If you run a restaurant, you already know the delivery app math never feels like it works in your favor. And with Grubhub, the hardest part is often just figuring out what you’ll actually pay — so let’s skip the suspense: how much does Grubhub charge restaurants?

Now, Grubhub’s public rate card starts at a 5% marketing commission on every order. Prepaid orders add a processing fee of 3.05% plus $0.30. And if Grubhub’s drivers handle delivery, tack on a delivery fee starting at 10%.

That’s just the base rate. In practice, your bill rarely stops there — Grubhub Ads, restaurant-funded promotions, refunds, and account adjustments all pile on top, which is why two restaurants on the same plan can end up paying wildly different amounts.

We know this because we’ve watched the other side of the equation up close. At Restolabs, we analyzed over 4 million direct online orders placed between March 2025 and March 2026, and one thing came through loud and clear: online ordering isn’t a side channel anymore.

It drives your revenue, your operations, and your customer relationships, so what you pay to capture those orders matters a lot.

In this guide, we'll break down every Grubhub fee, run the numbers on real order examples, and show you how the marketplace stacks up against taking orders directly.

How Much Does Grubhub Charge Restaurants?

Grubhub charges restaurants a marketing commission of 5%, 15%, or 20%, depending on the Marketplace plan. Delivery, processing, advertising, promotions, and order adjustments are separate costs.

Grubhub currently offers Basic, Plus, and All-access plans. Older Grubhub material may refer to the highest tier as a Premium plan and quote 15%, 20%, and 25% rates with delivery included. Those figures describe an older plan structure.

Use the current rate card and your signed agreement, because negotiated terms and local rules may change what you pay.

All three plans include placement on the Grubhub and Seamless delivery apps, a Marketplace ordering link, account support, a menu photoshoot, access to Grubhub+ customers, ad credits, and sponsored listing placements.

Grubhub also lists a free welcome kit and no platform or ongoing maintenance fees. Higher-tier plans offer better visibility but at a higher cost. So when you ask, “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?,” the plan rate is only the first part of the answer.

Grubhub says the marketing fee influences the exposure a restaurant receives in Grubhub Marketplace. Increased visibility can attract new customers, but maximum exposure only makes sense when the additional orders leave enough revenue after the higher marketing fee.

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The Handpulled
Noodle, New York

6X

YoY increase in Order Volume

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$ 3M+

Value of Orders Processed
Per Year on Restolabs.

Pizza Pirates, Canada

6X

Repeat Customer
Growth in 3 Months.

What marketing fee does Grubhub charge?

The marketing fee covers your listing and promotion on the Grubhub platform. It applies to orders generated through the Grubhub app or website. Because the fee is percentage-based, it rises with the order total. For example:

What processing fee applies?

Restaurants using Grubhub pay a processing fee of $0.30 plus 3.05% on every prepaid order. The fixed $0.30 hits small orders hardest — the lower your average ticket, the higher your effective processing rate.

What delivery fees apply?

You have three ways to handle delivery:

• Self delivery lets you use your own delivery driver fleet and pay zero Grubhub delivery fees. You still carry driver pay, insurance, mileage, scheduling, dispatch, and management costs.
• Grubhub Delivery uses the platform’s delivery fleet. Grubhub lists a delivery fee starting at 10%, so the starting charge on a $50 order is $5.
• Supplemental Delivery lets Grubhub drivers fulfill orders beyond your normal delivery boundaries or during busy times. You pay the delivery fee only when you use Grubhub’s fleet.

What Grubhub Fees and Hidden Fees Apply?

Your complete Grubhub cost can include marketing commission, payment processing, delivery, advertising, promotions, refunds, and account adjustments.

Searches for “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?” often describe costs outside the headline commission as hidden fees or extra fees. Grubhub states that it has no Marketplace initiation or ongoing maintenance fees, but that doesn’t make the marketing fee your total cost.

These additional fees can significantly impact the amount your restaurant receives:

• Grubhub Delivery or Supplemental Delivery
• Payment processing
• Grubhub Ads after applicable credits
• Restaurant-funded discounts and promotions
• Refunds and prepaid order adjustments
• Market-specific or regulatory charges

Grubhub Ads can place your restaurant on the homepage or higher in search results. You control the advertising budget, so there’s no universal Grubhub Ads percentage for every restaurant or order.

