Costs explained · verified September 2026
How much does DoorDash charge restaurants?
Between 15% and 30% of each order subtotal on delivery, depending on the plan: Basic is 15%, Plus is 25%, Premier is 30%. Pickup is 6% on every plan. There is no monthly fee, no signup fee and no cancellation fee, and card processing is already inside the commission.
The rates below come from DoorDash’s own published merchant pricing, checked in September 2026. Your payout statement is the authority on what you actually paid.
The three plans
| Plan | Delivery | Pickup | Intro | On a $40 order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 15% | 6% | 0% for 7 days | $6.00 |
| Plus | 25% | 6% | 0% for 30 days | $10.00 |
| Premier | 30% | 6% | 0% for 30 days | $12.00 |
The plans are offered to US restaurants with 75 or fewer locations. The optional DoorDash tablet is $6 per week after the trial.
What the commission is charged on
DoorDash calculates commission on each order’s subtotal, meaning the food and drink total before tax, before the delivery and service fees the customer pays, and before any tip. So $40 of food carrying $3.40 of tax is commissioned on the $40.
Payment processing sits inside that commission. DoorDash says the fee covers marketing, delivery logistics, support and payment processing, and that orders placed in its app carry no separate card fee. Keep that in mind when comparing channels: the direct-ordering side of any comparison has to have its own processing added back before the comparison is honest.
What you keep on a $40 order
| Channel | Rate | Cost | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash Premier, delivery | 30% of subtotal | $12.00 | $28.00 |
| DoorDash Plus, delivery | 25% of subtotal | $10.00 | $30.00 |
| DoorDash Basic, delivery | 15% of subtotal | $6.00 | $34.00 |
| DoorDash pickup, any plan | 6% of subtotal | $2.40 | $37.60 |
| Your own ordering site | card processing only | about $0.85 | about $39.15 |
The last row assumes card processing as low as about 2% + 5¢, with the $1 per-order platform fee paid by the guest rather than the restaurant. Your real rate depends on your card mix and ticket size.
Frequently asked questions
Do restaurants pay to be on DoorDash?
Not to join, and not monthly. DoorDash states plainly that there are no activation fees, subscription fees, software fees, or cancellation fees. Restaurants pay a commission only when an order comes in, so the cost scales with sales rather than sitting on the books as a fixed line. The one recurring charge is the optional DoorDash tablet at $6 per week after the trial period. Verified September 2026 from DoorDash’s published merchant pricing.
What percentage does DoorDash take from restaurants?
Between 15% and 30% of the order subtotal on delivery, depending on which of the three US Marketplace plans the restaurant is on: Basic is 15%, Plus is 25%, Premier is 30%. Pickup orders are 6% on all three plans. The plans are available to restaurants with 75 or fewer locations. Verified September 2026.
Is DoorDash commission charged on tax and tips?
DoorDash states the commission applies to each order’s subtotal. The subtotal is the food and drink total before tax, before the customer-side delivery and service fees, and before any tip. So on a $40 order of food that carries $3.40 in tax, the commission is calculated on the $40, not on $43.40. This is worth confirming against your own payout statement, because the subtotal is also where menu price markups land if you have raised your DoorDash prices above your in-store prices.
Does the DoorDash commission include credit card processing?
Yes, on Marketplace orders. DoorDash says the commission covers marketing, delivery logistics, support and payment processing, and that there are no separate payment processing fees for orders placed on the DoorDash app or website. This matters when you compare channels: a direct ordering site quoted at a 2% card rate is not 28 points cheaper than a 30% commission, because you have to add your own processing to the direct side before the comparison is fair. It is still a very large gap, but it is the honest version of the gap.
How much does DoorDash cost a restaurant per month?
There is no monthly fee, so the answer is entirely a function of volume. Work it from your own numbers: monthly DoorDash sales multiplied by your plan’s commission rate. A restaurant doing $8,000 a month in DoorDash delivery sales on the Plus plan at 25% pays $2,000 in commission that month. The same sales on Basic at 15% would be $1,200. Add $26 or so if you rent the tablet. Your payout statement is the authoritative source for what you actually paid.
Can the total cost go above 30%?
Yes. The plan commission is the floor, not the ceiling. DoorDash sells Promotions and Sponsored Listings as paid add-ons on top of the plan rate, so a restaurant running discounts or ads through the platform pays its commission plus that spend. A Premier restaurant at 30% that also runs promotions can land above 30% all-in. Your payout statement separates these lines, and it is worth reading them apart before deciding the platform is or is not working for you.
Is the 6% DoorDash pickup rate worth using?
It is the cheapest way to stay on the platform, and for a restaurant whose customers are willing to collect their own food it removes most of the cost. But note what you are paying 6% for on a pickup order: DoorDash is not driving anything, so the fee buys listing and discovery only. If a meaningful share of your DoorDash volume is already pickup, those are the orders most easily moved to your own ordering page, where the same transaction costs card processing alone.
Once you know the cost
For most restaurants the answer is not to leave the platform. It is to keep it for discovery while moving repeat customers to a channel you own.