One of the most important things for your bottom line as a Dasher is understanding all the bonuses available to you.
Bonuses like Peak Pay and Challenges can significantly increase your earnings, but you have to approach them strategically if you want to maximize your earnings.
And if you’re thinking about becoming a Dasher, there might be big bonuses and promotions for signing up, but you need to know how to take advantage of them.
This article covers every bonus available to Dashers and how you can decide whether they are worth your time.
What you need to know
The bonuses on DoorDash are:
- Peak Pay: A bonus added to each delivery you complete during a busy time. Can also apply to Earn by Time offers
- Challenges: A bonus for completing multiple deliveries
- Signup bonuses for new Dashers
- Cash bonus: A bonus for completing a certain number of rides
- Earnings guarantee: Earn a guaranteed minimum amount for your first deliveries and get a bonus if your earnings are less than the minimum
- Referral bonus: Get a bonus for signing up a new Dasher with your referral code
Article contents
- The DoorDash pay formula
- Peak Pay
- Challenges
- Signup bonuses for becoming a Dasher
- Referral bonus for signing up new Dashers
A quick refresher on the DoorDash pay formula
Dashers are paid according to this formula: Base pay + promotions + 100% of tips.
Base pay is a calculation of time, distance, and ‘desirability.’ Promotions include bonuses like Peak Pay and Challenges.
For each order request, the DoorDash app displays an estimated payout that includes the base pay, some or all of the tip (if the customer tips during checkout), and Peak Pay (if applicable).
Being selective about the orders you accept can be the key to higher earnings.
There is no minimum order acceptance rate—You can’t be deactivated for not accepting enough orders—but a low acceptance rate can affect your status as Top Dasher.
You are free to decline as many orders as you want if you’d prefer to wait for higher-paying orders.
Peak Pay: A bonus for each delivery when it’s busy
Peak Pay is a bonus for each delivery that you complete during busy times. When Peak Pay is active, it is indicated with a tag over a zone that says “Busy +$x.xx.”
Example of a Peak Pay offer: “Earn an extra $2.50 per delivery during 4:00 pm – 8:30 pm.”
Check the map for Peak Pay regions
Tap a Peak Pay icon on the map to see when and where the bonus is available.
The Peak Pay bonus is included in the estimated payout on the order request screen, but it isn’t listed separately from base pay.
Instead of the estimate saying “$3 base pay + $3 Peak Pay + customer tip,” it will only say “$6, includes DoorDash pay + customer tip. Total may be higher.”
Dash Now is typically available when Peak Pay is active, so any Dasher can travel into the zone to try to catch the bonus.
The highest Peak Pay that we’ve seen is $8 per order:
$8 Peak Pay! It doesn’t get much higher than that
How Peak Pay works when you Earn by Time
You can still earn Peak Pay when you select the Earn by Time option, but it works differently. Instead of a bonus that is added to every order, it’s a bonus that gets added to your hourly rate.
Peak Pay can apply to Earn by Time. The normal rate of $14.50 was increased to $24.50 during Peak Pay
Is Peak Pay worth chasing after?
Peak Pay can significantly increase your earnings when it is available. The only downside is that it’s not frequently available in some areas, and Peak Pay may lower order volume by attracting too many Dashers into the zone.
Peak Pay is so common in busy markets—like the Bay Area of California—that many Dashers only schedule hours that are likely to have Peak Pay.
The best move is to get Early Access or Top Dasher and schedule the hours when Peak Pay is most likely.
But in other markets, Peak Pay signals that the market will be flooded with Dashers hunting for the bonus.
Too many drivers = lower order volume = lower overall pay.
You’ll have to experiment to see if Peak Pay is genuinely a bonus or if it’s your cue to log onto another app for the day.
If you have a DashMart in your area, it may be a good way to stack several Peak Pay bonuses. Often, DashMart orders are batched together so that you can receive multiple Peak Pay bonuses for one batched set of orders.
Challenges: A bonus for completing multiple deliveries
Challenges are a bonus for completing a certain number of deliveries during a time period.