Refund responsibility depends on the cause. Grubhub says it covers customer refunds when a Grubhub delivery partner is responsible. Your restaurant may carry the adjustment for an incorrect order, a merchant cancellation, or failed self delivery.

You can dispute eligible prepaid order adjustments through the Merchant Portal within 30 days.

Customers may also pay a delivery fee, service fee, small-order fee, or regulatory fee at checkout.

Those customer-facing charges can affect order frequency and conversion, but they aren’t restaurant fees unless your merchant statement shows a deduction against your account. Use this formula each month:

Effective Grubhub cost rate = all Grubhub-related deductions plus restaurant-funded costs not already included in those deductions, divided by Grubhub food sales, multiplied by 100.

This calculation gives you the clearest account-level answer to the question, “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?”

How Much Does Grubhub Charge Restaurants Per Order?

On a $50 prepaid order, published core fees range from about $4.33 with Basic and self delivery to $16.83 with All-access and Grubhub Delivery.

The following examples apply Grubhub’s published rates to a $50 food subtotal. They exclude Grubhub Ads, promotions, refunds, taxes, and contract-specific terms. Final totals use the exact processing amount before rounding to the nearest cent.

The $50 table gives one practical answer to the question, “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?” but the result changes with your plan and fulfillment method.

Revenue remaining isn’t profit. Food, packaging, incremental labor, rent, taxes, and any fulfillment cost you carry still need to be deducted.

This table also explains why the statement “Grubhub takes approximately $16.80 from a $50 order” isn’t a universal answer. It’s close to one All-access delivery scenario. Basic, Plus, pickup, self delivery, and negotiated agreements produce different totals.

What does a full month cost?

Answering “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?” across a full month means including ads, promotions, and account adjustments. These costs don’t attach evenly to each order, so a monthly statement gives you a more useful view.

Assume you receive 100 orders averaging $50 each on the Plus plan. Grubhub handles delivery, and you also spend $250 on ads, absorb $50 in order adjustments, and fund $300 in promotions:

Your total channel cost is $2,032.50, or 40.65% of sales.

The $2,032.50 includes $1,732.50 in commissions, delivery, processing, ads, and adjustments, plus $300 in restaurant-funded promotion costs. Depending on how the campaign is billed, the promotion may also appear as a deduction on your Grubhub statement.

Food, packaging, labor, rent, and other operating costs still need to come out of the $2,967.50.

The ad spend, adjustments, and promotion costs are illustrative. Replace them with the figures from your own Grubhub statement and campaign reports.

A food delivery platform can generate more orders, but the complete fee stack can significantly reduce profit margins. The relevant question is whether each order contributes enough after every cost that changes because the order occurred.

What would the same sales cost directly?

A direct-ordering subscription is a fixed monthly cost. Payment processing, delivery, and promotions remain variable.

Let’s say, your restaurant receives the same 100 orders averaging $50 through Restolabs’ Growth plan. Using an illustrative processing rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 per order, the monthly cost would look like this:

Your software and processing cost would be $274, or 5.48% of sales, before delivery and restaurant-funded promotions.

The processing rate is illustrative. Use the rate in your own payment agreement, and add any delivery or promotion costs your restaurant carries.

The main difference is how the costs scale. The $99 software subscription remains fixed as sales increase, while percentage-based marketplace fees rise with each order.

Grubhub Marketplace can introduce your restaurant to new customers. Your direct online ordering system gives customers who already know you a lower-cost way to order again.

Which Delivery Option Fits Your Restaurant?

Choose the fulfillment method that gives customers reliable service at the lowest complete cost. The delivery model materially changes the answer to “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?”

• Self delivery can reduce Grubhub fees when you already have enough delivery orders, a compact service area, and a delivery driver fleet that can complete orders efficiently. It becomes expensive when order frequency is inconsistent or drivers spend too much time between deliveries.

