What a night out actually costs
We publish a dollar range, not dollar signs. A $$ card tells you nothing you can budget against, so we convert the price tier into a per-person range by what you are actually buying, multiply by your party, and show the total before tip. The bands below are the whole model — this page is generated from the same table the app uses, so it cannot go stale.
The bands, per person, before tip
| What you are buying | $ | $$ | $$$ | $$$$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DinnerA sit-down meal, one person | $12–20 | $25–40 | $55–85 | $95–160 |
| DrinksTwo or three drinks, not a tab for the table | $12–22 | $22–38 | $38–60 | $60–100 |
| CoffeeCoffee, dessert, an ice cream | $5–10 | $8–16 | $12–22 | $15–30 |
| Something to doAn hour or two — a lane, a room, a couple of games | $10–20 | $18–35 | $30–55 | $45–80 |
| AdmissionA ticket: a film, a show, a museum | $8–15 | $15–30 | $30–55 | $50–95 |
Why a $$$ bar and a $$$ restaurant are not the same money
Google’s price tier is relative and has no units. It means something different in every category, so one set of bands for all of them would be wrong for all of them. A three-dollar-sign cocktail bar is $38–60 a head; a three-dollar-sign restaurant is $55–85. Splitting the bands by what you are buying is the only way either number is usable.
Where we show nothing instead of a number
- No price tier. Common for small and new places. A fabricated range is worse than a blank, so we leave it blank and show the dollar signs instead.
- Casinos. Nothing at the door, and what you lose inside is not a function of how Google rates the restaurant.
- A stop in a plan we could not price. The night’s total says so — “+1 stop we can’t price” — rather than quietly leaving it out. A partial total that reads as the whole night is a worse answer than an honest incomplete one.