An example of a Challenge: “Earn an extra $100 for 60 deliveries before October 15th.” Challenges can be small, too: For example, another recent challenge was “Earn an extra $10 for 7 deliveries.”
Example of a Challenge in progress
You do not have to opt in or take any action to participate in a Challenge. You are automatically enrolled if you are eligible.
The app tracks your progress on the Dash map after you begin a Challenge. You’ll see a popup screen summarizing the Challenge when you finish one. The bonus will then appear on your earnings statement.
$200 extra for 25 deliveries! Definitely worth it. Credit AffectionateGrab1711
You can technically earn both Peak Pay and a Challenge simultaneously, but many Dashers say that when one is available, the other probably isn’t.
For example, you might see Peak Pay frequently for a few weeks. Then a Challenge appears, but Peak Pay becomes a rare sight.
Dashers speculate that DoorDash is experimenting to see which bonus is the cheaper way to get more drivers on the road.
Are Challenges worth it?
Most Challenges offer less than $2 extra for each delivery if you do the math. It might not be worth going out of your way to meet a Challenge unless you already planned to do as many deliveries as the Challenge requires.
On the positive side, meeting an easy Challenge that fits your schedule is a nice boost that might not require any extra effort.
How can you get more Challenges?
Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to get more Challenge offers. DoorDash doesn’t say exactly how they offer Challenges, so you’ll have to wait and hope a Challenge comes your way.
Signup bonuses & promotions for new Dashers
You can get a signup bonus in some cities. Bonuses are typically a cash referral bonus or an earnings guarantee.
How to get a bonus when you sign up
To be eligible for a signup bonus, sign up using a referral code from another Dasher, or a referral link.
If you know someone who dashes, ask them for their referral code. Both of you may get a bonus if you sign up with the code and complete the required number of deliveries. You can also find codes online in driver forums and Facebook groups.
Bonus availability varies, so not every Dasher will get a bonus for signing up.
You may not need a referral code to get a new Dasher promo if you find an application page that promises a promotion for new Dashers.
Signup bonus for new Dashers
A signup bonus for new Dashers will typically offers a cash payout after completing a set number of deliveries by a certain date.
An example: “Do 270 deliveries by 11/28 for a $500 bonus!”
Earnings guarantee for new Dashers
An earnings guarantee promises that you will earn a minimum amount for completing a number of deliveries. If you earn less than the guarantee, you will get a bonus to match the guarantee.
For example, “Earn at least $1375 for your first 200 deliveries if you complete those first 200 deliveries within 45 days.”
If your earnings from 200 deliveries are less than $1375, you’ll receive a one-time bonus so that your total earnings match $1375. But there is no bonus if you earn more than $1375 from the 200 deliveries.
Referral bonus: Get paid to sign up a new Dasher
Like many other gig companies, DoorDash has a referral program that offers big bonuses when you help to sign up new Dashers.
Referral bonuses vary quite a bit: Some markets have huge bonuses, while others have none at all. And the bonus amount changes often, so keep an eye on the app to see exactly how much a bonus is if you refer a friend.
To earn a referral bonus, your referral must sign up with your link and complete the required number of deliveries within the specified time period.
To refer a friend and see the referral payout for your market, head to the Account area of the app and tap on “Refer friends, earn $x.xx.” The referral terms will be listed alongside several options to share your referral link.
Find referral information in the Account area of the Dasher app
The app will begin tracking your referral’s progress after they successfully sign up with your link or code. You’ll be able to see how many deliveries they have completed, so give them a nudge if they need some motivation to complete those final deliveries.
Are referral bonuses worth it? It’s always worth chasing after a referral bonus if you know someone interested in Dashing. Ignore the haters who say that adding new drivers saturates the market with too many drivers. Your $200+ bonus is well worth it.
Why are there different bonuses for different Dashers?
Many Dashers report seeing different Peak Pay and Challenge offers for different Dashers.
Two Dashers waiting for an order might compare their apps and notice that one Dasher is getting Peak Pay offers while the other isn’t.
Does DoorDash offer different bonuses based on a driver’s metrics? Is this a glitch, or is it something else?
