Tipping in India: how much is average?

When you arrive in India and hop in your first ever taxi ride, don’t be surprised if the driver turns around and says, literally: “give me a nice tip?” or if you take a shuttle bus at the airport and someone says “give me twenty rupees tip” or maybe even someone trying to “help” you at the airport when you don’t want it and then rudely demanding a tip. Wow, tipping in India seems intense upon arrival, right!?

This might lead you to believe that India has a “tipping culture”, but it truly does not and never did until tourists from abroad came here and started tipping. My Indian friends do not tip unless the bill requires it (as some nice restaurants add it to the bill). We talked about this in my Facebook group for India travel tips and the Indians in the group confirmed that tipping is not compulsory or expected but is a “nice” bonus.

“While India culturally does not have a strong tipping tradition, in most of the tourist towns tips are expected and frowned…