Bonuses can be very lucrative for Lyft drivers. With good bonuses, you can clear $1,000 per week!
But $1k in a week isn’t something that every driver will achieve every week. Especially when you don’t get any bonus offers and you’re not sure how to get more.
It’s important to know how all of the bonuses work so that when an opportunity comes your way, you can earn bonuses in the most efficient way possible.
What you need to know
- New drivers can get a sign-up bonus or earnings guarantee
- Drivers can earn more with Streaks, Challenges, and Bonus zones
- Ride bonuses are offered based on predicted supply and demand
- If you aren’t getting any bonuses, there isn’t much you can do but wait
- Read on to see our complete guide to Lyft bonuses!
Apply to drive with Lyft! Click here to apply and see your sign-up bonus
Article Contents
- Sign-up bonuses for new drivers
- Ride Challenges
- The Streak Bonus
- Bonus Zones
- Bonuses for Existing Drivers
- Driver referral bonus
- Why you aren’t getting any bonuses, and how to get more
- Lyft didn’t pay your bonus? What to do
See the power of bonuses on Lyft
Check out the photo below to see the power of bonuses on Lyft. Without bonuses, the 3 rides this driver did would have paid $22.56. With bonuses, the overall payouts nearly tripled to $60.81.
$22.56 for 3 rides becomes $60.81 with bonuses!
In this case, the driver got a streak bonus for doing 3 rides in a row, and a ride bonus for every ride because each ride was in a bonus zone.
That’s the power of bonuses. Now, let’s dig into the details of each one that you can earn.
Sign-up bonuses for new Lyft drivers
Lyft offers several different sign-up bonuses for new Lyft drivers: Earnings guarantees, a cash bonus, and the multi-tier bonus.
To qualify for a sign-up bonus, you must sign up with a promo code, follow a referral link, or click on an ad that promises a bonus.
For example, click our referral link to see which signup bonus is available right now in your area.
Bonuses vary depending on your location, and Lyft frequently changes promotions. There isn’t a way to choose which bonus you will get.
One way to ensure you’ll qualify for a new-driver bonus is if a promo code is auto-filled into your application when you sign up.
If you have a friend who is a Lyft driver, it’s a good idea to use their promo code when you apply. You will get a new-driver promotion, and your friend will get a referral bonus too.
The most common bonuses for new applicants are:
- Bonus for completing rides
- Earnings guarantee
- Multi-tier cash bonus
Cash bonus for completing rides — For new drivers
One common bonus for new drivers is a bonus for completing a number of rides within 30 days of your driver account activation.
For example, “Get a $700 bonus when you give 200 rides in your first 30 days.”
To qualify, you must enter a valid promo code on your application. You can manually add a code, or one might be automatically entered into the application if you followed a referral link or an ad.
Lyft sometimes offers a cash bonus for new drivers. Remember to sign up with a promo code or referral link!
A bonus will be added to your earnings after completing the required rides.
Rules for the cash bonus: Complete rides within a time frame
Earnings guarantees — For new drivers
Earnings guarantees are a Lyft promotion that guarantees you will earn at least a minimum amount after completing rides.
If your ride earnings are less than the guarantee, Lyft will give you a bonus to match the guarantee.
For example, “Earn at least $135 when you give 10 rides”
If you give 10 rides and your ride earnings are only $100, Lyft will pay a $35 bonus so that your earnings meet the $135 guarantee.
Note that earnings guarantees are NOT just a cash bonus in the amount of the guarantee.
For example, some new drivers might see ‘Earn $2000 guaranteed” and think they are getting a $200o bonus.
You only get a bonus if you earn less than the guarantee. There is no bonus if you earn more than the guarantee from your ride earnings!
If your earn less than the guarantee from rides, Lyft makes up the difference
Big guarantee! Lyft gave a $1700+ bonus to match the guarantee
Earnings that don’t count toward the guarantee are tips, tolls, cancellation fees, airport fees, any Lyft fees, and bonuses. Bonus zone earnings ARE included.
Earnings Guarantee strategies: Your goal is to complete the required number of rides in the fewest miles possible.
You want to target the shortest, fastest rides when you’re on a guarantee.
Short, lower-paying rides will help you quickly hit the guarantee and improve your chances of getting a big bonus.
Multi-tier bonuses
The multi-tier bonus is a new-driver promotion that pays bonuses for completing rides during a set time period.
Each bonus tier requires a different number of rides and offers a different bonus.
For example, a Multi-Tier bonus that is up to $400
- Give 10 rides for an extra $50
- Give a total of 40 rides for an extra $100 bonus ($150 total)
- Give a total of 100 rides for an extra $250 bonus ($400 total)
Like other new-driver bonuses, you must sign up using a promo code to qualify for the multi-tier bonus.
How to see which promotions and bonuses are available to you
You can find all of the currently available bonus promotions by viewing your full schedule.
To find your schedule, go to the home screen of the Lyft Driver app and swipe up on the overlay near bottom of the screen. Tap on ‘see full schedule’ to see which promotions are available this week.
