Deliveroo Commission: What UK Restaurants Actually Pay

If you run a UK restaurant on Deliveroo, you already know the headline commission rate. What you probably do not know is exactly how much of each order you actually keep after commission, VAT on that commission, marketing deductions and refund clawbacks.

This guide breaks down the deductions on a Deliveroo payout for UK restaurants, with worked examples showing your real take-home on a typical order.

Deliveroo's commission structure for UK restaurants

Deliveroo charges UK restaurants a commission on each order. Unlike Uber Eats and Just Eat, Deliveroo does not publish its standard commission rate for UK restaurant partners — its merchant site states no rate and offers prospective partners sign-up and a "Talk to sales" contact, so there is no headline figure to quote. Its UK partner terms describe the fee only as "a percentage of GMV (inclusive of VAT) per order, plus VAT" (they do not define what GMV includes, so check your statement for the base); the one figure they state is 35% plus VAT (unless varied by written agreement), for Marketplace+ partners' orders delivered through Deliveroo's rider network. Your rate is whatever your own agreement says, and it varies with location, order volume, and any promotional programmes you have opted into.

Because no rate is published, the only reliable figure is your own effective rate, calculated from a settled payout: total deductions divided by gross order value. Here is what that calculation looks like on a real order:

Example: a £40 order, assuming a contracted rate of 25% (an illustrative figure — substitute your own contracted rate) That 25% contracted rate is actually costing you 30% once you add VAT on the commission. This is the single biggest source of confusion in delivery platform accounting -- and the most common reason HMRC queries arise.

The fees beyond the headline commission

The commission percentage is not the only deduction. Others can reduce your take-home further:

What the terms say comes off

Deliveroo's UK partner terms do not describe a separate payment-processing fee. They set out the payout as "an amount equal to the GMV for your Delivery Orders during the relevant payment period, less the Delivery Service Fee, less any relevant adjustments for refunds paid to customers". The Delivery Service Fee is the commission itself, plus VAT. If your statement shows any other deduction, check it against your own agreement.

Marketing and promotion opt-ins

If you have opted into Deliveroo's marketing tools (Marketer: Offers, Adverts, Rewards), those costs are deducted from your payouts: Deliveroo's Marketer terms say "Marketer Charges will be deducted from the amounts payable to you". These can range from a few pounds per day to significant sums depending on your promotional activity.

Refund clawbacks

When a customer claims a refund -- for missing items, quality issues, or late delivery -- Deliveroo deducts the refund amount from your next payout. The restaurant bears the cost even when the issue was caused by the delivery rider. This is the hidden cost of refund clawbacks -- quieter than commission but material across a month.

Restaurants across the UK estimate that roughly one in three refund claims are unjustified. A missing item that your POS records show was packed and confirmed. A quality complaint on a sealed container. A duplicate claim for the same order. These add up: a restaurant doing 300 orders per week on Deliveroo might see 5-10 refunds, of which 2-3 are questionable.

Equipment

Deliveroo's partner terms say "You will need a tablet and a printer to start accepting Delivery Orders". Existing partners can keep their existing equipment; new partners are given "two options for equipment", priced on Deliveroo's sign-up pages, and "Each option is subject to a one-off joining fee". The terms give no figure, so check your own agreement for what you pay.

Your real take-home: a worked example

Here is the full picture on a typical week for a UK restaurant doing £4,000 in Deliveroo orders:

The contracted rate was 25%. The actual deduction rate is 32.6%, and higher again in any week with marketing charges. That gap -- more than 7 percentage points -- is where most accounting errors live.

VAT on commissions: the detail most restaurants get wrong

Deliveroo's commission is a service, and services in the UK are subject to VAT at the standard 20% rate. This means:

• On a £10 commission, Deliveroo charges you £12 (£10 + £2 VAT)
• The £2 VAT is input tax -- you can reclaim it on your VAT return if you are VAT-registered
• But you need to account for it separately in your books

This holds whatever you sell. If your restaurant sells both standard-rated items (hot food) and zero-rated items, you still reclaim the whole commission VAT: zero-rated supplies are taxable supplies taxed at 0%, not exempt supplies, and VAT Notice 700 allows recovery of input tax relating to supplies "liable at the standard rate, reduced rate or the zero rate." Coding the commission VAT as a single standard-rated input (T1) is the correct treatment, not an overclaim.

