DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub take 15-30% base commission and 25-35% all-in once ads and processing hit. Verified 2026 rate cards, real math, and the way out.
Short answer: the big three delivery apps charge 15-30% base commission on delivery orders, depending on which plan tier the restaurant picks. But the base commission is not the real number. Once you add payment processing, sponsored listings, and promotion costs, the blended real cost lands at 25-35% of every marketplace order. Against a full-service restaurant's median 2.8% pre-tax margin, that's not a fee. That's the whole business model changing hands.
Every rate in this post comes from the platforms' own published merchant pricing pages, pulled in July 2026. We maintain a sourced, regularly re-verified version of this data at zay-os.com's restaurant delivery commission statistics page — if a platform changes its rate card, that page changes first.
The tiers aren't just pricing — they're visibility. Basic keeps your listing alive but buries it; Plus and Premier buy placement, wider delivery radius, and access to DashPass subscribers. In practice, most independents who "save money" on Basic watch order volume fall and end up back on Plus. Source: DoorDash merchant pricing (merchants.doordash.com), accessed July 2026. Full breakdown with a worked $30-order example at how much does DoorDash charge restaurants: on a $30 order, DoorDash keeps $4.50 on Basic, $7.50 on Plus, and $9.00 on Premier.
Note the direction of travel: both the entry tier and the pickup rate went up this year. Source: Uber Eats merchant pricing (merchants.ubereats.com), accessed July 2026.
Grubhub is the one operators most often misquote, because the headline "15%" is only the marketing commission. Stack the delivery fee and processing on a Grubhub-delivered order and the Basic tier is really ~28%. Source: Grubhub pricing and fees (get.grubhub.com), accessed July 2026.
Three costs sit on top of the rate card:
That's how a 25% Plus-plan restaurant ends up with a blended real cost of 25-35%. That range isn't ours — it falls straight out of the platforms' own rate cards plus processing and typical ad spend, and it's the figure we defend line-by-line on the statistics page.
Take a realistic mid-volume independent: 650 marketplace orders a month at a $25 average ticket.
Now put that against what the restaurant itself keeps. The National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Operations Data Abstract, drawn from more than 900 restaurants, puts the median full-service pre-tax margin at 2.8% and limited-service at 4.0%. On $195,000 of annual marketplace revenue, that's $5,460-$7,800 of profit for the restaurant — while the platforms collect $48,750 in fees on the same orders. The apps take six to nine times what the restaurant keeps.
Because the demand is real and concentrated:
When two platforms are the front door for that much demand, they price like it. There is no negotiating your way out of a duopoly.
The commission is only half the wedge. LendingTree compared identical orders across five major chains in the 10 largest US metros and found delivery-app checkouts cost 79.5% more than ordering direct — about $9.30 extra per order — once menu markups, service fees, and delivery fees stack up. Diners notice: 71% of US consumers say they prefer ordering through a restaurant's own website or app over a third-party platform, citing cost, convenience, and loyalty benefits (Tillster Phygital Index Report 2023).
Read that pair of numbers again. The platforms charge you 25-35%, charge your customer ~80% over menu, and the customer would rather order from you directly anyway.
The honest answer is "it depends what you use it for." As a discovery channel — a way for new customers to find you — marketplace economics can pencil, the same way paid advertising pencils. As your primary ordering channel, the math above says most independents are working for the platform, not the other way around. We wrote the long version, with break-even scenarios, at do restaurants make money on DoorDash, and the operator playbook for shifting volume in how to reduce Uber Eats and DoorDash commissions.
The pattern that works is not "quit the apps." It's: stay listed for discovery, and move your regulars — the people who already know your name — onto a direct channel you own. We compared the main direct-ordering options honestly (including where each one is weak) at best online ordering systems for restaurants.
Disclosure: one of those options is ours. Zay-OS is the direct-ordering operating system we built at Zay Revenue Group. The honest version of the pitch: $399-$599 per location per month, no setup fee, month-to-month. The restaurant keeps 100% of food revenue and tips; the diner pays a small order fee at checkout ($0.99 pickup, $0.99 delivery, $0 dine-in, 10% on catering). One restaurant group runs it in production today — Naya Grill in Pompano Beach and West Palm Beach, live since June 2026 — and we're onboarding new restaurants now, typically live in under 2 weeks. The break-even math against a 30% commission is in the direct-ordering payback deep-dive.
15% (Basic), 25% (Plus), or 30% (Premier) on delivery orders, plus ~6% on pickup — per DoorDash's own merchant rate card, accessed July 2026. Blended real cost with processing and ads: 25-35%.
On headline rates, DoorDash Basic and Grubhub Basic (both 15%). But Basic tiers bury your listing, and Grubhub adds ~10% delivery plus 3.05% + $0.30 processing on top. There is no cheap tier once you count everything and the lost visibility.
Most do, typically 12-18%, to claw back commission. LendingTree measured the full consumer-side stack at +79.5% versus ordering direct. That markup is also brand damage: customers compare app prices to your dine-in menu.
Usually no. The winning pattern is hybrid: keep marketplaces for new-customer discovery, move repeat customers to direct ordering where the commission is zero and the customer data is yours.
Run your own numbers — free website + lost-revenue check at grader.zay-os.com · see the platform at zay-os.com · or start directly at app.zayrev.com/signup.
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