Swipe up on the home screen to find your promotion schedule
Ride challenges
A ride challenge is a bonus for completing rides during a period of time.
For example: “Complete 20 rides between Monday 5 am and Friday 6 am to earn an extra $80”
Lyft offers challenges on the home screen of the driver app, and in the “full schedule” on the bottom of the home screen overlay page.
Ride challenges can have tiers, offering up to 5 levels of bonuses. The more tiers you complete, the more bonuses you’ll earn.
For example, the tiered ride challenge below has 3 levels: 102 rides for $264, 20 rides for an extra $104, then 31 rides for an extra $241.
A tiered challenge. But hitting the first tier will be hard
In some areas, you can select between several different challenge options. After you pick one challenge, the other options disappear.
In the example below, you can choose between three challenges and each challenge has two tiers of bonuses.
For the $70/85 ride challenge, you would first get a $30 bonus after 55 rides, then a $40 bonus after the next 30 rides.
Pick your challenge. You can only choose 1!
After you complete a challenge, the bonus will show up in your earnings as a “Ride Challenge.”
Check your earnings after you complete a challenge
Another challenge rule to be aware of is that Ride Challenge earnings don’t count toward Earnings Guarantees. That’s good news if you’re on a guarantee and manage to stack a Challenge on top of it.
Ride challenge strategies: Target shorter rides to quickly complete the challenge without driving too many miles.
The streak bonus
Streaks are a bonus for completing back-to-back rides that begin in a specified time period.
To earn a Streak, you must accept every ride request and complete each ride without cancelling.
Example of a streak: “$16 streak, 3 rides in a row, 10 AM–1 PM.” That means you will get a $16 bonus if you complete 3 rides in a row, with the first ride beginning during the 10 AM–1 PM hour.
A streak begins when you accept a ride during the streak time period, and the bonus is added to your earnings when you complete the required number of rides.
A busy day might bring lots of streak offers
A Streak ends without a bonus if you reject a ride request, cancel a ride, or sign out of the app.
Streak zones are a type of streak that only begin if you are inside a designated area on the map.
Below, this driver earned over $670 from Streaks alone. Streaks made up over 25% of their earnings for the week. If you’re lucky enough to get Streak offers, they can be very lucrative.
$672 from Streaks!
Streak strategies: Target areas with short, quick rides to complete a Streak in the shortest amount of time. Tourist areas, bar areas, and universities may offer streak-friendly rides.
Bonus Zones
A Bonus Zone gives you a bonus for driving into a busy area on the map. After you drive into the zone, the bonus will apply to your next ride—even if you leave the zone.
Bonus Zones on Lyft are similar to Uber’s ‘sticky surge,’ which works in the same way.
You can find Bonus Zones on the driver app map, indicated by a purple cloud with the bonus amount listed inside.
Bonus Zones update based on real-time supply and demand. If you’re far from a bonus zone, you might find that it is gone by the time you enter it.
Bonus Zones pop up quickly and sometimes disappear just as fast
Bonus Zones can peak. The entire city of LA had active zones on this night
Ride bonuses from bonus zones can really add up
What’s the highest Bonus Zone?
There is no maximum bonus zone on Lyft, but the highest one we’ve seen is $50.
$50 bonus! Airport rides paid off for this driver
Bonus Zone strategies: Don’t chase a Bonus Zone unless you are very close to it. Zones update in real time, so the bonus can already be gone by the time you get to a zone.
Bonus Zone boost: Add up to 70%
In some markets, Lyft offers a Bonus Zone boost that can add 30–70% to each Bonus Zone if you complete the required number of rides. The boost only applies to the Bonus Zone, not overall ride earnings.
An example of a Bonus Zone boost: “Complete 65 rides this week to unlock a 30% Bonus Zone boost.” A $5 Bonus Zone would pay $6.50.
Bonus Zones still work the same way: You have to enter the Bonus Zone to earn the bonus on your next ride. Any boost that you unlock will be automatically added to the bonus.
Your ride progress resets each week on Monday, and the boost applies until the stated expiration date.
Complete rides to earn more from Bonus Zones
A 40% Boost turned an $8 bonus zone into an $11.20 bonus
30 day bonus protection
In some market, Lyft offers bonus protection that works similar to an earnings guarantee, but for bonuses.
The bonus protection will look something like: “If the bonuses you earn from 6/1 – 7/1 are less than $300, you’ll get paid the difference. Complete 220 rides to be eligible”
Bonus protection: Lyft pays you if your bonuses don’t match the minimum
Earnings from streaks, challenges, and bonus zones are included in the bonus calculation.
The 30 day bonus protection can smooth out some of the unpredictability of bonuses and guarantee that you won’t completely miss out on bonus earnings if you get unlucky with bonus offers.
But so far, the bonus protection payout amounts aren’t very high. In one market, Lyft offered guaranteed bonus earnings of only $60 for 200 rides in a month.