Here’s what DoorDash had to say: “Peak pay promotions may vary depending on the area and also the time frame of the bonus. It doesn’t vary [based on the Dasher]. It only depends on the area and time frame of the promotion. It works the same way for Challenges.”
According to DoorDash, promotions don’t depend on the Dasher. That means factors like ratings, acceptance rate, number of deliveries, etc. don’t affect the promotions you receive.
But with DoorDash regularly changing the way things work without informing their support agents of the details, there is still some doubt about how things actually work.
Didn’t get your bonus? What you can do
DoorDash is mostly reliable when paying out bonuses, but sometimes system errors or app downtime might cause you to miss out on a bonus.
Start by contacting support and letting them know exactly what happened.
The best way to protect yourself against missing bonuses is to take a screenshot of the bonus that was active while you were out driving.
Taking a screencap of the Challenge you’re going for is easy, but it might not be as easy to take a screenshot of Peak Pay.
If you’ve had issues with Peak Pay in the past, the extra trouble might be worth it.
Which bonuses are worth going after?
You’ll have to experiment to see how bonuses affect the conditions in your market. Earnings can change based on the time of day, the day of the week, the month, or any number of factors.
You might find that driving during Peak Pay is the best way to boost earnings, or you might find that Peak Pay can actually reduce your earnings because too many other Dashers are out chasing the same bonus.
And for Challenges, do the math to see how much extra work you will have to do to complete the Challenge. Skip it if it doesn’t fit into your schedule, or forces you to take low-paying orders.
More help for Dashers
Dana Hollowell says
I have referred two people now that both signed up correctly and completed deliveries required and no referral pay given. Contacted support, spent over 30 minutes on the phone they sent an email and promised to call with 48 hours and no response yet.
DougH says
Keep up the pressure!
What do you care says
Door dash had a challenge for new drivers. Complete 200 orders in 30 days. I completed the challenge and door dash is asking for a screen shot to prove the challenge. I find this Despicable when so many people are trying to work to put food on the table. They got their money and closed the case on my dispute. I do not recommend working for Door Dash. They make money off of peoples Desperation
Robin Seth says
I as a driver get frustrated because the thing happened to me twice now. I don’t get the peak pay in my area where every dasher is getting the peak pay. I had contacted the support and they say that the promotion is not showing in my profile.
So I as a dasher get frustrated because I work all week long and my friend works only from Thursday-Sunday and he gets the peak pay on each order. When he send me his promotion screenshot I was shocked because he is getting the peak pay from 5pm-9pm on Saturday. But I am not getting any. This is really frustrating because the DoorDash shouldn’t have any biased on paying the dashers who work all week long. When I contacted support they said it will automatically will be added to your account in 24 hours. But never got any promotional peak pay Money.
Please do recommend me doing something.
Max says
I am still struggling with how total pay is calculated for a delivery. The calculation of time and distance are objective numbers and easily verifiable, that part I get. But will someone please talk me off the ledge here and tell me how ‘desirability’ is calculated??
Desirability is not a number. So now we are dealing with something subjective so let’s just blanket it with the all-encompassing term ‘algorithm’ which is now fashionably referred to as AI. And now enter voodoo economics. This is where it really gets to be potentially dirty pool.
For example a $2 promotion is active, the driver receives delivery, for now, $18. But how can we determine that $18 delivery would have been $16 without the promotion? They simply can push or pull the ‘desirability’ phantom number to pacify drivers to make them think they are getting it. It could very well have always been $18 delivery which means it should now be a $20 delivery.
It’s insulting to drivers and bad business practices to structure a process around ambiguity and the secret sauce.
I believe that promotions are nothing more than a marketing strategy to drag more drivers onto the road to accommodate and sudden influx of orders. And that is desirable to only 2 out of the 3 parties involved.
Liz says
Absolutely. I still don’t understand the manner of base pay, whether I’m actually seeing the bonus, or why it should be a mystery. Esp with regard to the latter, it not only begs the question as to whether you’re getting that promo as well as how they calculate the base pay in the first place. Wth is desirability? That leave open the door to even MORE questions than answers, particularly with an avg gas price of $5.00> a gal.