What DoorDash, Uber Eats & Grubhub Actually Cost You
In 2026, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub take roughly 15-30% of each delivery order in commission, and once payment processing and in-app promotions stack on top, the blended real-world cost commonly lands between 25% and 40% of the order. For an independent restaurant, that is usually the single largest controllable cost in the business.
Updated August 31, 2026
The 2026 numbers, app by app
Each marketplace publishes tiered rates. The lower tier costs less but buries you in the app; the higher tiers buy visibility. Here is where they actually sit in 2026:
| Marketplace | Commission tiers | Also note |
|---|---|---|
| DoorDash | 15% Basic · 25% Plus · 30% Premier | 6% on pickup orders |
| Uber Eats | 15-30% depending on tier | Plus processing on top |
| Grubhub | 5% Basic · 15% Plus · 20% All-access | + optional 10% if Grubhub delivers |
What that does to your margin
The National Restaurant Association reports a median pre-tax margin for independent restaurants of roughly 2.8-4.0%. Marketplace commissions do not come out of that margin - they dwarf it.
Work a realistic example: an independent doing 650 marketplace orders a month at a $25 average ticket is $16,250 in monthly marketplace sales. At a blended 25% cost, that is about $4,060 a month - roughly $48,750 a year handed to the marketplaces. That is a concrete, attributable number, not a vague 'you're losing a lot.'
a year to marketplace fees, for one independent restaurant
of an order at the high end, once fees and promos stack up
The part a price markup doesn't fix
Many owners already mark their in-app menu up 15-30% to offset commission, and that is sensible. But it only addresses the fee. It does not address the bigger problem: on a marketplace, the platform owns the customer relationship. The email, the phone number, the order history, the ability to bring that diner back - all of it sits with the app, not with you.
That is true whether or not you have marked up your prices. You can raise the ticket and still be renting access to your own customers.
Read the full breakdown, or the way out
Per-app detail: the DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub fee breakdowns each go tier by tier. If you'd rather see how restaurants actually move diners onto ordering they own, start with the step-by-step guide.