Delivery app fees in 2026: what restaurants really pay

The three big apps publish their plans, and they run from 5% to 30% of each order, with the higher rates buying more reach and a lower delivery fee for your guest. What you keep is smaller than the plan name suggests. In the example below, a $30 order with $9.00 of food and $1.50 of packaging leaves $10.50 at a 30% commission, and it takes a $42.86 app price to still bring in $30 after the commission ($45.00 if you cover the packaging too).

Rates vary by market, plan and contract, and the apps change them. Treat this as a map for reading your own agreement, not a replacement for it. Everything below comes from the platforms' own pricing pages and from city pages, as read on October 8, 2026.

What the apps publish

Each app lists its plans on a pricing page for US merchants. None of the three shows an effective date, so treat the rates as what each page listed on October 8, 2026. All rates are a share of the order's menu price, not of your profit.

DoorDash

The DoorDash merchant pricing page lists three plans. Delivery commission is 15% on Basic, 25% on Plus and 30% on Premier, and pickup is 6% on all three. Basic is a store listing to nearby guests. Plus adds a wider delivery radius, a lower delivery fee for the guest and access to DashPass members at no extra cost. Premier adds the widest range, an in-app Sponsored Listing and a minimum-orders refund: the page says to accept at least 20 orders a month or the commission for that month is refunded, with conditions in its footnotes. The page says the commission covers the listing, Dasher delivery, customer support and credit card processing, and that Promotions and Sponsored Listings are optional extras. It also says you can set different prices for delivery orders.

Uber Eats

The Uber Eats merchant pricing page lists a Marketplace Fee of 20% on Lite, 25% on Plus and 30% on Premium. Plus and Premium open with a 0% intro rate for 30 days. The pickup fee is 7% if you send proof that in-app pickup prices match your in-store prices, and 10% if you don't. Lite gets you found when guests search for your store. Plus adds more visibility, a lower delivery fee for the guest, and ads and offers, and Uber One orders cost an extra 5%. Premium includes Uber One at no extra cost, refunds the fees in any of the first six months you get fewer than 20 orders (conditions apply), and matches ad spending up to $100 a month. There is also a self-delivery plan at 15% (25% when you use Uber's delivery people for some orders) and a Webshop at 2.5% plus $0.29 an order, which the page calls commission-free online ordering.

Grubhub

The Grubhub pricing and fees page lists a Basic plan at a 5% marketing commission, Plus at 15% and All-access at 20%. Each has the same listing, and the higher plans come with a lower customer delivery fee. Delivery by Grubhub's drivers is a separate fee that starts at 10%, and the page says pricing in select markets may differ. If you deliver yourself, it lists no delivery fee. On the page's starting figures, then, Basic with Grubhub drivers is at least 5% plus 10%, or 15%, which is more than the headline suggests.

Compare plans by what they include, not only by the rate. As the pages describe them, the lowest plans come with the least reach and a higher delivery fee for your guest than the plans above them.

The other charges owners see

The commission isn't always the whole bill, and the three pages are not the same on the extras.

• Card processing. DoorDash says its commission covers it. Uber lists payment processing among what its Marketplace plans include, though its city footnotes name a separate 3% credit card processing fee for its New York City Lite plan. Grubhub's page says its pricing does not include payment processing fees and gives no rate. DoorDash also says its Online Ordering orders are commission-free but carry a payment processing fee, again with no rate.
• Marketing and promotions. These are optional on all three, and they are where a bill can grow. DoorDash lists Promotions and Sponsored Listings. Uber lists ads and offers. Grubhub lists a monthly ad credit equal to your commission rate, with conditions in its footnote. A credit you can only use on ads is still money you have to spend to get it.
• Membership orders. On Uber's Plus plan, Uber One orders cost an extra 5%.
• Delivery by their drivers. On Grubhub it is a separate fee, as above.

Your payout statement shows what really came out, and the page rate is only where to start. Our delivery commission guide shows how to turn a month of statements into your real commission rate.

