How to Price Your Restaurant’s Online Menu for Direct Ordering and Third-Party Apps

Start with what you want each order to contribute

Your restaurant can have different costs for dine-in, direct online orders, and third-party delivery. Before setting online prices, list the costs for each channel and check what the platform charges them against. Then decide how those prices fit your food costs, packaging, staffing, customers, and sales goals.

A menu price adjustment changes what the guest pays for an item. A commission is a fee calculated on the amount specified in your agreement. The two percentages are not interchangeable, even when the numbers look the same.

Why a 15% price increase does not offset a 15% commission

Suppose a guest orders three items that each cost $10 on your base menu. The base subtotal is $30. You increase each item by 15%, so the guest sees $11.50 per item and a $34.50 subtotal.

If your platform takes a 15% commission on that adjusted subtotal, the commission is $5.175, or $5.18 when rounded to cents. Your restaurant keeps $29.32 before any other charges. The extra $4.50 in menu revenue is smaller than the commission because the commission is calculated on $34.50, not $30.

This example excludes payment processing, delivery, tax, tips, discounts, and other charges. It assumes commission applies only to the adjusted menu subtotal.

Calculate a commission-only adjustment

If your goal is to retain the base menu amount after a percentage commission alone, divide the base price by one minus the commission rate. For a 15% commission, the theoretical online price of a $10 item is $10 / 0.85, or approximately $11.7647.

The corresponding price adjustment is commission rate / (1 - commission rate). Enter the commission as a decimal, such as 0.15 for 15%.

These figures illustrate the percentage commission only. They are not a recommendation that every restaurant raise prices by these amounts, and they do not promise a particular payout or profit.

Check rounding and the actual order

Guests pay displayed prices, not an unlimited number of decimal places. Rounding each item and rounding a whole order can give different results. Paid modifiers, discounts, refunds, and different commission rates for pickup and delivery also affect the calculation.

For example, an online menu that rounds the $11.7647 item to $11.75 produces a $35.25 subtotal for three items. A 15% commission rounds to $5.29, leaving $29.96 before other charges. This is why a theoretical adjustment and an actual payment breakdown may differ by a few cents.

Review the final prices of inexpensive add-ons as well as your main dishes. Check a few realistic baskets: a small pickup order, a family meal with modifiers, a discounted order, and a delivery order.

Separate commission from the rest of your costs

A commission-only calculation does not include every expense. A fixed fee per order has a different effect on a $15 basket than on a $75 basket. A monthly subscription depends on how many orders you receive that month. Neither can be fully represented by one universal percentage without assumptions about sales volume and order size.

• Payment processing may include both a percentage and a fixed transaction charge.
• Delivery, packaging, promotions, refunds, and optional services may create additional costs.
• Tax and tips are not the same as restaurant operating income. Check whether your agreement includes them in the commission base.
• Retaining your original menu proceeds after commission does not mean the order is profitable. Food, labor, and other operating costs still matter.

Review each third-party platform separately

Check your signed terms and current rate for each channel. Do not assume a delivery pricing rule also applies to pickup or to a direct-ordering product from the same provider.

DoorDash’s published US pricing connects its listed 6% pickup commission to requirements that include matching in-store pickup prices. Its delivery pricing guidance discusses the tradeoff between higher menu prices and customer demand. Review the DoorDash pricing terms and menu pricing guidance for your setup.

Uber Eats lists different products and pricing arrangements on its merchant pricing page. Use your own agreement to identify the applicable fees and conditions. A competitor’s published plan is not a substitute for your restaurant’s contract.

Review your statement against your pricing decision

Use the order’s recorded values to compare the base menu subtotal, the online menu subtotal, the price adjustment, the fees, and the payout. Higher online sales do not automatically mean higher earnings.

In Dinevate payment details, the online price adjustment describes the difference between base and online menu prices. Where a statement shows a remaining price adjustment, that is the amount left after the partnership fees applied against it. These are different figures. Review processing and other charges separately, and remember that some fee displays show the restaurant-paid amount after offsets.

Set up your Dinevate online prices

During menu upload, you can ask Dinevate to adjust your online menu prices or select “No thanks.” For supported subtotal-only commission arrangements, the automatic calculation uses your online order commission. Special arrangements are reviewed by the team. Payment processing, fixed order fees, monthly fees, delivery, and optional services are separate.

Selecting “No thanks” uses your uploaded prices without an added online price adjustment. Your agreed Dinevate fees still apply. If the uploaded menu already has the final online prices you want, this avoids applying another increase.

Review the prepared menu, paid modifiers, final displayed prices, and website information before launch. You are responsible for your restaurant’s pricing decisions and for keeping that information accurate. Dinevate’s price adjustment does not guarantee recovery of all fees or a particular net return.

Review Dinevate plans or bring your menu and a recent statement to a demo.