Visitors arriving in Greece from countries with a strong tipping culture routinely leave twice what anyone local would, and visitors arriving from countries with none sometimes leave nothing where a small tip is genuinely expected. Both are easy to fix, because the Greek convention is simple and unusually relaxed.
The short version: tipping is welcome, never demanded, rarely calculated to the cent, and much smaller than in the United States. Nobody will chase you down the street, and nobody thinks less of a table that rounds up rather than working out fifteen per cent.
What follows is what people who live here do, situation by situation.
How much do you tip in Greece?
In a restaurant or taverna, leave five to ten per cent, or round the bill up to a comfortable number. On a €43 dinner for two, leaving €45 or €46 is entirely normal; leaving €50 is generous; leaving €8.60 because that is exactly twenty per cent marks you out as a visitor and is more than anyone expected.
Everywhere else — cafés, bars, bakeries, souvlaki shops — rounding up is the whole convention, and even that is optional. There is no situation in Greece where a modest tip will be considered rude, and no situation where its absence will cause a scene.
Read nextHow much does food cost in Greece? A practical price guide
What do you leave in restaurants, tavernas and bars?
Service is generally not added to the bill, although a few restaurants in Athens now include it and say so on the menu — if the words "service included" or a percentage appear, an extra tip is unnecessary. What is almost always on the bill is a cover charge of €0.50–1.50 a head for bread; that is a charge for bread, not a service charge, and it goes to the restaurant rather than the waiter.
Cash is the better way to leave it. A tip added to a card payment is legal and increasingly common, but a note or coins left on the table reaches the person who served you more reliably. In a bar, rounding up on a round of drinks, or leaving a euro or two on a longer session, is the usual thing.
- Service is not usually added — if the bill says included, or shows a percentage, nothing more is needed.
- The €0.50–1.50 cover charge is for bread, not service: it goes to the house.
- Cash left on the table reaches the person who served you; a card tip does not always.
- In bars, round up a round, or leave €1–2 across a longer evening.
What do you leave in cafés, bakeries and street food?
A Greek café bill of €5.60 becomes €6, and that is the entire ritual. Nobody tips a percentage on coffee, and nobody expects anything at all at a bakery counter or a souvlaki shop where you paid at the till.
The exception is a café where you have occupied a table for three hours on one freddo, which is a recognised national activity and worth a euro or two on the way out.
What do you leave for taxis, hotels and everyone else?
Taxi fares are rounded up rather than tipped: a €7.40 fare becomes €8. Drivers who help with luggage or take a longer route on your behalf are worth another euro or two, and airport transfers with a fixed fare take the same rounding.
In hotels, a euro or two per bag for a porter and a couple of euros a night for housekeeping are appreciated and far from obligatory. Nobody is counting.
| Situation | Normal | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Taverna or restaurant meal | 5–10%, or round up | Cash on the table reaches the staff |
| Coffee or a drink | Round up to the euro | No percentage expected |
| Bakery, souvlaki, takeaway | Nothing, or coins | Paid at the till, no service to tip |
| Bar, longer session | €1–2 a round | Or round up the tab |
| Taxi | Round up the fare | €1–2 more if they help with bags |
| Hotel porter / housekeeping | €1–2 a bag / a night | Appreciated, not expected |
What do you tip on a discounted bill?
A discounted bill is the one that catches people out. If you have eaten on a set menu, a voucher or a half-price booking, the work in the kitchen and at the table was exactly the same as at full price — so the tip should be based on the full price rather than the discounted one.
It is a small amount of money and it matters more than it looks. A discounted table — a half-price booking on Filotimo, say — is the restaurant's investment in filling a quiet hour; tipping it as if it were a cheap meal is the one way to make that arrangement feel like a bad deal for the people serving you.
Tipping in Greece is a small, friendly gesture rather than a calculation: round up the coffee, leave five to ten per cent on a proper meal, use cash where you can, and tip on the full price when you have eaten at a discount. That is the entire custom, and it costs a couple of euros a day.
How this guide is kept honest
Written in Athens by the team behind Filotimo, from the menus, prices and bookings we see across our partner restaurants. Prices move with the season and the street, so every figure here is a working range rather than a quote.