounding up is part of the custom here. The awkward part of tipping is rarely the amount. It is the uncertainty at the till: ten per cent or nothing at all, cash or card, and whether the service is already sitting on the bill. Those three questions are what the country card answers, before the waiter is standing at your table.
Country and bill
Conversion to euro uses fixed rates stored inside the tool, as of September 2026. This is not a currency converter: it never asks the network for a rate and it does not know what your bank charges on the day. These figures are useless for settling with a bank and useful for the question "am I putting down too much".
What you add
Price level in the country
| Item | Local currency | In euro |
|---|---|---|
| The table appears once a country is chosen. | ||
Tipping norms and prices are editorial reference values, as of September 2026. They come from our own notes on the ground, from menus and from the fare pages of local transport operators. Tipping is a custom, not a right: nobody can demand it, and in several countries the service is already in the price. The prices are orientation, not a promise.
Your numbers stay in your browser: the tool works locally, loads nothing and sends nothing to anyone.
How we calculate
For restaurants, cafes, taxis and city tours most countries use a percentage of the bill. For housekeeping and for porters almost everywhere uses a small fixed amount instead: per night for the first, per person or per bag for the second. That is why the middle figure changes character, not just size, when you switch the type of service. The number of people matters in two places. For fixed amounts on luggage and tours we count per person. And from a party size that differs by country, many places add a service charge on their own initiative. We tell you the threshold so that you go looking for that line instead of paying twice. The field for your own percentage overrides the country norm completely. It is there for every case where the norm does not fit: an evening where the service was exceptional, a party that sat for hours, or a place where you are a regular. Leave it empty and we use the value of the country.
Where rates and prices come from
The exchange rates are hard-coded into the tool and carry the date September 2026. They serve exactly one purpose: an order of magnitude in euro, so that 1,000 forint or 30,000 dong means something to you. They are not trading rates, not a bank rate and not a basis for settling anything. The tipping norms are editorial reference values. They come from our own notes on the ground, from menus and from the notices that venues print on their own bills. Within a country they vary: in the capital and in tourist districts the expectation runs higher than in a small town, and in a place with an international clientele higher than in the canteen next door. The three prices in the table are deliberately ordinary: a coffee, lunch in a simple place and a single fare on local transport in the capital. Those three numbers say more about a country price level than any index, because you know them from daily life and can compare them instantly. They too carry the date September 2026.
Where countries differ most
Three groups pull far apart. In the United States and Canada tipping is part of the income in service work, and anything under fifteen per cent reads as a complaint. In France, Switzerland and Scandinavia the service is included in the price by law or by collective agreement, so a tip is a genuine extra. In Japan it is not part of the custom and is occasionally handed back politely. Between them sits most of Europe at five to ten per cent, where the way you hand it over matters almost more than the size. In France coins stay on the saucer, in Czechia and Morocco it goes over in cash, in the Netherlands and Scandinavia the card terminal asks for the amount while you pay. Get that wrong and you look stingy even when you were generous. And there are countries where the tip hangs off the bill under a different name: coperto in Italy, a service charge in Hungary or in Egypt, a service charge of twelve to fifteen per cent in British restaurants. Those amounts are already settled. The card in the tool tells you which group your country falls into.
What this tool is not
It is not a currency converter. The rates are hard-coded and carry the date of publication; they are never updated and never fetched from the network. Between September 2026 and the day you travel, any currency can have moved by double digits. For settling with your bank or for bookkeeping these figures are unsuitable. It is not a price quote. Coffee, lunch and the fare are orientation values, not promises. At the airport, on the main shopping street and on the beach you pay a multiple of all three, and in a country with high inflation the figure ages faster than we can maintain it. It is not a rulebook. Tipping is a custom, not a right: nobody can demand it, and nobody may look at you sideways if you leave nothing. In several countries the service is in the price anyway, and in others it appears as its own line on the bill. And it does not know your evening. A cold meal stays a cold meal even when the norm says ten per cent. The figure in the box is a starting point for your decision, not the decision itself.