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Being a delivery driver for gig apps like DoorDash can be a feast or famine.
With no guaranteed pay (except in California) and unpredictable markets, drivers can see wild highs one day followed by depressing lows the next.
After fending off $2–$3 minimum payout orders, you might see a unicorn with a $20+ dollar tip.
Or you could have an incredible $30 per hour weekly to make $12 per hour the next.
➔ See this post as a Web Story: “Crazy DoorDash Pay!”
The larger question is, how much can you make with DoorDash?
According to DoorDash, Dashers can make $23 per hour while on delivery*. But pay can vary quite a bit from order to order and day to day.
Check out the highs and lows of DoorDash, shared from real driver earnings.
Then, stick around until the end of the article to learn how to boost your earnings and avoid the lowest-paying orders.
*Earnings info is for Illustrative purposes only, actual earnings may differ and depend on expenses.
Want more data? See the top online data about DoorDash driver pay.
The best DoorDash driver pay: $50 orders and $1900 per week
Drivers call them unicorns: Rarely seen, these huge orders usually have high base pay from DoorDash and a generous tip from the customer.
Below is a $50 unicorn: Huge base pay of $19 and a massive $28 tip.
Credit jjfhm on Reddit
And here’s a $73 order for only a 5 mile drive.
A big payout usually comes from the tip, but sometimes the base pay is the most lucrative. For example, here’s a $13 base pay. Typical base pay is around $5.
Credit MyNameIsLucid on Reddit
Here are strong weekly earnings: Around $25 per hour on 50 hours. That’s a great gig economy income, but typically you can only achieve something like that in a large, busy market.
Credit LiveFastBeGreat on Reddit
And now, for the highest highs of weekly pay.
This hard-working Dasher clocked weekly pay of over $1900.
But note that they put in major hours: Around 75 hours per week, for a gross pay of around $25 per hour. So it’s possible, but you have to grind.
Credit RunConnorBack on Reddit
The lowest driver pay: $3 orders and $12 per hour
You might see orders paying as low as $3 if base pay from DoorDash is low and customers don’t tip.
Remember: You are free to decline any order. The DoorDash deactivation policy states that a low acceptance rating won’t get you deactivated, so you can skip the $3 orders if you want to.
But in some slower markets, Dashers don’t always have the luxury to pick and choose.
Low base pay + no tip is a bad combo for Dashers. Check out these two sub $4 orders. One is for a 10-mile trip!
Credit jmh30US on Reddit
Credit Taty97 on Reddit
Moving on to weekly pay. The payout below works out to $12 per hour after 40 hours. Not the worst, but not the strongest.
Credit Romeo_Horse on Reddit
What is average driver pay on DoorDash? Examples of more ‘typical’ pay
The $50 unicorns and $3 base-pay orders might be worth screenshotting and sharing online, but they don’t necessarily represent average earnings.
When the highs and lows average out on DoorDash, expect around $15 per hour.
This Dasher below clocked $17 per hour on 40 hours of work. That is not bad at all for a flexible gig like DoorDash.
Credit CRomanOrlando on Reddit
Here’s a Dasher who earned around $24 per hour on 25 hours of work. That is is well above average for earnings.
$523 for 25 hours of work is a solid part-time income. That is what many gig workers hope to get from DoorDash and other delivery gigs.
Credit LACchi on Reddit
How to boost your DoorDash earnings and avoid low pay
$50 unicorn orders are mostly a matter of luck, but there are things you can do to consistently average more than the typical Dasher and avoid the lowest-paying orders.
Cherry pick! Don’t accept low-paying orders: You are free to decline any order that comes in. There is no minimum acceptance rating.
That means you can sit and reject as many orders as you want until something with decent pay comes along. Drivers call it cherry picking, a very effective way to avoid the lowest-paying orders.
Aim for at least $1 per mile: A general rule of thumb among top-earning dashers is that a good order will pay about $1 for each mile you have to drive.
On an order request, you can quickly do the math to see if an order is worth it. A $4 order for 8 miles is less than $1 per mile and isn’t worth it to many Dashers. But if an order is $5 and only 1 mile, it’s worth it.
