Restaurant gift cards combine a familiar dining experience with a flexible purchase format. Recent U.S. surveys found strong holiday demand, while merchant transaction data shows meaningful growth in digital cards, early redemption, and incremental spending. The figures below cover different populations and measurement periods, so each statistic is labeled by source and scope.
Contents
- Market demand and restaurant revenue
- Who gives restaurant gift cards
- What diners want
- Purchase channels and formats
- Redemption, discovery, and additional spending
- Sales performance and denominations
- Holiday timing and promotion results
Market demand and restaurant revenue
Gift cards were the most requested item on U.S. holiday wish lists in the 2024 holiday season: 53% of shoppers asked for them, according to the National Retail Federation. The National Restaurant Association reported that U.S. consumers expected to spend more than $29 billion on gift cards during the 2023 holiday season, with restaurant cards identified as the most popular choice.
Restaurant demand is also visible outside holiday wish lists. About 52% of consumers bought gift cards from restaurants in 2024, according to the National Restaurant Association. In a 2025 infographic, Blackhawk Network described dining as the second-largest U.S. gift card category, citing 2025 U.S. closed-loop sales.
The restaurant share of revenue varies sharply by concept and program maturity. Blackhawk Network’s 2024 benchmarks placed restaurant gift cards at a low benchmark of 3% of restaurant sales and a medium benchmark of 5% to 10%. Top-performing quick-service and coffee shops could reach gift-card contributions of up to 20% of annual revenue. Casual-dining gift-card programs were reported as adding 5% to 10% to annual revenue. These are descriptive benchmarks, not universal restaurant averages.
Who gives restaurant gift cards
The National Restaurant Association’s survey of 1,000 adults on November 22–24, 2024 found that 59% of U.S. adults planned to give a restaurant gift card during the 2024 holiday season. Intent varied by generation:
| Group | Planned to give a restaurant gift card |
|---|---|
| Gen Z adults | 74% |
| Millennials | 70% |
| Gen X adults | 54% |
| Baby boomers | 44% |
The same survey found that 58% of millennials planned to give a restaurant gift card to a millennial family member or friend. Among baby boomers, 77% said they give gift cards because they know the recipient enjoys dining out. The pattern points to two useful audiences: younger adults who may use restaurant cards as peer and family gifts, and older adults motivated by confidence that the recipient likes restaurant experiences.
Historical context matters. In the National Restaurant Association’s 2020 holiday-season data, 42% of adults planned to give a restaurant gift card. That earlier figure should not be treated as a directly comparable trend line without accounting for the different survey period and conditions.
What diners want
Convenience and practical coverage are central to the gift-card proposition. In the November 22–24, 2024 National Restaurant Association survey, 46% of adults cited convenience and flexibility as a reason to buy a restaurant gift card. More importantly for the recipient, 81% said it was important that a restaurant gift card cover the full cost of a meal.
Familiarity was stronger than novelty. Seventy-seven percent of adults preferred a card from a favorite restaurant, while 36% wanted a card to somewhere new. The two preferences can coexist: a favorite-restaurant card reduces uncertainty, while a new-restaurant card offers discovery.
Usage flexibility also ranked highly. Seventy-six percent of adults valued restaurant gift cards usable for delivery or takeout. Among millennials, the share was 82%. For restaurants, this makes redemption terms part of the product itself: a card that works across dine-in, delivery, or takeout can serve more occasions than a card tied to a single service format.
The 2020 National Restaurant Association data provides an older comparison point: 62% of adults who wanted a restaurant gift card preferred one from their favorite restaurant, and 62% of adults said they would like to receive a restaurant gift card as a holiday present. Those legacy figures are included for historical context and were not independently reverified here.
Purchase channels and formats
Restaurant gift card shoppers use both broad retail distribution and restaurant-owned channels. In the 2024 National Restaurant Association survey, 55% of adults planned to buy restaurant gift cards from Walmart, supermarkets, or other large retailers. Forty-eight percent planned to buy directly from the restaurant, either in-store or online.
Black Friday promotions also reached younger buyers through marketplace deals. Forty-four percent of Gen Z adults planned to use Amazon Black Friday deals for restaurant gift cards, compared with 46% of millennials.
The Blackhawk Network survey, conducted in February 2024, found that 71% of surveyed U.S. consumers said their gift-card purchases were planned rather than last-minute. Half reported purchasing gift cards through digital channels. Among consumers who bought in-store, 69% purchased at a store selling multiple brands, while 40% purchased directly from the brand.
