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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. The larger question is, how much can you make with DoorDash?
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.
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.
Joe Mansell says
So I see most of you are counting the whole dash time. Why?!! If you take your dash time and active time you see the dash minus active leaves you what I call commute time. When I was a foreman I never got paid for drive time to a job site. I repeat only count your active time. It makes no sense to count the whole dash time.
Jose de leon says
They have what I call their favorite dashers who get all the high paying orders. They don’t care about ratings or customer comments. My rating is 4.98 customer satisfaction and have over 20 gone above and beyond and I only get low paying jobs or long distance low paying. That saber worked 50 hours but did 20 dashes 1153. Done this since 2018 my best week was 73 trips dashed for around 40 hrs active over 50hrs and made a little over 1000 but including the extra because I did not make their minimum pay. I don’t believe that they distribute order fairly
george says
Inmy market if im grossing 18 bucks an hour its a really bad day. It averages 21 to 22 most weeks, meaning net im taking home about 20. But there are alot of little tricks you need to learn to consistently make over 20, and in some markets im sure it can abe harder or easier. The #1 rule i use though, if it doesnt pay at least 2 bucks a mile i wont take it unless i am outside my prefered area and the order takes me back to where i want to go, then i just consider that gravy.
Eric says
I am a Dasher with over 3000 deliveries and you’ve got a watch door dash because nowadays they’ve gotten a lot cheaper with the pay and the boost then they were about two years ago and when you decline in order door dash either their system or the dispatcher because they have both well keep sending you at least two or three times for the same order paying less or orders even paying the same amount driving your acceptance rate down but I don’t really care about my acceptance rate I mainly care about the fact that I have cost an average I try to average about anywhere from no less than $15-$20 an hour if not more because all in all door dash gets 20% of every order from the restaurant and then they get 25% of every delivery fee that they charge to customer as well as a monthly fee from the restaurants also it’s been my experience that the better trips come with a better or a higher customer rating so keep that in mind as well and I’m in the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania market which is a little bit harder to grind in I have gotten close two $1000 in one week but it was a lot of hours and better Peak pays then what I’ve seen so far this year I have a bout 3 to 5 dollars tops five dollars when there’s bad weather
Make sure your dashes stay beneficial to you and not beneficial to the company because trust they’re making their money with every order that you accept
Happy dashing !
H says
Hi Eric. Is the Bridgeville area good to cover? Im in lower Washington county and have to drive about 45 minutes to anything “busy.” What do you think is possible to bring in per hour after deducting these crazy fuel prices?
DD dasher says
It’s getting bad in my area. Lots of orders saying 2.00 tip with 5 to 8mi one way. Annoying and out of the area I work. Chain restaurant, is picked further then the ones in the area closer to customer. I don’t get it. Smh
Jason says
I recently relocated to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Southern California, and I’m shocked at the low pay here. I drive mainly for UberEats but occasionally for Doordash, and I have always done very well in every market in which I have delivered: I even delivered in the Portland, Oregon metro area at several points over the last few years in addition to my hometown area in Los Angeles County — and I made great money in both areas.
But here in Tennessee? LOL. The pay thus far has been a joke — mostly $3 delivery payouts, with even a few $2.50 payouts mixed in to add insult to injury. Now, I’ve only been here one week, so perhaps I’m prematurely knocking the potential for this area — but this past week has nevertheless been a real earnings downer — and I’m in a large metro area (Chattanooga) and not in some backwater.
I’m hoping that this past week is not the norm. I moved out here to start a new life in a lower-cost-of-living state, one with much more affordable real estate and a higher quality of life index — but I may have to get used to earning comparative peanuts compared to what I was earning in Oregon and California.
Dino says
I noticed this is an old post. I hope things turned out well for you. I can definitely relate. Glassdoor/Indeed gives false salary information at times. They claim that drivers in Houston make over $50,000 per year, but I was lucky to make even $60 per day after gas expenses.
Cameron says
1$ per mile is NOT recommended at all. Your best bet would be 2$ per mile and you’d barely get any orders that fit that.
Mike says
I agree. Take in to account the wait time at the restaurant, in extreme weather the car is running. If the lobby is close drive thru is a mess, I think the minimum $8 order with maximum 4 miles is base to start.
Dave says
DoorDash Gig rates has dropped substantial in the last few months, the only time ones saw an increase was when last round of Stimulus checks was issued. Norm now with DoorDash is $3.00, ones may be lucky to get (2) higher orders within a 6 hours “Hot spots” shift, but getting a $7.00 and $10.75 Red Card order isn’t nothing when reminders are just $3.00. Think about this…the IRS in USA claims $0.575 is amount needed to operate a vehicle in USA efficiently in 2020-21. If an order is paying $3.00 for a 4.8 mile delivery what ones don’t realize they must go back to a location to pickup another order somewhere; but, say the delivery was 4.8 miles, that’s $2.76 in normal expense, ones tax on the $3.00 is at minimum $0.298; so, lets see the math $2.76 + $0.298 = $3.06.
Even a 5th grader can realize you’re at a negative (red) profit. How many months can you last working at a loss?
The only ones making money is DoorDash and the Vendor; and, actually the Vendor is losing money by using Gig drivers as the average Gig cost to a vendor is 22% of total order cost. Ask any vendor they was better off before pandemic in allowing Gig deliveries; and, soon ones will begin to hire or contract their own delivery drivers. It has already begun in many cities where vendors are contracting direct without Gig services because it’s not cost effect. What many Gig drivers out here don’t have is living expenses, insurance, and maintenance cost as they’re benefiting from living with their parents or relatives. Try doing what you’ve posted here being 100% self-supportive then do the math; I think you will not be happy that you’ve not done your full due diligence.
DoorDash, Waitr, Uber Eats,GrubHub, Shipt, Insta-cart all focus upon one opportunity – Students because they know students have always been in need of cash. If a college student had money they would not be riding around in a car, they would be sitting in a park listen to the birds and watch the forms walk by while thinking about their future. Ask DoorDash this question (Tony Xu) if he’ really cares about you then why does he hire Phinoys to operate the Support Team. One Philippine peso is worth $0.021 US; so, for that $3.00 order a Phinoy can purchase about 3 hours Internet time or 4 AA batteries. However in USA, $3.00 USD can buy 8 AA batteries, and 1.39 miles for a Dash. Tony uses the cheapest labor force he can, and he has made millions living in USA because he knows he would not be as safe and secure in China where he was born. Now who’s gathering the most coins.
They are more people who go into business then they are ones in business today; do you know why they are less in business? Most whom go into business are clueless of their Rate Value To Another, they do not understand that a dollar today is worth less by the end of that day…
P.A says
This is spot on. The annoying tactics on door dash is trying to sneak in a second delivery for say an extra 11.9miles at $2 extra pay. Whaaat who the hell does that! Why not pay what the customer has given on the app to the dasher. You give me 2 trips and then you reduce my pay like you buy the gas on the vehicle for me. It’s really not fair