Drivers in most markets could easily earn more than $60 in bonuses from $200 rides, so the bonus protection isn’t a big incentive in that case.
Earnings guarantees & cash bonuses for existing drivers
Lyft sometimes offers guaranteed earnings promotions and cash bonuses to existing drivers.
For guaranteed earnings promotions, the rules are the same: If your ride earnings are less than the earnings guarantee, you will get a bonus to match the guarantee.
Earnings guarantees aren’t only for new drivers
There’s nothing you can directly do to trigger an earnings guarantee offer from Lyft. Typically they are sent to drivers who haven’t driven for a while or when Lyft is testing out new promotions in a market.
The driver below had a $785 earnings guarantee. Their ride earnings were $390.44, so Lyft paid a bonus of $394.56 to match the guarantee. Nice one!
Guarantees can be lucrative. $394 bonus!
Lyft might also offer a cash bonus for existing drivers, usually when a driver hasn’t done driven for Lyft in awhile.
In the example below, I was offered a $1000 bonus to give 120 rides over the course of the month. When I got this offer, I hadn’t driven for Lyft in a long time.
Existing drivers can get bonus offers too, usually when you haven’t driven for awhile
Driver referral bonus: Get paid to refer a new driver to Lyft
You can earn a bonus for referring new drivers to the Lyft app. Typically the referral bonus is a cash bonus you receive after your referral has completed a required number of rides.
For example, “Refer a new or former driver and get up to $800. You’ll get the bonus when they give 180 rides in 30 days.”
Often, referral bonuses are double sided. That means that both drivers receive a promotion. Usually, the referred driver gets an earnings guarantee or bonus, and the referring driver gets a cash bonus.
It pays to refer another driver
Referral bonus rules: Your referral must sign up with your invite code or invite link.
Express Drive applicants aren’t eligible for a bonus, but you may still earn a bonus for referring them.
You’ll be notified when your referred applicant completes the requirements. The bonus usually appears immediately but can take 1–2 pay cycles.
How to refer a driver
There are two main ways to share your referral code: The Refer a Driver feature in the app, or by giving someone your promo code.
To find and share your referral code: Head to Menu > More Ways to Earn > Refer a Driver
Use the Share button to send your referral link in a text message, email, or on social media.
Busy-or-Bonus Guarantee
In select markets, Lyft is testing a Busy-or-Bonus guarantee that offers a bonus on your next ride if more than 5 minutes pass without a ride request.
Here’s how it works: When you are online during a busy-or-bonus time period and go more than 5 minutes without a ride request, you will be eligible for a bonus when you accept and complete the next ride request.
The bonus starts at $1 and increases by $1 every minute, for a maximum bonus of $10. The bonus resets if you miss a ride, go offline, or cancel a ride.
Busy or bonus: Get paid if it takes longer than 5 minutes to get a ride request
The busy-or-bonus incentivizes you to drive during busy times, and to accept more ride requests. However, it might mean accepting a ride that is a bit further away than you would normally go.
Here’s why Lyft might not be offering you any bonuses
Bonuses are personalized and vary weekly. Nobody knows exactly why one driver will get a bonus offer when another doesn’t.
Remember that Lyft uses bonuses to incentivize drivers to get on the road. So if you’re getting a lot of bonus offers, you can assume that Lyft has a strong need for more drivers.
And if you aren’t getting any bonuses, Lyft doesn’t need more drivers on the road or wants to incentivize different drivers to drive.
Many drivers speculate that bonuses are targeted at newer drivers or drivers who haven’t driven in a while. If you’re a full-time driver, you might see your bonuses dry up compared to your early days of driving.
How can you get more bonuses? Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to change the number of bonus offers you get.
Make sure to keep all notifications active for Lyft: App, text, and email. Lyft usually sends out notifications when bonuses are available.
If you take a break from Lyft, you might see your bonuses start to reappear. But even that tactic won’t work 100% of the time because Lyft constantly changes how they do bonuses.
Lyft not giving you enough bonuses? Try other apps
If Lyft isn’t offering enough bonuses, why not take a break and try another app?
What to do if Lyft doesn’t pay a bonus
Typically the Lyft bonus system is fully automated and doesn’t require you to take any action to get your bonuses.
But now and then, you might not get the bonus you think you deserve.
If Lyft doesn’t pay one of your bonuses, you can contact Lyft or try to visit an in-person driver Hub if you can’t get anywhere with online customer service.
Another good idea is to take a screenshot of any big guarantee or promotion that you’re offered, just in case you’ll need it to prove your case later on.
It can be frustrating to deal with Lyft support, but if you keep up the effort, you will typically get any bonuses you’re owed.
More help for Lyft drivers
Marie Carkido says
I signed up with Lyft under their 170 rides/$3000 guarantee. I completed my rides and didn’t make $3000 now lyft is telling me although I had the counter for 29 days on my screen showing me completed rides and even when the time was up until I completed the drives. Way to screw over a caregiver to two who needed the promised money.