These findings describe overlapping routes to purchase rather than a single exclusive channel split. They support a broad distribution approach: maintain a visible direct storefront while recognizing that retail shelves, multi-brand locations, marketplaces, and digital purchase paths all contribute to discovery and conversion.
Redemption, discovery, and additional spending
Gift cards can bring new customers into a restaurant and can increase the value of the eventual visit. Blackhawk Network reported that 80% of restaurant gift-card recipients spent beyond the card value in its 2025 spring gifting study. In the February 2024 Blackhawk Network survey, 58% of surveyed consumers planned to spend more than the gift-card value after receiving one.
Paytronix transaction data shows that digital cards were redeemed sooner than cards bought in-store in 2023. Online restaurant gift cards were redeemed in an average of 16.8 days, compared with 35.3 days for restaurant gift cards bought in-store.
| Redemption or discovery measure | Result | Period or source |
|---|---|---|
| Recipients spending beyond card value | 80% | BHN, 2025 spring gifting study |
| Consumers planning to spend beyond card value | 58% | BHN, February 2024 survey |
| Average redemption time for online cards | 16.8 days | Paytronix, 2023 |
| Average redemption time for in-store cards | 35.3 days | Paytronix, 2023 |
| Holiday recipients trying a new brand | 30% | BHN, 2024 holiday season |
Discovery is another measurable benefit. Blackhawk Network reported that 30% of 2024 holiday gift-card recipients tried a new brand. Toast surveyed 850 U.S. adults aged 18 and older on October 21, 2024 and found that 64% of surveyed restaurant gift-card users said gift cards helped them discover new restaurants.
Toast also found that 54% of surveyed restaurant gift-card users preferred physical cards over digital cards, and 41% preferred learning about gift cards on a restaurant website. The combination suggests that digital discovery and physical gifting are not mutually exclusive: a restaurant website can explain the offer even when the recipient ultimately prefers a physical card.
Sales performance and denominations
Paytronix reported that restaurant gift-card revenue among its clients rose 6% in 2023 versus 2022. Digital restaurant gift-card sales increased 229% between 2019 and 2023 among Paytronix clients, indicating substantial long-term expansion in the digital channel.
Full-service restaurant gift-card sales rose about 1%, from 2,259,621 in 2022 to 2,342,083 in 2023. The reported count is a Paytronix client measure, not a U.S. industry total. Paytronix also reported that $25 cards accounted for 34% of restaurant gift cards sold in 2023, while sales of $50 restaurant gift cards increased 17% in 2023 versus 2022.
Holiday concentration remained pronounced. Holiday restaurant gift-card sales increased 5% year over year in 2023, and 80% of physical restaurant gift cards sold in 2023 were purchased in November and December. Separately, Paytronix reported global restaurant gift-card sales surpassing $326 million in its 2022 dataset.
Together, the figures indicate a market with a common lower denomination, rising $50-card demand, strong digital expansion, and a pronounced year-end sales window. They do not establish a universal best denomination for every restaurant, because the underlying populations and business mixes differ.
Holiday timing and promotion results
The Thanksgiving weekend data from Paytronix shows how quickly holiday demand can concentrate. Average dollars loaded per restaurant gift card were 13.2% higher on Black Friday 2024 than on Black Friday 2023. Restaurant gift-card dollars spent over the 2024 Thanksgiving weekend, November 29–December 2, were 17.7% higher than over the comparable 2023 weekend.
During that 2024 Thanksgiving weekend, consumers spent $7.8 million on in-store restaurant gift cards and $7.3 million on digital restaurant gift cards. Full-service restaurant gift cards generated $12.3 million in sales, while quick-service restaurant gift cards generated $5.2 million.
Average loads differed by service model. Full-service restaurant gift cards had an average load of $66 during the 2024 Thanksgiving weekend, compared with $31 for quick-service restaurant gift cards.
Paytronix’s Thanksgiving comparison covered 366 brands in 2024 and 351 in 2023. Its broader 2023 trend figures covered 241 merchants. Those transaction datasets should be read alongside, not merged numerically with, consumer surveys from the National Restaurant Association, Blackhawk Network, Toast, or other sources. Survey percentages describe reported or intended behavior; Paytronix figures describe transaction activity among participating merchants; and Blackhawk Network’s infographic percentages are descriptive benchmarks based on underlying studies.