Tipping at Bars and Coffee Shops — What's Actually Expected

Bartender and barista tipping norms, decoded. When to tip per drink, when to tip on a tab, and when it's okay to skip the tip jar entirely.

8 min read · Updated

Two Very Different Situations

Bars and coffee shops both involve someone making you a drink, but the tipping expectations are quite different. Bartenders in many states earn a reduced tipped minimum wage, similar to restaurant servers. Baristas almost always earn at least full minimum wage, often more. That wage difference is the foundation of why the tipping norms aren't the same — even though the payment screen at both places might suggest identical percentages.

Tipping at Bars

The Per-Drink Method

For casual drinking — you walk up to the bar, order a beer or a simple mixed drink, and take it back to your seat — the standard tip is $1 to $2 per drink.

This per-drink method works well when you're paying cash for each round and not running a tab.

The Tab Method

If you open a tab and pay at the end of the night, switch to percentage-based tipping: 18-20% on the total. Here's why: when you're on a tab, the bartender is tracking your drinks, remembering your preferences, and providing ongoing service throughout the evening. That's closer to the restaurant server model, and percentage tipping reflects it better.

If you run a $60 tab over the course of an evening, a $10-12 tip (roughly 18-20%) is appropriate. If you had 8 drinks, that works out to about $1.25-1.50 per drink — right in the normal range.

Craft Cocktails Deserve More

A bartender who spends 3-4 minutes building you a handcrafted cocktail — muddling fresh herbs, measuring precise ratios, double-straining into a chilled coupe, expressing an orange peel — is performing a skilled craft. That drink probably costs $14-18, and tipping $1 on it feels wrong because it is. Tip $2-3 per craft cocktail, or 18-20% if you're on a tab.

Think of it this way: the effort difference between popping a bottle cap and making a proper Penicillin is enormous. Your tip should acknowledge that.

Open Bar Events

At weddings, corporate events, and parties with an open bar, the drinks are free to you but the bartenders are still working. Tip $1-2 per drink if there's a tip jar available. Some hosts explicitly request no tipping (and have paid gratuity in advance), which is their prerogative — don't argue about it, just enjoy the party.

Buying Rounds

If you're buying a round for your group, tip on the whole round, not just your individual drink. Five beers at $1 per drink = $5 tip. Don't short the bartender because you're being generous to your friends.

Tipping at Coffee Shops

This is the section where we need to be the most direct, because coffee shop tipping has become one of the most confusing and emotionally fraught tipping scenarios in everyday life.

The iPad Flip

You know the moment. You order a $5 latte. The barista turns the iPad toward you. The screen shows three options: 18%, 22%, 25%. Maybe there's a small "No Tip" or "Custom" option tucked in the corner. The barista is standing right there, watching. You feel a wave of social pressure and tap 22% before you even think about it.

That $1.10 tip on a latte isn't going to ruin you financially, but the pressure mechanism is worth understanding. The tip screen is a business decision, not a social norm. The business chose those percentages. The business chose to face the screen toward you. The business benefits from you feeling awkward enough to tip, because tips supplement wages the business would otherwise pay.

Here's the honest truth: you do not owe a tip for counter-service coffee. Tipping $0 at a coffee shop is completely socially acceptable. The person behind you in line is not judging you. The barista processes hundreds of transactions a day and does not remember who tipped and who didn't.

When Tipping at Coffee Shops Makes Sense

That said, there are times when tipping your barista is a genuinely kind and appropriate gesture:

When You Shouldn't Feel Pressured

Counter Service vs. Table Service

The core distinction in both bars and coffee shops is whether you're getting counter service or table service.

Counter Service

You walk up, order, receive your item, and leave. The interaction is brief and transactional. Tipping norms:

Table Service

Someone comes to your table, takes your order, brings your drinks, checks on you, processes your payment tableside. This is ongoing personal service over an extended period. Tipping norms:

The distinction matters because some bars and coffee shops have hybrid models — you order at the counter but they bring the drink to your table. In that case, lean toward counter service tipping norms unless the server continues to attend to you.

Tip Jar Etiquette

The classic tip jar — a glass jar on the counter, sometimes with a clever sign — is lower pressure than the digital screen, and that's by design. The tip jar is visible but passive. Nobody sees whether you put money in it.

Here's how to think about the tip jar:

Tip jars are less controversial than digital prompts precisely because they don't put you on the spot. The optional, anonymous nature of the tip jar is honestly how most low-service tipping should work.

The Bigger Picture

The expansion of tipping into counter-service coffee shops, fast casual restaurants, and self-serve businesses is part of a broader trend called tip creep. As we cover in our USA tipping etiquette guide, the lines between "this is expected" and "this is a pressure tactic" have blurred significantly.

Here's a simple framework:

Being a good tipper doesn't mean tipping everyone for everything. It means tipping appropriately: generously where it's earned and expected, moderately where it's appreciated, and without guilt where it's not warranted.

Need to calculate a tip for your next outing? Our tip calculator handles the math so you can focus on enjoying your drink.