How to Price Your Menu for Delivery Apps Without Losing Money (2026)

Q: How much commission do delivery apps actually take?

DoorDash runs three marketplace plans: Basic at 15%, Plus at 25%, and Premier at 30% on delivery orders, with pickup orders a flat 6%. Uber Eats runs up to 30% on its top marketplace tier, with lower plans in the 15-25% range. Grubhub's marketplace commission ranges from 5% to 40% depending on the plan and add-ons, plus a flat 10% on Grubhub Direct.

Q: How much should I mark up my menu for delivery apps?

To fully protect your in-store profit margin, the markup has to be higher than the commission percentage itself: a 15% commission needs roughly a 17.6% markup, 20% commission needs about 25%, 25% commission needs about 33.3%, and 30% commission needs about 42.9%. Simply adding the commission percentage to the price (e.g. adding 30% for a 30% cut) still leaves the order short of your normal margin.

Q: Can marking up delivery prices too much hurt sales?

Yes. A delivery-platform study of over 4,500 restaurants found that noticeable menu price markups led to significantly fewer sales and much lower reorder rates, and when customers notice a markup, only about 22% say they'd still complete the order through the app. That's why most independents land on a partial markup rather than a full one.

Q: What food cost percentage should I target when pricing for delivery?

Cost-plus pricing generally targets a 28-35% food cost percentage on the underlying dish before commission is factored in. Once you know that baseline, you can decide how much of the commission to absorb versus pass through, rather than guessing at a markup number.

Q: Should I charge the same prices on delivery apps as in-store?

Most operators shouldn't, and most platforms allow different pricing by channel. The average independent restaurant runs on a 3-5% net margin, and a marketplace order at in-store pricing can wipe out the entire profit on the plate once a 25-30% commission comes off the top — so charging in-store prices on delivery is usually a loss, not just a thinner margin.

Updated August 13, 2026

Delivery apps don't just take a cut of the order — they take a cut of a razor-thin restaurant margin that was already 3-5% before the commission hit. Charging your in-store price on a delivery app is one of the fastest ways to sell food at a loss and not notice until you look at the numbers. Here's what the platforms actually charge in 2026, the markup math that protects your margin, and why marking up too aggressively can backfire.

What the platforms actually charge

Every major platform runs tiered marketplace commission plans, and the tier a truck is on depends on which plan it signed up for, not just order volume. DoorDash's three marketplace plans are Basic (15%), Plus (25%), and Premier (30%) on delivery orders, with pickup orders a flat 6% regardless of plan. Uber Eats runs a similar structure, from a 15-25% range on lower plans up to 30% on its top marketplace tier (see our full Uber Eats fee breakdown for the exact tier names). Grubhub is the widest range of the three: marketplace commission runs anywhere from 5% to 40% depending on the plan and add-ons selected, plus a flat 10% on orders placed through Grubhub Direct.

Platform	Delivery commission	Pickup / direct
DoorDash	15% (Basic) / 25% (Plus) / 30% (Premier)	6% flat (pickup)
Uber Eats	15-25% (lower plans) up to 30% (top tier)	7-10% (pickup only)
Grubhub	5-40% depending on plan/add-ons	10% flat (Grubhub Direct)

The markup math that protects your margin

The instinct is to add the commission percentage straight to the price — a 30% commission means a 30% markup, the thinking goes. That undercounts what's actually needed, because the commission is taken off the marked-up price, not the original one. To fully restore your original dollar profit, the markup has to run higher than the commission rate: a 15% commission needs roughly a 17.6% markup, a 20% commission needs about 25%, a 25% commission needs about 33.3%, and a 30% commission needs about 42.9%.

Commission rate	Markup needed to fully offset it
15%	~17.6%
20%	~25%
25%	~33.3%
30%	~42.9%

Worked example

Take a $12 burger that clears $8.40 in dining-room profit after food cost. Sold at that same $12 price on a 30% commission plan, the platform takes $3.60, and the truck nets $8.40 minus that cut — the equivalent of only $4.80 in profit, a little more than half of what the in-store order earns. Simply adding 30% to reach $15.60 still leaves the truck more than a dollar short of the original $8.40. Only the full 42.9% markup, pricing the burger at $17.14 on that platform, restores the original dining-room margin dollar-for-dollar.

Three markup approaches

Full margin protection isn't always the right call, and most independents don't run it on every item. There are three common approaches:

Full markup — price to fully protect the in-store margin (the 42.9%-style math above). Makes sense when delivery orders strain the kitchen during a rush and you'd rather have fewer, fully-profitable orders than many thin ones.
Partial markup — cover food cost plus part of the margin, and treat the rest of the commission as the cost of a marketing channel that reaches customers you wouldn't otherwise get. Most independent operators land here.
No markup — only defensible when delivery orders are genuinely incremental volume on a kitchen with real spare capacity and idle labor, which is rarer than most operators assume, especially on a food truck with a small service window.

Whichever approach you pick, start from a target food cost percentage on the underlying dish (cost-plus pricing generally aims for 28-35% food cost) before layering on the delivery markup, rather than guessing at a final delivery price directly.

Why marking up too much can backfire

Full margin protection has a real cost: customers notice. A delivery-platform study covering more than 4,500 restaurants found that noticeable menu price markups led to significantly fewer sales and dramatically lower reorder rates, and when customers spot a markup versus in-store pricing, only about 22% said they'd still complete the order through the app. That's the practical reason most independents settle on a partial markup instead of full margin protection — a smaller, less noticeable increase that still recovers some of the commission without driving away the price-sensitive customers delivery apps are best at bringing in.

Frequently asked questions

How much commission do delivery apps actually take?

DoorDash: 15-30% depending on plan (6% pickup-only). Uber Eats: 15-30% depending on tier. Grubhub: 5-40% depending on plan and add-ons, plus 10% flat on Grubhub Direct.

How much should I mark up my menu for delivery apps?

To fully offset commission: ~17.6% markup for 15% commission, ~25% for 20%, ~33.3% for 25%, and ~42.9% for 30% — higher than the commission rate itself, since commission is taken off the marked-up price.

Can marking up delivery prices too much hurt sales?

Yes — a study of 4,500+ restaurants found noticeable markups cut sales and reorder rates significantly, and only ~22% of customers who spot a markup still complete the order.

What food cost percentage should I target when pricing for delivery?

Cost-plus pricing generally targets 28-35% food cost on the dish itself, before the delivery markup is added.

Should I charge the same prices on delivery apps as in-store?

Usually not — with a 3-5% average net margin, in-store pricing on a 25-30% commission order can wipe out the profit entirely rather than just thinning it.

Get the paperwork right before you list on delivery apps.

StreetLegal helps food truck operators keep licenses, health permits, and commissary agreements current, so the address-matching and documentation checks delivery platforms require don't hold up your listing.