Standard
2 business days
Freeno fee
Each booking pays out 2 business days after the meal. Most chefs use this — it's cleanest for tax season.
Honest pricing
For every dollar,
For every dollar,
chefs keep 73¢.
No hidden fees. No surge surprises. Try the calculator below — every line shown.
Where every $1 goes
73 to the chef. 18 to olla. 9 to processing & tax.
$0.73
To the chef
Their quoted rate, minus our flat 18% platform fee. Tips and surge multipliers go directly to them — never to us.
$0.18
To olla
Background checks, insurance, dispute resolution, the app, the support team, and Studio content. Industry standard is 25–30%.
$0.09
To Stripe & sales tax
Card processing (~3%) plus your local sales tax on services. We pass these straight through — no markup.
Run the numbers.
Adjust anything — the breakdown updates live.
Service tier
Guests4 people
4
When
Booking lead time
Tip 100% to chef
Total guest pays
$0
for 4 guests · cook in home
Chef rate × 4 guests$0
Service fee · 9%$0
Sales tax · 4.0%$0
Tip (20%)$0
Total$0
Chef takes homeMarisol Ortega
$0
$0 base after 18% olla fee + $0 tip · paid 2 days after the meal
Surge rules
When prices flex.
Higher demand, higher pay for chefs — not for us. We never raise our 18% based on the calendar.
×0.85
Weekday lunch
Mon–Thu, 11am–2pm. A 15% discount because chefs have open kitchens.
×1.00
Standard times
Most weekday evenings, Sunday all day. The base rate the chef set.
×1.15
Friday & Saturday evening
5–10pm, the most-booked window. Goes to the chef, not to us.
×1.30
Major holidays
Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Valentine's, NYE, Mother's Day, July 4th.
×1.10
Last-minute
Booked within 48 hours. Stacks with the day/time multiplier above.
×0.92
New-chef rate
A chef's first 10 bookings are 8% off. Helps them get reviews — chef opts in.
For chefs
Three ways to get paid.
Pick the cadence that fits your books. Switch any time in your earnings settings.
Instant
Same day · usually 30 min
1.5%per payout
Paid the night of the meal, straight to your debit card. Useful for chefs who reload groceries the next morning.
Weekly batch
Every Friday
Freesimpler bookkeeping
All bookings from Mon–Sun batched into one Friday deposit. One line on your bank statement per week.
Honesty section
Questions worth asking.
Why 18%, not 30%?
Marketplaces in the food space typically take 25–30% (DoorDash, Grubhub) or even 35%+ for discovery platforms. We chose 18% because we want chefs to make a living wage without needing to pad prices. Our model assumes 14 bookings/month per chef and 60% rebook rate — at scale, 18% works. If we miss those numbers, we'll raise the fee with notice — never quietly.
Does the chef see what I paid?
Yes — chefs see the full breakdown of every booking, including your tip and any surge multiplier applied. They also see exactly what we kept (the 18%). No surprises on either side of the table.
Why a service fee at all?
The 9% service fee covers payment processing (Stripe is ~3%), our trust & safety team, dispute resolution, and chef insurance. We considered baking it into the chef's rate (so prices look lower upfront) but decided against it — chefs prefer to set their own rate and have us add fees on top, transparently.
What about tip?
Tips are 100% the chef's. We don't take a cut. If you tip 20% on a $580 dinner, the chef receives the full $116 — never $116 minus 18%. This is the most common question we get from new chefs, and it matters.
Surge pricing — won't this game the system?
Surge isn't dynamic. Multipliers are fixed and published: weekend evening 1.15×, holiday 1.30×, last-minute 1.10×. Chefs see exactly what they'll earn before accepting a booking. Guests see the multiplier line-itemized at checkout. No black-box pricing.
What about cancellations?
Free cancellation up to 72 hours before. Within 72 hours: 50% to the chef (groceries are bought). Within 24 hours: 100% to the chef. The chef cancels: full refund + a $50 credit toward your next booking. We don't take any platform fee on cancellation payouts — it all goes to the chef.
Are there any other fees?
No. No subscription fee for guests (Studio is optional, $7/mo). No listing fee for chefs. No upsells, "premium" placements, or paid search. No annual membership. The 18%/9% split is it.
Ready to book a chef?
Or apply to cook on olla. We onboard new chefs every Wednesday.