How NYC service pricing works: flat fee vs percentage commission
Book a service through an app in New York City and a slice of your payment goes to the platform as a fee. That fee gets worked out one of two ways: a percentage commission carved out of the provider price, or a flat charge added on top. Here is how both work, with numbers you can follow, so the next time you read an app total you know exactly where the money lands.
Last updated July 19, 2026 · Pre-launch informational guide
The two pricing models
Most service and gig apps lean on one of two fee structures. Once you know which one an app uses, you know how much of your payment actually reaches the person doing the work.
Percentage commission: the platform keeps a share of the provider price, usually a set percentage of every job. Industry-wide that share tends to land somewhere between 15 and 30 percent, though it swings by app and category. Since it is a percentage, the platform cut climbs as the job gets more expensive. Flat fee: the platform charges a fixed amount per booking, and that amount holds steady no matter the job price. A $40 booking and a $400 booking carry the same flat fee. Bobby is being built on this model: a flat $1 booking fee on most services, added on top of the provider price, with the provider keeping 100 percent of what they charge.How percentage commission adds up
With a percentage commission, the fee rides along with the job. Say an app takes 20 percent: a $100 job returns $80 to the provider and $20 to the platform. Run that same 20 percent on a $300 job and the platform keeps $60. The provider did three times the work and handed over three times the fee, even though connecting them took the app no more effort.
That is why percentage models tend to bite harder on larger jobs. The cost of running the booking (payment processing, matching, support) does not triple when the price triples. The commission does.
How a flat fee works
A flat fee cuts the platform charge loose from the size of the job. Bobby plans to charge a flat $1 per booking on most services. On a $100 job the provider keeps $100 and the customer pays $101. Bump it to a $300 job and the provider keeps $300 while the customer pays $301. The $1 never moves.
Food delivery is the single planned exception: a flat $2 model, framed as $1 to the restaurant and $1 to the driver. Either way, no percentage layer sits underneath.
Worked examples
The table below puts a flat $1 fee next to a 20 percent commission across the same three provider prices. The percentage figures illustrate a typical 15 to 30 percent range and are not pinned to any specific company.
- Provider price $50: a flat $1 fee leaves the provider with $50; a 20 percent commission would pull $10 out, leaving $40.
- Provider price $150: a flat $1 fee leaves the provider with $150; a 20 percent commission would pull $30 out, leaving $120.
- Provider price $400: a flat $1 fee leaves the provider with $400; a 20 percent commission would pull $80 out, leaving $320.
Under the flat model, the platform fee stays a steady $1 down all three rows. Under the percentage model, the amount taken out keeps climbing with the price of the work.
What it means for you
For customers, a flat fee keeps the total easy to see coming: the provider price plus a fixed amount, right there before you confirm. For providers, it means the money they take home does not get eaten into as their prices climb.
Bobby is pre-launch and gathering a waitlist right now. Nothing here can be booked yet. What is described above is the way Bobby plans to charge once it opens across the five boroughs of New York City.