Third-Party Delivery Margin Calculator
Shows the true margin impact of accepting orders through DoorDash, Grubhub, or Uber Eats (15–30% platform commission) versus selling the same item dine-in. Computes net margin on delivery, net margin dine-in, the dollar margin lost per order, the delivery menu premium needed to match dine-in margin, and the annual impact at 50 orders per day. The #1 source of hidden margin destruction in full-service restaurants.
Calculator
Adjust the inputs below; the result updates instantly.
Item economics
Delivery channel costs
Net margin — delivery (%)
- Dollar margin lost per order vs. dine-in
- $8.00
- Break-even delivery menu markup needed (%)
- 99.88%
- Break-even delivery price ($)
- $35.98
- Annual margin impact at 50 delivery orders/day
- $146,000.00
- Summary
- Delivery margin 25.1% vs. dine-in margin 69.5% — the platform commission and channel costs destroy 44.4% of margin per order. To match dine-in margin dollars, the delivery menu price would need to be 99.9% higher — from $18.00 to $35.98. At 50 delivery orders per day, this channel costs $146000.00 in lost margin annually versus selling the same orders dine-in.
How this calculator works
Third-party delivery commissions — typically 15–30% of the order total on platforms such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub — come directly off the top of revenue before any operating cost is paid. Combined with packaging materials, credit card processing fees, and the labor cost of packing and handing off the order, the delivery channel can reduce the margin on a standard menu item from 65–70% (dine-in) to 20–35% (delivery) on the same item at the same price.
The calculator shows this margin compression explicitly by computing the net margin on the delivery order and the net margin on the equivalent dine-in order side-by-side. It then reports the dollar margin lost per order, the delivery menu markup required to recover the same margin dollars as dine-in, and the annual impact at 50 delivery orders per day.
Why dine-in margin is the comparison baseline
The dine-in margin used for comparison is: 1 minus food cost percentage minus the credit card processing fee. It does not include labor (assumed sunk in the dine-in schedule), rent, or overhead — this is a variable margin comparison, not a fully-loaded P&L comparison. The goal is to show the incremental margin destroyed by the delivery channel costs relative to the same item sold in the dining room.
If you want a fully-loaded comparison, add your occupancy cost, administrative overhead, and dine-in labor cost to both sides — the relative margin destruction from the delivery commission remains the same, but the absolute margin numbers will be lower across both channels.
The break-even delivery menu premium
Most third-party platforms allow operators to set delivery-channel prices independently from dine-in. The break-even premium calculation answers: at what delivery price does the operator recover the same absolute margin dollars as a dine-in sale of the same item?
The formula solves for the delivery price P' such that:
Absolute margin on delivery at P' = Absolute margin on dine-in at P
Setting the packaging cost and allocated labor as fixed dollar amounts per order (not percentages of the delivery price), the break-even delivery price is:
P' = (dine-in margin dollars + packaging + labor) / (1 − food cost % − commission % − card fee %)
The resulting premium percentage is typically 30–45% above the dine-in price on the default inputs. Whether the market will accept that premium depends on the concept and the competitive delivery landscape in the trade area.
Annual impact at 50 orders per day
The annual impact figure projects the per-order margin gap over 50 daily delivery orders for 365 days. The 50-order figure is illustrative — a modest delivery volume for a full-service restaurant with delivery capability. Adjust mentally based on your actual delivery order volume. The calculation scales linearly: if the shop does 100 orders per day, double the annual figure; at 25 orders per day, halve it.
This is an operating diagnostic. For tax treatment of delivery channel revenue, contract review for platform terms, or structural decisions about channel mix, consult a licensed CPA or a restaurant-specific operating consultant with delivery channel expertise.
Third-party delivery commissions (15–30% of the order total) come directly off the top of revenue — before food cost, labor, or any other expense. On a $18 menu item with a 25% commission, the operator receives $13.50 before incurring any cost. Food cost at 28% on the $18 sell price is $5.04, leaving $8.46. After packaging ($1.50), card fees ($0.45), and allocated labor ($2.00), the operator nets $4.51 on a $18 item — a 25% margin versus the same item served dine-in at roughly 69.5% margin. The margin is not just compressed; it is destroyed on most items. The calculator makes this explicit by showing dine-in margin and delivery margin side-by-side on the same item.
Resources
Links marked sponsoredmay earn The Fennec Lab a commission. They do not affect the calculator's output. See disclosures.
- National Restaurant Association — Delivery and Off-Premise Research — NRA annual industry forecast, including the delivery channel margin impact, off-premise revenue trends, and the commission-rate landscape across major third-party platforms.
- Toast — Third-Party Delivery Commission Calculator — Toast POS guide to understanding third-party delivery fees, commission structures by platform, and strategies for building a delivery-channel P&L that surfaces the true margin impact.
- OpenTable — Restaurant Off-Premise Strategy Guide — OpenTable resource hub on off-premise strategy, including when to use third-party platforms versus first-party ordering, and how to structure delivery menu pricing to recover margin.