Learn your market and avoid bad hours: After a few weeks of Dashing, you’ll begin to see which hours are lucrative.
In most areas, the lunch and dinner rush are the best hours, but you might find that lunch hours aren’t as good as you would expect or that the best dinner hours are actually early/later than you expected.
Try driving during Peak Pay and Challenges: Peak Pay can significantly increase your earnings. On the flip side, some Dashers say that Peak Pay decreases earnings because it brings too many other Dashers out onto the road. Experiment with Peak Pay in your area to see if it’s worth it or not.
Get Early Access scheduling: To guarantee that you can work the best hours, you need to get Early Access scheduling. Dashers with Early Access can grab hours at 3pm every day, while those without Early Access have to wait until midnight.
The best part about Early Access is that there is no minimum acceptance rating requirement, so you can still get Early Access even if you cherry pick orders.
Dasher Raskal says
The most I’ve done is $2,317.69 in 1 week… but this is my first time actually went public… my average pay in doordash is around $1500/week. I really don’t like putting it out there because there’s so many haters and think you’re lying etc. until I show them my earnings. Now they say I’m a cheater lmfao…. A lot of negative vibes I get because the way I look… they think I shouldn’t be this successful in doordash. Lots of discrimination but by the end of the day I go home happy to my family who I work my for dedicatedly… thank you
Sarah says
They are thieves and don’t care about the drivers. In VA don’t add the alcohol certification, they will send you dashes for 25+ miles and only pay $8, then when you don’t accept they drop all your ratings and threaten to deactivate your account. So basically they want you to loose money per dash. Customer support is horrible and all they say is its system generated please complete the orders no matter what so you don’t get deactivated.
Daplug says
Doorcrash always low paying me with my adjustment pay. I’ve delivered 110 deliveries and only got $144 for adjustment pay, when I did 72 deliveries my adjustment pay was $189. That’s why I call it doorcrash.
Bryan Stewart says
I’ve done 1900 total deliveries since September 2021. I’m in Austin, TX. I have to say the payout shown above for $1,195.89 for 50 hours and 20 total dashes is NOT realistic. I don’t know where this person claims to be delivering, but it’s physically impossible to work 50 hours and only do 20 dashes. It’s also impossible for 20 dashes to ever pay $1,195.89. For one, they show our time as “active” dash time and “total” dash time. Active is when you’re actually on an order. Total time is simply how long you’ve logged in to the app. I’ve never made $1,195.89 and the Austin market is booming and people tip pretty well. The most I’ve made per week was in the $900’s. Last week(Sep 19-25) I made $716.27. Total of 70 deliveries. Active dash time 25 hours 28 minutes. Total dash time 38 hours 11 minutes. Sep 12-18 I made $703.16. Total of 67 dashes. Active time 30 hours 23 minutes. Total dash time 42 hours 24 minutes. Sep 5-11 I made $640.20. Total of 68 dashes. Active time 25 hours 42 minutes. Total dash time 37 hours 33 minutes. Finally Aug 29-Sep 4 I made $494.88. Total of 51 dashes. Active time 20 hours 54 minutes. Total dash time 28 hours 10 minutes. THIS is a month of solid earnings data in a busy market.
Rachelle Nicole Thompson says
That’s only $200 more than you claimed to make.
50 hours, 20 dashes.. that’s only 7.5 hours/day, with three dashes per day, for 7 days.
It’s definitely possible.
He’s also in California, where doordash pays $2 incentives for on time deliveries. If I could get $2 EXTRA for every delivery being on time, I would make what he makes weekly, easily. I don’t have this opportunity.
Christopher says
I doordash in ca. There is no $2.00 incentive for delivering on time
rickey cox says
i made $1197.42 with active time 52h32m 73h22m dash time and 143 deliveries in dfw tx last month more than full time but 12hun is possible but not for 20 drops please teach me the secret if you figure it out
Jon says
You are confusing dashes with deliveries. 1 dash can last 24 hours.