• Grubhub Delivery can make sense when you want to offer food delivery without recruiting and managing drivers. The added cost may be reasonable when the orders are new, your kitchen has capacity, and the remaining contribution margin is healthy.

• Supplemental Delivery gives you a flexible middle option. Your drivers handle the core area, while Grubhub’s fleet covers longer distances or busy times.

Pickup orders don’t use Grubhub’s delivery fleet, but Marketplace marketing commission and prepaid processing may still apply. Removing the delivery fee doesn’t make a Marketplace order commission free.

How Can You Reduce Grubhub Fees?

Once you know the answer to “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?” in your account, you can reduce costs by focusing on the charges you control.

1. Choose the lowest workable commission rate

Start with the lowest tier that gives your restaurant enough visibility. Move to a higher commission rate only when the increased visibility produces enough new customers and contribution to cover the added cost.

Track sales, average order value, new customers, Grubhub fees, refunds, and contribution margin by plan. More delivery orders do not automatically mean better results.

2. Review promotions before launching them

A restaurant-funded offer stacks on top of the marketing fee, delivery fee, and processing fee. Model the discount, food cost, packaging, and all Grubhub fees together before the campaign begins. Some restaurant owners raise menu prices on third party platforms to offset high fees.

Check your agreement and local requirements first. Then watch conversion and customer response, because a large price difference between your website and delivery apps may reduce trust and total orders.

3. Use self delivery and pickup selectively

Use your own delivery driver fleet when the cost per completed order is lower than Grubhub Delivery. Include driver pay, mileage, insurance, dispatch, failed deliveries, and management time in the comparison.

Encourage pickup when it’s convenient for customers and your collection process is dependable. Accurate preparation times, clear order updates, and a marked pickup point can reduce friction without adding delivery costs.

4. Protect the kitchen during busy times

High order volume becomes expensive when mistakes create refunds, remakes, and unhappy customers. Grubhub lets restaurants start or stop taking orders through the Grubhub for Restaurants portal.

5. Audit your statement every month

Review the marketing commission, processing, delivery, Grubhub Ads, promotions, refunds, gross food sales, net payout, and contribution margin together.

This audit answers “How much does Grubhub charge restaurants?” using your own account data and shows whether the platform’s benefits justify the total cost and whether the platform is bringing new customers or capturing customers who would have ordered through your website anyway.

Use Grubhub for Discovery; Then Build a Direct Channel You Own

Grubhub can be worth using when it introduces your restaurant to customers you wouldn’t have reached otherwise. But paying marketplace fees every time an existing customer orders again is a much harder cost to justify.

The better strategy isn’t necessarily to leave Grubhub completely. It’s to give each channel a specific job:

• Use Grubhub Marketplace to reach new customers.
• Send customers who already know your restaurant to your own website, Google Business Profile, social profiles, QR codes, email campaigns, or branded mobile app.
• Fulfill those direct orders through pickup, your own drivers, or an integrated third-party delivery service.

This is where Restolabs changes the economics.

Restolabs gives your restaurant an independent, branded ordering channel without charging a marketplace commission on every order. Your software subscription stays fixed as direct order volume grows.

You still pay your selected payment processor and any delivery provider you use, but you aren’t adding a marketplace marketing commission every time a returning customer orders from you.

You also gain direct access to the customer and order information generated through your channel. That means you can see who orders repeatedly, what they buy, how much they spend, which offers drive another order, and where discounts are reducing margin without improving retention.

Instead of competing for your own customers inside a marketplace, you can bring them back through loyalty points, coupons, promotional banners, email, SMS, push notifications, and faster reordering through your branded ordering experience.

This strategy has already worked for restaurants like Pizza Pirates. Known for its pizzas, steaks, and sandwiches, the restaurant adopted Restolabs to complement its delivery platforms. Within months, the restaurant saw a striking 600% increase in online sales. 

Use the Restolabs commission savings calculator to estimate how much more revenue you could retain by moving repeat orders to your own branded ordering channel.

For a comparison based on your actual costs, schedule a Restolabs walkthrough and bring your latest Grubhub statement. The team can help you compare your marketplace expenses with the cost of taking those orders directly.

Book a Restolabs demo today.