When you walk into your favorite local restaurant and pay $15 for a sandwich, you might assume you’re paying a fair price for the food. But here’s an uncomfortable truth: if that same restaurant is on Uber Eats or DoorDash, you’re likely subsidizing the discounted prices and promotions offered to delivery app users.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory—it’s basic economics forced by the commission structure of third-party delivery platforms.

The Commission Crunch

Third-party delivery platforms typically charge restaurants commission fees ranging from 15% to 30% per order. For a restaurant operating on razor-thin margins (the industry average is around 3-5% profit), these fees can be devastating. Restaurants face an impossible choice: absorb the costs and lose money on every delivery order, or find another way to stay profitable.

Most choose a third option: raise menu prices across the board.

The Delivery App Era’s Contribution to Restaurant Inflation

To understand just how much delivery apps have impacted what we all pay, we need to look at the numbers. Between February 2020 and April 2025, restaurant menu prices increased 31% on average, while food and labor costs for restaurants each increased 35%. But here’s where it gets interesting: in 2015, before delivery apps dominated the landscape, U.S. food delivery revenue was just $8.7 billion with 66 million third-party app users. By 2020, that number had tripled to $26 billion with 111 million users.

The timing isn’t coincidental. A study by Gordon Haskett Research Advisors found that the premium restaurants charge for third-party delivery menus has nearly doubled since 2020, with the average cost being 20% higher than dining in. Some restaurants mark up delivery app prices even more—restaurants that apply price adjustments across third parties typically do so at an average increase of 24% per meal.

But here’s the crucial part: many restaurants don’t maintain separate pricing. They raise their baseline prices everywhere to create enough margin to survive the delivery app commissions. While it’s difficult to isolate exactly what percentage of the last decade’s restaurant inflation is solely attributable to delivery apps (since food costs, labor, and rent have all increased significantly), the correlation is undeniable. The explosion of delivery apps requiring 15-30% commissions has coincided with the need for restaurants to raise prices by 27-31% across all channels just to maintain their historically thin 3-5% profit margins.

In other words, a significant portion of the menu price increases you’ve experienced over the past decade—potentially 5-10 percentage points of that 31% total increase—can be traced directly to restaurants needing to subsidize the economics of delivery apps, even for customers who never use them.

Why Restaurants Can’t Just Charge More on Apps

You might wonder: why don’t restaurants simply charge higher prices on delivery apps? Some do, but it’s complicated. Many delivery platforms actively discourage this practice, and restaurants fear that customers will notice the price discrepancy and feel gouged. More importantly, restaurants want to maintain consistent branding—having wildly different prices across channels looks unprofessional and confusing.

The result? They raise their in-house prices to create enough margin to absorb the delivery platform fees. Everyone pays more so that delivery customers can enjoy the convenience of apps.

The Math That Doesn’t Add Up

Let’s break down a hypothetical example:

• Cost to make a dish: $8
• Desired profit margin: 30% ($3.40)
• Fair price: $11.40

But when the restaurant lists on a delivery app with a 25% commission:

• Commission on $11.40: $2.85
• Actual profit: $0.55 (just 5%)

To maintain that 30% margin, the restaurant needs to charge around $15.20 across all channels. Now, the dine-in customer or direct pickup customer is paying an extra $3.80 to cover the commission structure built for delivery users.

The Promotion Problem

It gets worse. Delivery apps frequently run promotions—20% off your order, free delivery, $10 off $30—and restaurants are often expected to partially fund these discounts. When you use a promo code, there’s a good chance the restaurant is absorbing some of that cost, further squeezing their margins and incentivizing even higher baseline prices.

Who Really Wins?

The delivery platforms argue they’re providing value: marketing, logistics, customer acquisition. And for many restaurants, especially during COVID-19, these platforms were a lifeline. But the long-term effect is a wealth transfer from small restaurant owners and their loyal in-person customers to tech platforms and convenience-seeking delivery users.

The irony? The customers who support restaurants most directly—those who come in person, creating atmosphere, tipping servers, and building community—end up paying a premium to subsidize those who engage least with the actual establishment.

What Can Be Done?

Some restaurants are fighting back:

• Direct ordering systems: Many restaurants now offer their own online ordering with lower or no fees
• Lower-commission alternatives: Platforms like BeyondMenu, ChowNow, and Slice charge restaurants significantly lower fees (often flat monthly rates instead of per-order commissions), allowing restaurants to keep more revenue while still offering online ordering convenience
• Pricing transparency: Some establishments openly list different prices for pickup vs. delivery
• Delivery-only virtual brands: Creating separate concepts specifically for delivery platforms
• Customer education: Encouraging loyal customers to order directly

As consumers, we have power too. Ordering directly from restaurants—by phone, through their website, or in person—ensures more of your money goes to the people preparing your food. That $15 sandwich might still be $15, but at least you’ll know you’re not subsidizing someone else’s Friday night couch delivery.

The next time you pick up takeout at your local spot, remember: in the age of app-based delivery, dining in or picking up yourself isn’t just convenient—it’s an act of economic solidarity. You’re just paying the same inflated prices without getting the delivery service in return.