How Much Does Catering Cost? Per-Person Prices and How Restaurants Set Them

Catering prices depend on the service style, the market and the date of the survey, so read every published range with those three attached. Fash's national cost guide, last updated in March 2023 and built from local caterers' estimates, puts drop-off catering at about $10 to $28 per person and buffets, food stations or full service at $30 to $150. For office catering in New York City, one of the most expensive markets, Zerocater's 2026 guide lists boxed lunches at $20 to $35 per person. Actual office orders can come in lower: ezCater's 2026 workplace data, reported by Food On Demand in June 2026, puts its average workplace check at $430 for a headcount of 26, about $16.50 a head. Service charges, staff, delivery, rentals and tax come on top of the food price.

If you run a restaurant, those numbers tell you where buyers' expectations sit. They don't tell you what to charge. Your price comes from your own food cost, the other costs of filling the order and the minimums you set, which is what most of this page is about. It's one piece of building catering as a revenue channel.

Published catering prices per person, by service style

Service style moves the price more than the menu does. The jump from drop-off to plated is mostly labor: servers, setup, equipment and cleanup. The two guides below measure different things, so keep them in separate columns rather than averaging them.

Why the columns differ:

• Market. Fash notes that caterers in metropolitan areas charge up to 30% more, and Zerocater's guide covers Manhattan offices.
• Date. Fash's figures date to March 2023. Food and labor costs have moved since, so treat its ranges as a rough floor-to-ceiling check, not today's going rate in your town.
• What buyers actually spend. The ezCater average above, about $16.50 a head across real workplace orders, sits in the lower half of Fash's drop-off range and below Zerocater's boxed-lunch range for New York. Most office catering is a lunch, not an event.

One more reference point for order size: MONKEY's State of Catering 2026 data, reported by Food On Demand, put the average catering order at about $416 in 2025.

Published catering prices per person, by meal

Lunch is where the volume is. In ezCater's 2026 workplace data, lunch was the most common occasion, ordered by 90% of workplace orderers, followed by dinner at 59%, heavy appetizers at 46% and breakfast at 36%. If you are building a first catering menu, build it around lunch.

What else goes on a catering bill?

The per-person price usually covers the food and basic disposables. Everything else is a separate line, and buyers who compare quotes on the per-person number alone are often surprised by the total.

Group size matters too. Zerocater's NYC guide says orders for 10 to 15 people typically run 15 to 25% higher per person than orders for 50 or more, because delivery, setup and minimum staffing are spread across fewer people. It is also why a minimum order makes sense.

Is a catering service charge the same as a gratuity?

No, and the difference matters to the restaurant as much as to the buyer. The IRS says that "a payment is a tip only if the customer voluntarily decides to pay it and determines the amount." A mandatory charge, such as an automatic 18% for large parties, is a service charge. Service charges are income to the business whether or not you pass them on, and the IRS generally treats any part you distribute to employees as wages, not tips.

In practice:

1. Name it plainly. Call it a service charge, not a gratuity, and say what it pays for: coordination, equipment, staff or delivery.
2. Don't charge for the same thing twice. If the service charge covers your servers, don't also bill their hours, or the buyer pays for service twice.
3. Keep any tip line voluntary. A suggested tip the buyer can change or leave blank is a tip; a required one is a service charge.
4. Ask your accountant how to run service charges through payroll, and check your state and city rules on how they must be disclosed.

How to price catering at your restaurant

Start from your costs, not from a competitor's menu or a published average.

1. Cost one portion. Price the full recipe for what one guest gets: protein, sides, sauce, bread, garnish and dessert. Use current invoice prices, not last year's recipe card. For trays, cost the whole tray.
2. Choose a target food cost percentage. Use the target you hold on the rest of your menu as a starting point.
3. Divide. Starting food price = food cost ÷ target food cost percentage. Raising the target lowers the price but leaves less to cover everything else.
4. Add packaging. Boxes, lids, cutlery kits, labels and serving utensils add up on a large order. Price them into the per-person figure or list them as a line.
5. Set the rules: a minimum headcount or order value, the notice you need, and the cutoff for headcount changes.
6. Price the service lines separately: delivery by distance zone, setup, staff by the hour with a minimum, and rentals at cost plus handling.
7. Decide on the service charge and what it covers, then state it on the quote.
8. Check what the order leaves after food, packaging, the extra labor, your delivery cost and payment fees before the quote goes out. Then round to a clean per-person price and show sales tax as a separate line.

