Catering is priced per head and the service style sets the number: drop-off $10 to $28, buffet or stations $30 to $70, full service $30 to $100, a plated dinner $40 to $150. Then two percentages land on top. A service fee of 18 to 22 percent covers the caterer operating costs, and a gratuity of 15 to 20 percent is customary and separate from it. Budget from the per-head figure plus a third again, not from the per-head figure.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Event catering, per headNational range | $10 to $150 per head |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
Service style moves the number more than the menu does. The same chicken costs three times as much plated as it does in a chafing dish, because plating is labor and labor is people standing in a room for five hours.
A service fee of 18 to 22 percent covers the caterer back-end operating costs. A gratuity of 15 to 20 percent is customary and is separate from it.
Those stack. A $60 a head buffet for eighty people is $4,800 of food and lands somewhere near $6,600 once both are applied, before anything else. This is the single most common surprise in catering, and it is not a hidden charge so much as one people assume is the same charge twice.
Ask whether the service fee includes gratuity. Sometimes it does. When it does not, and you tip on top of a fee you thought was the tip, you have paid roughly 40 percent over food cost.
Staffing, an open bar, and rentals for tables, chairs and linen. The rentals are usually a separate vendor, billed through the caterer or arranged by you. The table above lists these under what is quoted separately, with the figures.
Cake cutting, corkage and overtime after a set hour are the three that show up on final invoices most often. All three are avoidable if you ask about them in advance.
The final headcount deadline matters more than it sounds. Most caterers bill on the number you confirm rather than the number who turn up, and that date is usually a week or more before the event.
Food businesses are inspected and permitted locally rather than by one national body, and what a caterer needs to work out of a given kitchen changes by state and county. The state pages carry that detail.
$10 to $150 a head, and where you land is almost entirely service style rather than the food itself.
Drop-off runs $10 to $28 a head, a food truck $15 to $35, buffet or stations $30 to $70, full service $30 to $100, and a plated dinner $40 to $150. Breakfast, brunch or lunch runs $10 to $30, and appetizers $10 to $30 a guest.
A service fee of 18 to 22 percent, gratuity of 15 to 20 percent on top of that service fee, staffing at $20 to $30 an hour per server, alcohol, and rentals for tables, chairs and linen. Ask which of these are in a per-head number before comparing two quotes.
$10 to $40 a person on this data, on top of the food cost.