What Grubhub & Seamless Actually Cost Your Restaurant

Grubhub and Seamless orders feel like found money — the tablet chimes, food goes out, revenue comes in. The costs are less visible: they're taken out before the deposit ever reaches your account. Here's the actual math on what those orders net you, and what changes when the same customer orders direct.

The fee structure

Grubhub (Seamless runs on the same platform and rate card) charges restaurants a commission per order, based on the plan you're on:

• Basic (15%): you appear in search, but you're not promoted.
• Plus (20%): higher visibility and access to Grubhub's marketing tools.
• Premium (25%+): featured placement — and effective rates can climb past 25% once sponsored listing fees are added.

On top of commission, every order carries payment processing (roughly 3%), and delivery may add its own fee depending on who fulfills it.

What a $40 ticket actually nets you

Roughly $6.70 more per order stays with the restaurant when the order comes in direct. At 300 orders a month, that's about $2,000/month — over $24,000 a year — for the same food, the same kitchen, and the same customer.

Restaurant margins make this sharper. If your profit margin is 5–9%, a $40 ticket earns you $2–$3.60. The $8 commission on that same ticket is more than double your profit — which is why marketplace-heavy restaurants can be busy and still lose money on delivery.

The costs that don't show up on the statement

• Menu markup backfires. Most operators raise marketplace prices 15–25% to absorb commission. Customers compare, notice, and some order less — or leave reviews about the pricing.
• The customer isn't yours. Grubhub owns the ordering relationship: the email, the order history, the reorder prompt. You can't run a win-back campaign on customers you can't contact.
• Repeat orders compound the fee. Commission isn't a customer-acquisition cost — it's charged on the regular's 40th order too.

What changes when customers order direct

A direct channel — your own ordering website and branded app — flips the fee structure from a percentage to a flat fee. On Gegsy that fee is $1.25 per delivery order (Starter) or $1.00 (Pro), no matter what the ticket comes to. Delivery itself is fulfilled by Nash and DoorDash Drive couriers, who quote each job — that charge varies with distance, order size, demand and traffic, and you decide whether the customer covers it. No commission, no menu markup pressure, and every customer lands in your own list — with pricing that's public.

Marketplaces still have a legitimate role: discovery. Plenty of restaurants keep a Basic listing for new customers, and move regulars to direct ordering with a small first-order promo code. To see what that shift is worth at your volume, run your own numbers in the savings calculator — or read how to get more direct orders for the playbook.