Jon says
Last week I worked 52 hours doing 8 dashes total. I had 3 14 hour dashes
That gui says
So you want to get paid more than a highschool teacher for sitting in your car all day with A/C. Leave dashing to teens and students get a big boy job and then youll earn decent money
Krissi says
What an elitist, egotistical thing to say. You don’t have the faintest idea what these drivers situations are. We are just coming out of a time where the majority of businesses across America were forced closed. As in, plenty of well-educated people desperate for a job. How is it that YOU feel qualified to judge their OBVIOUS willingness to work?? Who are you to attempt to shame them?
Sophia says
Yawn 🥱 as long as the money being earned is legit, not breaking any laws then go for it. Stop looking down your nose 🐽 at door dashers if you don’t want to do it then don’t, no need to be condescending. Do you order door dash? The attitude from you is unbelievable. Pathetic get over yourself
Ryan says
Door dash pays like Sh*t been doing it for a year almost and I’m about to be done because the pay isn’t worth the wear and tear as well as gas. Hardly make anything unless your out there 6am-9pm everyday. Door dash needs to think of there drivers a little bit more. There making billions and pay everyone $3 for a 5 mile trip yeah no thank you.
Tommi says
I have driven for rideshare and food delivery for 5 years. My day job was in the medical field and I have a lifetime of customer service experience. They should be so lucky to have someone like me as the face for their company. I go above and beyond always and treat customers like I would my friends and family. Doordash pay model is the worst. They don’t have a set pay per mile or time. Doordash base pays have plummeted the past year. You can typically do 2-4 deliveries per hour. If customers don’t tip. Drivers aren’t even making minimum wage. Subtract out gas and it cost the drivers money. Base pay should all be a bare minimum of $5 with time and gas. They are making millions per hour not per month….per hour. Not only that they charge the restaurant 20% per order. On a $50 order the driver is making 5%. Doordash is making $8 from the restaurant plus the delivery fee from the customer while the driver makes $2.50. On what planet is that an honest good business model? Basically if you make 30k a year. That’s pulling 5-8 hrs a day. Plan on at bare minimum 15k of that going to gas and other expense and that was when gas was still around $2.20. So it will be far less for 2022. I’ve gone through three sets of tires. 2 sets of breaks and the list goes on. The base pay is less than standard mileage rate. Most drivers I know including myself. Fill up every other day. For a small car. You will spend about $750 in gas a month. They do these referral bonuses to pull out new drivers and then don’t pay the bonuses. Doordash needs to redeem their name. Pay drivers properly and charge the restaurant less. Honestly most drivers are considered poverty level. You’ll hear a few drivers brag but their the lucky ones that get the catering orders or they aren’t factoring all their expenses and gas. Something’s gotta give. I know a ton of people that have stopped using the platform just because they don’t take care of their faithful drivers and their fees for customer and restaurant are just too much. Fix it Doordash. Be better. Do better.
Wv /md dasher says
I have been with door dash since October been top dasher and never seen money like this . Over 2k dashes
70 -80 dashes for 450 – 600 400 miles.weekly 4hrs a day .
These are bullshit statistics in this article.
Get dashes $3 for 14 miles. Is a joke. Where I live done tip but seeing these numbers here are fake . I’ve been in dc making 50 dashes for 20h 700 a week.
DD Pay Needs to be Fixed says
If I’m understanding, you’re saying people are lying about the low pay? If so, I’m here to tell you it’s not a lie. I first starting dashing in CO and I thought the same thing. I would make $50 per hour and would only dash 3 hrs ($150/day). I now live in OK and the orders are down right horrible. People barely tip, area is not busy I drive to the same people, $3/10miles and no tip is pretty standard here. Last week I dashed for 15 hours and made $250. 12 hours a week in July and made $150. Just because it’s different in your area doesn’t mean people are lying.
Melody says
Wow what a disrespectful person you are. It is not a lie about $3 orders and actually in my area $2.50 orders come up all the time which I have accepted a few times thinking that amount would change upon delivery like some orders do but those never have.
Rob says
This happens all the time round from in Tampa Florida