GST on Restaurant Food in India: Rates Explained (2026)

GST on restaurant food is 5% for most restaurants in India, charged with no input tax credit, and it's the same rate whether you dine in or take away. The only common exception is a restaurant inside a pricier hotel, which charges 18%. That's the whole answer for nearly everyone, but the details, when 18% kicks in, what changed in 2025, who pays on a Zomato order, are where owners and diners get tripped up. Here's the current position, cleared up.

Key takeaways

• Standalone restaurants charge 5% GST on food, with no input tax credit, on dine-in and takeaway alike.
• The 18% rate applies only to restaurants inside a hotel that counts as a "specified premises," roughly, a hotel with rooms selling above ₹7,500 a night.
• The AC versus non-AC rate difference is long gone. Any page still citing it is out of date.
• The 2025 GST overhaul did not change restaurant food rates. It only stopped standalone restaurants from claiming the 18%-with-credit route.
• On Zomato and Swiggy orders, the platform pays the GST, not the restaurant.

What GST rate applies to restaurant food?

A standalone restaurant charges 5% GST on food, and it cannot claim input tax credit on its purchases. This is the rate for the vast majority of restaurants, dine-in places, takeaway counters, and cloud kitchens, and it applies the same way to a sit-down meal and a parcel order, as Razorpay's breakdown of restaurant GST lays out.

So on a ₹1,000 food bill, you'll see ₹50 of GST, split as ₹25 CGST and ₹25 SGST. Not 18%, not a separate service tax, just 5% on the food and drink.

Is GST different for AC restaurants?

No. There is no separate GST rate for air-conditioned restaurants any more. That split was scrapped by the GST Council back in November 2017, when the rate was brought down to a flat 5% for standalone restaurants regardless of air conditioning.

It's worth saying plainly because the myth refuses to die. If a billing-software page or a "restaurant GST" article still lists AC as a rate factor, that copy hasn't been touched since 2017. Air conditioning has nothing to do with your GST rate.

When is restaurant GST 18%?

The 18% rate is for restaurants inside a hotel that counts as a "specified premises." If your restaurant is in such a hotel, it charges 18% GST and, in return, it can claim input tax credit on its costs.

Here's the part that changed. Since 1 April 2025, a hotel is a "specified premises" for a financial year if any of its rooms actually sold for more than ₹7,500 a night in the previous financial year. The old test, based on a hotel's "declared tariff," is gone; it's the real transaction value that counts now, per the GST Council's notification. A hotel can also opt in voluntarily. Below that bar, the hotel's restaurant charges the same 5% as everyone else.

For a standalone restaurant, none of this applies. You're on 5%, full stop.

Did the 2025 GST reforms change restaurant GST?

No, and this matters, because a lot of 2026 content gets it wrong. The big GST overhaul in September 2025, the one often called GST 2.0, left restaurant food rates exactly where they were: 5% for standalone restaurants, 18% for specified-premises hotels.

What the GST Council actually did was tighten one thing: it confirmed a standalone restaurant cannot declare itself a "specified premises" just to charge 18% and claim input credit. That's a loophole closed, not a rate change.

So if you read that "restaurant GST dropped to 5%" in the 2025 reforms, that article is confusing two different things. The hotel-room rate for rooms under ₹7,500 a night was cut to 5%. That's tax on the room, not on the food. Rooms changed. Restaurant food didn't.

Composition scheme: when the bill shows no GST

Some small restaurants bill differently. If your turnover is under ₹1.5 crore (₹75 lakh in a few special-category states), you can opt for the composition scheme. You pay a flat 5% of turnover as tax, you can't claim input tax credit, and, importantly, you can't collect GST separately from the customer. So the bill shows no GST line at all, according to ClearTax's guide to the composition scheme for restaurants.

Instead of a tax invoice, a composition restaurant issues a "Bill of Supply," which carries a line noting it isn't eligible to collect tax. One hard rule trips up a lot of small places: a restaurant that serves alcohol cannot use the composition scheme at all.

GST on Zomato and Swiggy orders: who actually pays?