Where cities cap the fees

Some cities limit what an app can charge a restaurant. Uber's page says its marketplace fees “may differ depending on applicable regulations in your market”, and Grubhub's says pricing may be subject to regulatory limits depending on your jurisdiction. Below is what four city pages say. This is not legal advice, and the pages are not all current, so ask the city agency named whether your restaurant is covered.

New York City

The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) says in its fee cap flyer that city law caps these fees at 15% to deliver the order, 5% for a basic service that lets you receive delivery and pickup orders and be listed and searchable, 20% for an enhanced service, and 3% to process an electronic payment. The enhanced fee is allowed only if the app also offers the basic service at or under the 5% cap, and the 3% limit has one exception: an app that pays more than 3% and can show proof. DCWP's new laws page says Local Law 79 of 2025, effective June 30, 2025, added the enhanced service fee and requires monthly itemized fee statements. It adds that the law does not stop a restaurant from charging different prices on an app. The flyer also says DCWP is preparing a report on the caps and asked for comments by May 6, 2026, so the numbers may change. Uber's own page lists its New York City Lite plan at 15% for delivery, 5% for pickup and 3% for card processing.

Seattle, San Francisco and Portland

Seattle's Consumer Protection Division told platforms in a December 2022 memo that the city's delivery commission cap, chapter 7.30 of its municipal code, took effect on November 30, 2022. A platform cannot charge more than 15% for delivery services within city limits, but a restaurant can agree to pay more for services beyond delivery.

San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development said in a November 15, 2022 FAQ that a covered restaurant cannot be charged more than 15% of the menu price of an online order, with taxes and tips left out. It adds that from January 31, 2023 the cap does not apply to an app that offers every covered restaurant a “core delivery service” at 15% or less without requiring other paid services. Core service leaves out advertising and credit card processing. That page is more than three years old, so check what applies now.

Portland's city code, chapter 7.27 caps delivery at 15% of the purchase price per order and takeout at 4%. An app may pass on a transaction fee equal to what its payment processor charges it, and the code lets an app charge more than the caps only for extra services and only if it also offers the capped options. These are four cities. Others have rules, and most places have none.

What you keep from one order

The commission comes off the menu price, before anything else is paid. Here is one order with example numbers, so you can swap in your own.

Now change only the commission. Labor to cook and pack is a cost of its own, so the last column takes off $9.00 for it, the same example figure our delivery guide uses.

Every 5 points of commission costs $1.50 on this order. That is why the plan name matters less than the rate on your statement. Notice, too, that at the top rate almost nothing is left for rent.

What price on the app restores your margin

To keep what the same order leaves you without the commission, divide the price by 1 minus the rate. The app takes its cut from the higher price too, so the markup is bigger than the commission.

Know the limits before you raise anything. A higher price can mean fewer app orders, and the apps may set their own rules on pricing: DoorDash says its 6% pickup rate depends on pickup prices matching in-store prices, and Uber says the same for its 7% pickup fee, while DoorDash says you can set different delivery prices. San Francisco and Portland say an app cannot restrict your prices, and DCWP says New York City's law does not stop different app prices. Your own contract decides what applies to you.

This week

1. 01Find your real rate for each app. Take last month's payout statement, take sales tax and tips out, and divide what the app kept by your menu sales. The delivery commission guide has the formula.
2. 02Open your dashboard and write down your plan. Note the delivery rate, the pickup rate, and whether card processing, ads, promotions or membership orders are charged on top.
3. 03Read your agreement for three things: any rule on the prices you may charge on the app, what you have agreed to spend on ads or promotions, and how the plan can be changed.
4. 04Check whether your city caps fees. If you are in one of the four cities above, read its page and compare it with your statement. If a charge looks wrong, ask the named agency, not the app.
5. 05Re-price with your numbers. Put your food and packaging costs and your real rate into the calculator, and decide which dishes should leave the app menu.