# What delivery apps actually cost a restaurant Thirty percent off the top changes which items belong on the app at all. Work out what third-party delivery really costs your restaurant, per order and per year. By Ryan Nichols | The LeadFlow Pro | Published 2026-08-12 Current guide: https://www.theleadflowpro.com/articles/restaurant-delivery-app-fees The first month on a delivery app usually feels great. Orders are up. The kitchen is busy. The revenue line looks better than it has all year. Then the payout hits the bank and it is not what the sales report said. ## Where the money goes You know about the commission. The commission is not the whole story. There is the base commission. There is the higher tier you got moved to for better placement. There is the marketing fee if you ran a promotion. There is the processing fee. There is the promo you funded when the app offered your customers free delivery, which came out of your side. Then on your end there is packaging that dine-in does not have, and food cost on an order that is often skewed toward your lower-margin items because that is what travels well. Stack all of it and the question stops being "how much commission do they take" and becomes "what is left when the order is done." ## Run the numbers on your delivery orders Take one month of third-party orders and put the real commission in, not the one you remember agreeing to. Marketing fees, promo fees and processing all belong in the same bucket. Open the working tool: https://www.theleadflowpro.com/tools/platform-fee-calculator 1. **Use your payout report, not your sales report.** Your point of sale shows the order total. The payout report shows what actually hit the bank. The difference between those two is what this exercise is about. 2. **Enter your true commission.** Base commission plus any marketing or promoted-placement fees you opted into, plus processing. If your payout is seventy cents on the dollar, your real rate is thirty percent no matter what the contract calls it. 3. **Put in your food cost on those items.** Use the food cost for the items that actually sell on delivery, which usually skews differently than dine-in. Wings and combos are not the same margin as a steak. 4. **Add packaging.** Containers, bags, lids, sauce cups, labels. Delivery has a packaging cost that dine-in does not, and it is per order, so it hits small orders hardest. ### How to read your result - If the margin on a delivery order comes out near zero or negative, the app is not a sales channel for that item, it is a paid advertisement you are also cooking. - Look at the per-order profit, not the monthly revenue. Restaurants get talked into these platforms with revenue numbers and quietly lose money on margin. - Run it twice, once at your current commission and once with a delivery-specific menu price. That gap tells you whether menu pricing alone fixes it. ## What the number usually says Three outcomes, and you will land on one of them. **It works.** Your margin on delivery orders is thin but real, the volume is incremental, and the app is bringing you people who would not have found you. Keep it, watch it, and stop worrying. **It works only on some items.** This is the most common answer. High-margin items are fine and a handful of things on the menu are being cooked at a loss. The fix is not leaving the platform. The fix is a delivery menu that is not a copy of your dine-in menu. **It does not work.** The margin is at or below zero once packaging and comped remakes are counted. At that point every order is costing you money to fulfill, and volume makes it worse instead of better. ## The moves that actually change the number **Build a delivery-specific menu.** Fewer items, priced for the channel, chosen for what survives fifteen minutes in a bag. This is the single biggest lever and it does not require leaving anything. **Price the channel separately.** If it costs you thirty percent to sell through a platform, the menu on that platform reflects it. Check your agreement first. **Put an insert in every bag.** A card with a QR code that goes to your own ordering page, with a reason to use it. Free drink, dollar off, whatever fits. Every single delivery order is a free chance to convert somebody to a direct customer, and most restaurants throw that chance away. **Own the customer list.** The platform will never give you your customers. The bag insert and the counter sign will. An email list you own is the only version of this you keep, which is a whole [separate conversation worth having](https://www.theleadflowpro.com/articles/own-your-email-list). ## The honest framing Delivery platforms are not villains and they are not free money. They are a paid distribution channel with a very high take rate. Treat them the way you would treat any ad spend: measure what you get back, keep the parts that pay, and never let the channel own the relationship. ## Questions people ask ### Should I raise my prices on the delivery apps? Most restaurants do, and the platforms generally allow it. Check your current agreement, because some pricing-parity terms have existed and terms change. Price so the delivery order is worth cooking, and be aware customers who see both menus will notice. ### Is it worth building my own online ordering? It depends on whether you have a way to reach customers directly. Direct ordering with no audience is a page nobody visits. Direct ordering plus a customer list, a Google Business Profile and a sign on the counter is how restaurants actually shift volume off the apps. ### Should I just leave the apps entirely? Usually no, not at first. They bring real demand you cannot reach on your own. The move most operators make is to keep them for discovery, fix the margin on what you list there, and work on converting repeat customers to direct. ### How do I get delivery customers to order direct next time? Put something in the bag. A card with a QR code to your own ordering page and a reason to use it. That insert is the only marketing channel the platform cannot take away from you, because you physically control it. --- Created by The LeadFlow Pro. When sharing this guide, keep the source link so the next person can find the working tool and latest updates. https://www.theleadflowpro.com/articles/restaurant-delivery-app-fees