Where do these prices come from?

Itemized receipts that people split on Tab Tender at bars, restaurants, and stores. They are real transaction lines, not menu prices or survey estimates.

What does the cost of a night out include?

What one group paid in a single sitting: food, drinks, tax, tip, and any service charge. It excludes travel, tickets, and anything bought elsewhere that evening.

How often are the figures updated?

They are recomputed nightly, and recent receipts count for more than older ones, so a figure reflects what a place costs now rather than a year ago.

Why is my city or local bar not listed?

A place appears once enough different people have split bills there. Splitting a bill somewhere is what adds it.

The cost of a night out, by city

Real average costs for a night out — per group and per person, plus tips, service fees, and what a beer, cocktail, or entrée runs — built from actual itemized receipts split on Tab Tender.

NY

New York

$35.73 per person

How these numbers are built

Every figure on these pages comes from itemized receipts that people split on Tab Tender. They are what groups actually paid, not menu prices, not survey answers, and not scraped listings.

What a night out means here

What one group paid at a bar or restaurant in a single sitting: food, drinks, tax, tip, and any service charge. It does not include getting there, tickets, or anything bought elsewhere that evening. Per person figures divide the whole bill by everyone on the tab, not only by the people who ordered a given item.

How the averages are worked out

Item prices are averaged across every receipt line we hold for a place. Outliers are trimmed so one unusual bill cannot move a city figure, and recent receipts are weighted more heavily than old ones. An individual item price only appears once it has enough receipt lines behind it to be worth stating. Everything is recomputed nightly.

Why somewhere might be missing

A city or venue appears here once enough different people have split bills there. That threshold is deliberate: it stops one person's habits being published as a city average, and it keeps any single receipt from being picked out of the figures. If a place you go to is missing, splitting a bill there is what adds it.

What each page covers

Every published city has a cost of a night out page covering drink, food, tip, and service averages, plus a grocery prices page where there is store data. Individual venues get their own page once they qualify, with per item averages and how each compares with the rest of the city.

Common questions

Where do these prices come from?: Itemized receipts that people split on Tab Tender at bars, restaurants, and stores. They are real transaction lines, not menu prices or survey estimates.
What does the cost of a night out include?: What one group paid in a single sitting: food, drinks, tax, tip, and any service charge. It excludes travel, tickets, and anything bought elsewhere that evening.
How often are the figures updated?: They are recomputed nightly, and recent receipts count for more than older ones, so a figure reflects what a place costs now rather than a year ago.
Why is my city or local bar not listed?: A place appears once enough different people have split bills there. Splitting a bill somewhere is what adds it.