Grubhub for a pizzeria: what the fees add up to
Grubhub charges restaurants a marketing fee of 5%, 15% or 20% depending on the plan, plus a delivery fee starting at 10% when its drivers bring the order, plus card processing. It is the third app in most of the country, but still strong in New York (where it absorbed Seamless), Chicago and college towns. If that is your market, it deserves its own math.
How Grubhub’s fees stack
Unlike DoorDash and Uber Eats, Grubhub splits its charge in two. The marketing fee pays for being listed and promoted, and it is charged on every Grubhub order. The delivery fee is added only when a Grubhub driver delivers. The headline “as low as 5%” is the Basic marketing rate on an order you deliver yourself or the customer picks up. For a pizzeria doing 150 orders a month at a $30 ticket:
| Basic (5% + 10%) | Plus (15% + 10%) | Premium (20% + 10%) | Your own site | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grubhub delivers, per order | $4.50 | $7.50 | $9.00 | ~$1.17 |
| You deliver, per order | $1.50 | $4.50 | $6.00 | ~$1.17 |
| Grubhub delivers, per year | $8,100 | $13,500 | $16,200 | ~$2,106 |
Grubhub marketing rates of 5%, 15% and 20% by plan, plus a delivery fee from 10% when Grubhub delivers; Grubhub also charges an order processing fee not included here. Own-site cost is card processing estimated at 2.9% + 30¢ per order. Check your own agreement.
Run it with your own numbers. The cheapest Grubhub plan really is cheap if you already deliver; the expensive case is a Premium plan with Grubhub drivers.
New York, Chicago and campus
Grubhub is a distant third in most of the US, but not everywhere. In New York the Seamless habit still runs deep in Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. Chicago is Grubhub’s home town. And many universities run campus dining through Grubhub, so students arrive with the app already installed. In those places Grubhub can be the main app, not the backup. New York also caps delivery commissions at 15% under a law the City Council passed in 2021, which the platforms challenged in court.
When Grubhub earns its fee
- You are near a campus that uses it. Students order where their app already is.
- You deliver yourself. Then you pay only the marketing fee, which on Basic is small.
- You are in Manhattan or Chicago. Skipping Grubhub there means skipping a real share of the customers.
Keep the listing, move the regulars
The playbook is the same as for DoorDash: your web address on every box and receipt, a card in every app order bag, an offer that only exists on your own site, and your site as the link on your Google Business Profile. Grubhub sells its own commission-free ordering site, Grubhub Direct, too; the difference with a site in your own name is who the customer belongs to when you change providers.
Worth checking in your agreement
- Which plan you are on, and whether sponsored listings add to your marketing rate.
- The processing fee, charged on top of the marketing and delivery fees.
- Promotions: discounts shown to diners are usually funded by you.