For regular tips in the States, don't stress about it: It's fine to tip whatever you think the service is worth. You're just visiting anyway; it's not like yo

For regular tips in the States, don't stress about it: It's fine to tip whatever you think the service is worth. You're just visiting anyway; it's not like you have a reputation to uphold at the place around the corner from your house where you eat twice a week or something. Just estimate whatever a "reasonable" tip is. It doesn't have to be a precise process. Rounding is OK. If the tab is $38.43, and a reasonable tip for the service in the area is 20%, then: Just round the total, slide the decimal over, and double it. $38.43 rounds to $40. The decimal slides over, and makes $40 into $4 (ie, 10%). But 20% is the target, so $4 * 2 = $8. The tip is thus $8. Write $8 on the tip line. Then add $8 to $36 to get $44. Write $44 on the total line. And then carry over the change: 43 cents. Just append ".43" to the tip line, and scribble something on the signature line, and: You're done. You tipped 21.81%, and that's fine. Nobody cares. And these are easy steps. If you round down (from $34 to $30, say) instead of up, and wind up paying around 17% instead instead of a target of 20%, then: That's also fine. Nobody cares. The wait staff isn't going to lose any sleep over this wondering what they did wrong or have to deal with buying only one new shoe for their kid to wear instead of a whole pair of them. Don't sweat it.