Formula: Starting food price per person = food cost per person ÷ target food cost %. Quote subtotal before tax = (price per person × guests) + delivery, setup, staff and rentals + service charge. Sales tax is added on its own line.

Worked example: Say a fast-casual restaurant quotes a boxed lunch for 30 people. The food in each box costs $5.40, and the target food cost is 30%, so the food price is $5.40 ÷ 0.30 = $18.00 per person. The box, cutlery kit and label cost $1.20, which brings it to $19.20; the restaurant lists it at $19.50. Thirty boxes come to $585, plus a $35 delivery fee, for a quote of $620 before tax. Food and packaging cost $198, which leaves $387 from the food total before labor. If the delivery run costs about $25 in driver time and mileage, the $35 fee covers it.

The same restaurant quoting a staffed buffet adds lines, not just a higher per-person price:

Worked example: Say 60 guests, a food cost of $9.00 per person and the same 30% target, which gives $30.00 per person.

In this example the food price is $30 per person, but the buyer's total before tax works out to about $47.65 a head ($2,859 ÷ 60). Showing every line up front stops a buyer from comparing your full quote with someone else's food-only price.

To run your own numbers, enter your food cost per person or per tray, your target food cost, the guest or tray count and the fees you charge:

The calculator gives a starting food price per person or per tray, and the food plus fees before tax. If you also enter your other costs for the order (packaging, the extra labor, your delivery cost and payment fees), it shows what the order leaves after food and those costs; leave that field blank and it shows the food margin only. Sales tax isn't in any of it: add it to the quote separately under your state's rules. Then put the numbers into the catering quote template so every quote has the same lines, minimums and terms, whoever writes it.

How marketplace commission changes your catering price

Marketplaces charge 15 to 30% commission on catering orders. Commission comes out of the order total, so it raises your effective food cost unless the price absorbs it.

Worked example: Take the $585 boxed-lunch order above through a marketplace at a 20% commission. The platform keeps $117, leaving $468. Food and packaging still cost $198, so $270 is left instead of $387, and the food cost rises from about 28% of the food total ($162 ÷ $585) to about 35% of what you keep ($162 ÷ $468).

Formula: Starting food price on a commission channel = food cost per person ÷ (target food cost % × (1 − commission rate)). In the example: $5.40 ÷ (0.30 × 0.80) = $22.50 per person before packaging.

Check the marketplace's terms before you price differently there; some platforms set rules on menu prices. A marketplace can be worth the commission for a first order from a buyer you would never have met. MONKEY's 2026 data also found that marketplace orders carry average order values 6 to 8% lower than orders placed directly with the restaurant. For a side-by-side of what each channel keeps, see is catering profitable for restaurants.

Per person or per tray?

Price corporate catering per person. Office buyers budget by headcount, and a per-person price makes comparison and approval easy. Price party and family orders by the tray as well, with how many people each tray serves, because those buyers think in dishes, not heads. You can show both: boxed lunches and packages per person, and trays per pan. The pricing calculator above works either way.

Whichever you choose, the catering menu needs the same few facts: the price per person or per tray, the minimum order, the notice required, the delivery zones and fees, and dietary information your kitchen has checked. If you are setting this up for the first time, how to start catering from your restaurant walks through the menu, packaging, food safety and first customers. For office buyers in particular, how to get corporate catering clients shows how to build a package and an offer around the per-person price.

A price list only helps if quotes go out fast and consistently. Kutlerri.ai's Catering Sales Agent answers catering inquiries and drafts each quote from your menu and prices, and you approve every quote before it is sent.