What your sales split does drive is the output VAT on the food itself — standard-rated items at 20%, zero-rated items at 0% — which needs posting as separate revenue lines. Cold items in a delivered meal are not automatically zero-rated, because HMRC lists the delivery of cooked ready-to-eat meals among its obvious examples of catering (VAT Notice 709/1, section 2.1), which is standard-rated. See our full guide on mixed-rate VAT treatment for the worked example.

This is technical enough that many generalist accountants get it wrong, and the usual direction is underclaiming: restricting the commission reclaim to the standard-rated share and writing off the rest as a cost that was always recoverable.

How Deliveroo pays you

Deliveroo pays UK restaurants on a weekly cycle. The payout arrives as a single net lump sum -- not broken down by order. For how this compares against Uber Eats and Just Eat, see our guide on how often each platform pays. This is the fundamental reconciliation challenge: you receive one payment that represents hundreds of individual orders, each with different commission rates, refund deductions, and promotional costs.

To verify the payout is correct, you need to:

1. Download the weekly statement from Deliveroo's Restaurant Hub — see our step-by-step Deliveroo reconciliation guide for the full workflow
2. Match individual orders against your POS records
3. Verify the commission rate applied to each order
4. Check refund deductions against actual complaints
5. Calculate VAT on commissions correctly
6. Enter the categorised journal entries into your accounting software

Most restaurants skip steps 2-5 and enter a single "Deliveroo income" journal. Since January 2024, this approach carries real risk.

HMRC is watching: Digital Platform Reporting Rules

Since January 2024, Deliveroo (along with Uber Eats and Just Eat) is required to report your revenue directly to HMRC under the Digital Platform Reporting Rules. HMRC now receives what each platform paid or credited to you, broken down by calendar quarter, with the fees, commissions and taxes it deducted reported separately -- enough to rebuild your gross and check it against the income on your return.

If your accounting records show a lump-sum entry that does not match what HMRC has received from the platform, that is a red flag. A mismatch between the gross figure HMRC can rebuild from the platform's report (what it paid you plus the fees, commissions and taxes it deducted) and the figure on your tax return is exactly the kind of discrepancy HMRC's data-matching is designed to surface.

Accurate reconciliation is no longer optional -- it is a compliance requirement. For the full picture on what HMRC knows and how to prepare, see our guide to HMRC's Digital Platform Reporting Rules.

What you can do about commission costs

You cannot avoid commission fees if you want to be on Deliveroo. But you can:

• Reconcile weekly -- catch errors early, before they compound over months
• Track your effective rate -- know your actual deduction rate, not just the headline
• Challenge unjustified refunds -- check every refund against your POS records within the platform's dispute window
• Review your commission agreement annually -- if your order volume has increased, you may have leverage to negotiate
• Account for VAT correctly -- ensure your accountant understands mixed-rate VAT treatment on delivery commissions

Estimate your take-home

Use our free commission calculator to estimate what you keep from each delivery platform after commission and VAT on commission. It also deducts an assumed 2.5% for other fees, which is an illustrative allowance rather than a Deliveroo charge; your settled payouts give the real figure.

Enter your weekly order values and compare the estimates for Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat side by side.

---

This guide covers Deliveroo commission structures for UK restaurants (written March 2026; Deliveroo's UK partner terms re-checked 15 October 2026). Commission rates are subject to change -- check your Deliveroo Partner Hub agreement for your specific rate. This is not financial or tax advice. For VAT treatment queries, consult a qualified accountant.

Sources

• Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023
• Deliveroo Merchants
• Deliveroo — UK partner terms (fees set as "a percentage of GMV"; payout = GMV less the Delivery Service Fee and refunds; equipment and joining fees; Marketer charges deducted from payouts; 35% plus VAT for Marketplace+ rider-network orders)
• HMRC — IEIM901740: what platforms report as consideration (net of fees, which are reported separately)