Delivery App Commission: How Much of Each Order Do You Actually Keep?
The customer pays 60 and the app takes its cut before your costs even start, so what actually reaches your pocket per delivery order? We break down a worked example line by line and hand you a table to run your own margins.
At month-end your reports look fine and delivery-app sales are moving, but what actually landed in your pocket doesn't match the volume of orders that left your kitchen. The problem isn't your sales, it's what comes out of every order before it reaches you: the delivery app commission, VAT, packaging, and food cost. In this guide we sit down and cost one order line by line, show you exactly how much you really keep per delivery order, and hand you the method to redo the same math on your own items.
We already wrote a full piece on managing delivery aggregator commissions, but that one was about strategy: pricing the app menu on its own terms, and moving customers over to your own channels. This one is different. This is the worksheet that article never opened: net numbers, one order taken apart, and a table you can rerun with your own figures.
Why do your sales grow while your profit stays flat?
The reason is simple but painful: commission lands on the full order total, before you deduct a single cost of your own. The app takes its cut off the big number, and you pay food, packaging, and VAT out of that same number. The more you sell, the more commission you pay, so sales climb while what you keep doesn't climb with them at the same rate.
And that's the difference between a cost that takes a percentage of every transaction and a fixed cost you know from the start of the month. We covered it in detail in commission vs a flat subscription, and the same idea applies to the apps: commission grows with you, a fixed subscription doesn't.
A hypothetical example: a 60 order, broken down line by line
Let's take a hypothetical example with clean numbers so you can follow step by step. An order shown in the app at 60, price VAT-inclusive (that's how menu prices work here in Saudi Arabia, and you'll find the applicable rate and how it's calculated at the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority). App commission in this example is 25% (illustrative; your own contract sets your rate). Packaging is 2.50, and food cost is 32% of the net order. Here it is, broken apart:
| Line | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Menu price shown | 60.00 | VAT-inclusive, what the customer pays |
| Less VAT | 7.83 | 60 / 1.15 = 52.17 net |
| Net order to you | 52.17 | the base you cost from |
| Less app commission 25% | 15.00 | 25% of the 60 |
| Less packaging | 2.50 | bags and boxes |
| Less food cost 32% | 16.69 | 32% of 52.17 |
| What you actually keep | 17.98 | from an order shown at 60 |
See what happened? The customer paid 60, and only 17.98 reached your pocket. Commission alone ate 15, the biggest line after the food itself. And that's one order. Multiply it across hundreds of orders and you'll see why the month-end number never matches how busy it felt.
The same order at different commission rates, 15% to 30%
Commission rates differ by app and by your agreement, and typically fall between 15% and 30%. Take the same order as above (shown at 60, net 52.17, packaging 2.50, food cost 16.69) and watch how what you keep shifts with each rate:
| Commission | Commission amount | You keep | % kept of the 60 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15% | 9.00 | 23.98 | 40% |
| 20% | 12.00 | 20.98 | 35% |
| 25% | 15.00 | 17.98 | 30% |
| 30% | 18.00 | 14.98 | 25% |
Notice that every extra 5% of commission takes 3 out of the same order. The gap between 15% and 30% is a full 9 on a single order, and over a thousand orders a month that's a serious difference in what you keep. So your contract rate isn't a small detail, it's the single most important number in the equation.
When is a delivery app actually worth it?
Apps aren't the enemy, and sometimes the commission is worth every point of it. The trick is paying it with your eyes open: an app earns its cut when it brings you orders you'd never have reached, or when it fills capacity you aren't using. It makes sense in a few clear cases:
- It brings you new customers who don't know you yet, so you're paying commission for reach and marketing you didn't pay for upfront.
- Your dining room is small and your seats fill up without the app anyway, so a delivery order is extra profit, not a swap for a seat that would have sold.
- During your dead hours, when the kitchen is sitting idle, an extra order helps cover a fixed cost you're paying regardless.
- High-margin items can carry the commission and stay profitable, unlike thin-margin items you end up losing money on.
Work out your per-order margin in 5 steps
Instead of guessing, sit down for half an hour and cost your best-selling delivery items. Clear steps to reach your real number:
- Pull the ingredient cost
Take each item and cost its ingredients from the recipe. If your inventory is linked to recipes like recipe and inventory management, the number comes out ready instead of you doing it by hand.
- Get your real contract rate
Don't estimate the rate. Open your contract with each app and write down its exact percentage. Rates differ from app to app and deal to deal.
- Add packaging and fixed fees
Cost the bags and boxes per order, plus any fixed per-order fee in your contract. Small lines, but they add up.
- Compute the leftover per order
Subtract in order: net after VAT, minus commission, minus packaging, minus food cost. What comes out is your real profit on the order.
- Decide which items to list
Keep the items that stay profitable after commission in the app, and for the items whose margin vanishes, either price them differently inside the app or pull them out of it.
Channels where you sell with 0% commission
Once you know how much the commission takes from you, the natural question is: what's the alternative? The alternative isn't dropping the apps, it's owning a channel where you sell without paying a percentage on every order: QR order-at-table and an online store under your own name. Same customer, same order, but no cut comes off each transaction, so more of it stays with you. With Loqma both of those channels come with a fixed monthly subscription you know from the start of the month, with no commission on your sales.
Common questions
How much commission do delivery apps charge in Saudi Arabia?
It varies by app and by your specific contract, and typically falls in the 15% to 30% range of the order value. There's no single rate that applies to everyone, and the only number that matters is the one written in your own contract. Pull it up and run your math on that.
Should I raise my prices inside the app?
You can price higher in the app than you do in-store to cover the commission, and that's fair enough as long as the price still feels reasonable to your customer. Just work out the leftover per item first and mark up the items whose margin disappears after commission, not everything blindly.
When is a delivery app actually profitable?
When it brings you orders you'd never have reached anyway, or fills empty capacity in your dead hours, and your items still turn a profit after the commission comes off. If an item loses money after commission, volume won't fix it.
How do I know my cost per order?
Subtract three things from the net order value (after VAT): the app commission, the packaging, and the recipe cost of the food. What's left is your profit on that order. If your inventory is linked to recipes, the ingredient cost comes out automatically for each item.
Related articles
Ready to see Loqma in action?
Book a quick demo and we'll show you how one system makes your whole day easier.