What Delivery App Commissions Really Cost Your Restaurant

A delivery app order looks like found money. The tablet chimes, the food goes out, and a deposit shows up later. But that deposit is smaller than the ticket, sometimes a lot smaller, and the difference comes straight out of the thin slice that was supposed to be your profit. Most owners know the commission rate. Fewer have worked out what it actually costs them in a month.

This post walks through how marketplace commission works, does the math on a clearly hypothetical restaurant, and shows where the money can come back.

How delivery app commission works

Delivery marketplaces such as DoorDash and Uber Eats charge restaurants a percentage of each order. Rates vary by plan and contract, but marketplaces typically charge 15-30% commission per order. Lower tiers usually mean less visibility or fewer services; higher tiers usually include delivery and more exposure in the app.

The commission is taken from the order subtotal before you are paid. Card processing is often bundled in. The guest may also pay delivery and service fees, but those go to the marketplace, not to you.

Why the percentage is bigger than it looks

Here is the part that surprises people. A 25% commission does not take 25% of your profit. It takes 25% of your revenue, and your profit is only a small part of that revenue. Food, labor, rent, packaging and utilities have already claimed most of it.

So the right question is not "what percentage do they take?" but "how much is left after they take it?" The worked example below makes that concrete.

A worked example (hypothetical numbers)

Imagine a restaurant that sells $10,000 a month through a delivery app, at a 25% commission. Say its food, labor, packaging and other costs for those orders add up to 70% of sales, leaving a 30% margin before commission.

In this example, the app keeps $2,500 a month and the restaurant keeps $500. The same orders placed directly would leave $2,700 before the cost of the ordering software. Over a year, that hypothetical gap is more than $20,000.

You will not move every app order to direct, and you should not expect to. But the example shows why even a modest shift matters. If a quarter of those hypothetical app orders became direct orders, that alone would keep $625 a month in commission with the restaurant.

The costs that do not show up on the statement

Commission is the line item everyone sees. These are the ones that are easier to miss:

• Promotions you fund. In-app discounts and "free delivery" offers are often paid partly or fully by the restaurant.
• Marked-up menus. Many restaurants raise app prices to cover commission, which can make you look expensive next to a competitor.
• Refunds and errors. Missing-item complaints may be refunded out of your payout, sometimes without much say from you.
• The guest relationship. The marketplace usually keeps the guest's contact details, so you cannot invite them back directly.
• Counter chaos. A separate tablet per app, each needing someone to watch it and re-key orders.

Run your own numbers in ten minutes

Pull last month's marketplace statement and fill in this short worksheet:

1. Total sales through each app last month.
2. Total commission and fees deducted.
3. Any promotions or refunds you funded.
4. Divide total deductions by total sales. That is your true effective rate.
5. Multiply your deductions by twelve. That is the yearly cost.
6. Estimate what share of those orders came from guests who already knew you (regulars, people who searched your name).

That last number is the important one. Guests who already know you did not need a marketplace to find you. Those are the orders most worth moving to direct.

If you are on more than one app, do the worksheet for each. Effective rates can differ quite a bit between plans, and you may find one app brings genuinely new guests while another mostly carries your regulars at a higher cost.

Questions to ask about your marketplace contract

Commission rates are not the only terms that affect what you keep. Before renewing or changing plans, pull out your agreement (or ask your account rep) and get clear answers to these questions:

• Which plan am I on, and what exactly does the commission cover: delivery, marketing placement, processing?
• Who pays for refunds when a guest reports a missing or wrong item, and can I dispute them?
• Which promotions am I opted into, and how much of each discount comes out of my payout?
• Are there rules about my prices, for example whether my direct menu can be cheaper than my app menu?
• How do I leave, and how much notice do I need to give?

Write the answers down next to your worksheet. Owners are often surprised to find they were enrolled in a promotion or a higher tier they did not mean to keep. Even if you stay on every app, understanding the terms lets you choose the plan that fits how you actually use it, rather than the one you signed up for on day one.

Where the money comes back

The answer is not to quit the apps overnight. It is to give guests an easy, direct way to order, and remind them it exists. Our guide to commission-free online ordering covers this in detail; the short version is below.

Then bring regulars back on your own channels. A text about Thursday's special costs a fraction of a commission and reaches people who already like your food.

Track the shift month by month

What gets measured gets moved. Each month, compare app sales with direct sales and watch the share of direct orders grow. Look at payouts and statements together so you can see what each channel really leaves you.

A monthly commission checklist

• Calculate your true effective marketplace rate from last month's statements.
• Compare app sales and direct sales, and note the direct share.
• Check which app promotions you funded and whether they brought new guests.
• Put a "order direct next time" card in every marketplace bag.
• Send one email or text to your opted-in guests about something new.
• Make sure your website loads fast with a clear Order button. Our free health report checks it.

Commission is a cost of finding new guests. It should not be the cost of keeping the ones you already have. When you are ready to sell direct, get started.