If you have ever tried to work out exactly what Just Eat costs you, you are not alone — it is one of the most-asked questions among UK takeaway owners. The good news is that the headline numbers are not a secret. Just Eat's own partner FAQ states them plainly: a 14% commission plus VAT on every order when you handle your own delivery, and a 30% commission plus VAT on every order Just Eat delivers for you.
Their own worked examples make it concrete. On a £20 order you deliver yourself, Just Eat takes £3.36 (£2.80 commission plus 56p VAT). On a £20 order they deliver, they take £7.20 (£6.00 plus £1.20 VAT). Commissions are deducted from your weekly order revenue before it reaches your bank — you are invoiced every Tuesday and paid the balance on Friday.
What that looks like on a real week
Take a shop doing £3,000 a week through Just Eat with its own drivers. Fourteen per cent plus VAT works out at roughly £504 a week — about £26,000 a year. If Just Eat handles delivery instead, the same £3,000 costs around £1,080 a week, or £56,000 a year. Those are not marketing numbers; they follow directly from the rates Just Eat publishes.
Two details soften or sharpen the picture depending on your situation. First, VAT on fees is reclaimable if you are VAT-registered, so the net cost is lower for VAT-registered businesses. Second, if you are on an older or negotiated agreement, your rate may differ — the real number is on every Tuesday invoice, and it is worth actually reading one.
What your customers pay on top
The commission is only half the story. Your customers typically pay £3 to £7 per order in combined service, delivery and small-order fees on the big aggregators. That money never touches your till, but it absolutely affects your business: it makes your food more expensive than your menu says, shrinks baskets, and pushes price-sensitive regulars toward whoever looks cheapest tonight.
The number that actually matters
The question is not whether 14% is too much in the abstract. It is: what share of your Just Eat orders come from people who already know you? For most established takeaways the honest answer is half or more. Those are orders you are paying acquisition prices for without acquiring anyone — and they are the orders a free, commission-free ordering site of your own wins back. Try our Just Eat commission calculator (linked in the footer of this site) to see your own numbers, and read our guide on moving regulars to direct ordering when you are ready to act on them.