When the order comes through Zomato or Swiggy, the platform pays the 5% GST, not the restaurant. Since January 2022, under Section 9(5) of the GST law, the delivery platform is the one that collects and remits tax on restaurant orders placed through its app. You record the sale, but you don't remit GST on those specific orders.

That's the single most misunderstood part of restaurant GST, and it's why an aggregator order and a dine-in order can't be billed the same way. One is taxed by the platform, the other is yours to tax. We dig into what Zomato and Swiggy actually cost a restaurant separately, and the GST liability runs on the same logic: the platform holds more of the paperwork than owners expect.

Alcohol sits outside GST entirely

Alcohol isn't taxed under GST at all. Beer, wine, and spirits for drinking are taxed by the state, through excise duty and VAT, because they sit outside the GST system by constitutional design.

That's why a bar's bill has two tax worlds on one ticket: GST on the food, state VAT on the drinks, each on its own line. Getting those two separated correctly is the whole billing challenge at a bar, which we cover in billing for bars, where food GST and liquor VAT share a table.

A couple of edge cases worth knowing

Two situations don't follow the plain restaurant rate.

An ice cream parlour selling scoops from a tub is treated as selling goods, not running a restaurant. So it charges GST on ice cream as a product, and it can claim input credit, which is a different footing from the 5%-with-no-credit restaurant rate.

A sealed, branded packaged item, a bottled soft drink or a packet of chips, is a goods sale at that product's own GST rate. And it can't be billed above the MRP printed on the pack, since the MRP is tax-inclusive by law.

For owners: the rate is the easy part

Knowing you charge 5% takes five seconds. Charging it correctly on every bill is where things quietly break. The same restaurant can have a dine-in order it invoices at 5%, an aggregator order the platform invoices, and, if it's a composition dealer, a bill that shows no GST at all. Get the split wrong and it surfaces at filing time, as a duplicate invoice number, a mismatched GSTR-1, or tax charged on an order the platform already taxed.

That's a billing-system job, not a memory job. dineomai takes the order and bills it in one system: the right rate applied, CGST and SGST shown as separate lines, one clean invoice sequence, and food GST kept apart from liquor VAT on a bar's ticket. If you're weighing tools, here's what to check in GST billing software for a restaurant, and how a voluntary service charge fits the bill legally sits alongside it.

FAQ

What is the GST rate on restaurant food in India?

Most restaurants charge 5% GST on food, with no input tax credit, on both dine-in and takeaway. The exception is a restaurant inside a hotel classed as a "specified premises," roughly a hotel with rooms above ₹7,500 a night, which charges 18% with input credit. There is no separate rate for AC restaurants.

Is GST 5% or 18% on restaurant food?

It's 5% for a standalone restaurant, which covers the large majority. It's 18% only if the restaurant is inside a hotel that qualifies as a "specified premises," based on the hotel having rooms that actually sold above ₹7,500 a night in the previous financial year. Standalone places always charge 5%.

Is there GST on takeaway or parcel food?

Yes, at the same rate as dine-in. A standalone restaurant charges 5% GST whether you eat in or take the food away. The rate follows the restaurant, not whether you sit down. Packaged branded items sold sealed are a separate goods sale at their own rate, capped at the printed MRP.

Do I pay GST on Zomato and Swiggy orders?

The GST is paid, but by the platform, not the restaurant. Since January 2022, under Section 9(5), Zomato and Swiggy collect and remit 5% GST on restaurant orders placed through their apps. As a customer you still pay the tax in the total; as a restaurant, you don't remit it on those orders.

Is there GST on alcohol in a restaurant?

No. Alcoholic drinks sit outside GST entirely and are taxed by the state through excise and VAT instead. On a bar or restaurant bill that includes drinks, the food carries GST and the alcohol carries state VAT, shown as separate lines. The two are calculated under completely different systems.

What to do next

If you're a diner, check that your bill shows 5% GST on food (or 18% only if you're in a hotel restaurant), split into CGST and SGST, with any alcohol taxed separately. If you're an owner, the rate is settled, so make sure your billing actually applies it right across dine-in, aggregator, and any composition sales. Start with what to check in GST billing software for restaurants, then book a short dineomai demo and watch one system take the order and bill it, GST and all, without a second tool.