Restaurant profit margin: averages and what an order keeps

The average restaurant profit margin is 3% to 5% for full-service restaurants and 6% to 9% for quick service and fast casual, according to Toast and Restaurant365. Toast puts food trucks at 6% to 9% too. Profit margin is net profit divided by total revenue. On a $30 order, a 3% to 9% margin is $0.90 to $2.70 of profit. That is less than a 15% to 30% delivery app commission, which comes to $4.50 to $9.00 on the same order.

What is the average restaurant profit margin?

Toast’s 2026 guide puts the overall range at 0% to 15%, with most restaurants landing between 3% and 5%. The ranges by type, from Toast:

Restaurant365 gives the same 3% to 5% for full service and 6% to 9% for fast casual, and 7% to 8% for catering. Bennett Thrasher, an accounting firm, puts most independent restaurants at 3% to 8%, with well-run ones near 10%, and full service a little wider at 3% to 6%.

Toast says margins below 3% leave little room for surprises, and that margins above 9% are possible, mostly for quick service and fast casual restaurants with high volume and tight overhead.

How do you calculate restaurant profit margin?

Profit margin = net profit ÷ total revenue × 100. Toast’s example: $1,000,000 in revenue and $40,000 in net profit is a 4% margin.

Net profit is what is left after every cost: food and drink (cost of goods sold), labor, rent, utilities, marketing, repairs, software and card processing. Toast’s rule of thumb is about a third of revenue to food, a third to labor, and the rest to overhead.

Gross profit margin only subtracts food and drink costs, so it is much higher. Bennett Thrasher puts it at 60% to 70% for most restaurants. Track both, but net margin is the one that tells you whether the restaurant makes money.

Why are restaurant margins so low?

Prime cost, food plus labor, takes most of the money. Toast calls about 60% of revenue a healthy level, and Bennett Thrasher says to keep it under 55% to 60%. Restaurant365 says food and labor together often take 60% to 70% of revenue. Add rent, utilities and the rest, and Toast notes the three big cost groups can use 90% or more of revenue.

Bennett Thrasher’s example is that a 2% swing in food or labor cost can erase a restaurant’s whole profit. A fee charged on every order cuts into the same few percent.

What do delivery apps and online ordering take from each order?

These are the rates each channel charged restaurants on October 28, 2026, applied to a $30 order. DoorDash charges its percentages on the order subtotal. Uber Eats’ pricing page does not say what its fees are charged on, so we figured both on the subtotal.

We figured every row on the $30 subtotal, before tax and tip. Expresso charges its 3.2% + 30¢ on the whole order total, so we figured it on $30.75, the subtotal plus the guest’s $0.75 convenience fee. Tax and tip would raise it a little. DoorDash’s and Uber’s pages do not say what their online ordering processing is charged on.

DoorDash says its delivery and pickup commissions include card processing. Uber Eats’ pricing page does not say so for most of the US; in Portland it adds “any applicable payment processing transaction fees” to the Lite rates, and in New York City a 3% card processing fee.

Both apps have conditions on pickup. DoorDash’s 6% applies when your pickup menu prices match your in-store prices. Uber Eats charges 7% with validated in-store pricing and 10% without it. Uber Eats’ Lite plan starts at 15% for delivery in several cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City.

What do guests pay on top?

On DoorDash delivery, guests pay a delivery fee set per restaurant and a service fee. In California, Chicago, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York City, Puerto Rico and Seattle, the service fee is 15% of the subtotal on most orders, or 5% for most DashPass orders. Elsewhere DoorDash is rolling out a service fee that varies with distance and order size, starting in late July 2026. DoorDash says there are no service fees on pickup orders.

On Uber Eats delivery, guests pay a delivery fee that varies with location, the restaurant and courier availability, and a service fee shown at checkout. Uber’s help page does not give a rate.

Is a delivery order worth taking at a 3% to 9% margin?

On a full-service margin of 3% to 5%, the whole profit on a $30 order is $0.90 to $1.50. A 25% commission is $7.50. Measured against the average margin, that order loses money.

The average overstates the loss, though. A delivery or pickup order uses no table and no server, and your rent does not go up with one more order, so an extra order costs less to serve than the average order behind your margin. And your margin already pays for card processing on in-store sales, so the real extra cost of a commission is the commission minus the card fee you would have paid anyway.

DoorDash makes the other argument on its own pricing page: many app orders come from guests who would not have found you otherwise, and for those orders the comparison is a delivery order against no order at all. For a restaurant without its own drivers, that is a fair point.

The common fix is a higher price on the apps. To keep $30 after a commission, the item has to sell for $30 ÷ (1 − commission rate).

DoorDash says many restaurants set different prices for delivery. If you raise pickup prices on either app, though, you lose the pickup terms: Uber Eats charges 10% instead of 7% without validated in-store pricing, and DoorDash’s 6% pickup rate requires pickup prices that match your in-store prices.

How can a restaurant raise its profit margin?

Toast’s and Restaurant365’s advice comes down to two levers: sell more, or spend less per sale.

• Track food cost, labor and sales every week, not every quarter.
• Schedule staff to real demand by hour.
• Order perishables to what you sell, and cut waste.

Two more from us, for restaurants that take online orders:

• Know what each channel costs you per order, and price each channel to cover it.
• Move repeat guests from the apps to your own ordering link, where the fee is a few percent instead of a 15% to 30% delivery commission.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is a direct ordering system for your own website and tables: pickup, curbside, scheduled orders and QR code ordering at the table, all paid online by card. It has no monthly fee and no contract, and the kitchen tablet is $149 once. The restaurant pays card processing of 3.2% + 30¢ per order, and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee shown at checkout.

It does not deliver, has no drivers and does not bring you new guests the way an app listing does. It is not a POS, so it does not ring up counter sales. It fits a restaurant that already has regulars ordering through the apps and wants those orders at a few percent instead of a commission. For delivery to new guests, the apps are still the channel. Our guide to DoorDash fees for restaurants covers each plan in detail, and online ordering systems for restaurants compares the direct ordering options.