The number DoorDash puts in front of you when you sign up is the commission rate. It's 15%, or 25%, or 30%, depending on the plan. What it is not is the number that actually tells you whether delivery orders are making you money.
The real number requires a little more work, and most restaurant operators have never done it.
Here is the actual calculation. Take your average delivery order value — let's say $32. DoorDash at 25% commission takes $8. That leaves $24. Now subtract packaging: containers, bag, napkins, and utensils run somewhere between $0.75 and $2.50 per order depending on your format; call it $1.50. You're at $22.50. Now subtract the food cost on that order at your typical cost percentage — if you're running 32% food cost, that's another $10.24 out. You're at $12.26 before you've touched labor.
If a delivery order adds meaningful labor to your kitchen because it's happening during a slow period, your actual net might be positive. If it's adding to the load during a Friday dinner rush when your kitchen is already running at capacity, you're paying your most expensive labor to fill orders that are returning you $12 on a $32 ticket.
That's not always a bad trade. It depends on your volume, your slow periods, your average ticket, and your kitchen capacity at the time the orders are coming in. The problem is that almost no independent restaurant operator has sat down and worked through those numbers for their specific situation. They look at the deposit from DoorDash hitting their account and call it revenue.
What effective cost really means: industry data from 2026 suggests the all-in cost for most operators comes out to 30 to 40 percent of order revenue once you account for commissions, promotional requirements, menu-price suppression, and packaging. Restaurant profit margins run 3 to 9 percent. When delivery costs you 35 percent of order value, every delivery order needs to be profitable on its own terms before you've considered the overhead and labor it generates.
The commission rate is also not locked in forever, which is something most operators don't know. DoorDash and Uber Eats both allow negotiation, especially for restaurants with consistent order volume. The rate you agreed to at launch is often the rate you're still paying three years later because nobody asked whether it could be different.
The other calculation worth doing is what percentage of your delivery customers ever come back a second time, and what percentage of those eventually book a direct order instead of going through the app. DoorDash owns the customer relationship. They own the data. When someone orders from you 12 times through DoorDash, you have their money but not their contact information. If you ever want to reach that customer with a promotion or a catering offer, you cannot do it.
None of this means delivery platforms are the wrong call. They can fill dead periods, drive discovery for new locations, and cover the variable costs on a slow Tuesday. The question is whether you're using them strategically or just accepting whatever they're paying you and hoping the math is working out.
Run your numbers. If you've never done it, this week is as good a time as any.
Michelle Onizuka is co-founder and Systems Architect at Onizuka Studio. She builds automation and AI systems for small businesses — including restaurant & food service operations across Tampa Bay and beyond.