Proof that Lyft drivers can make $1000 per week! But what is the realistic average pay?

Can a Lyft driver make $1,000 in a week of driving? For many drivers, $1,000 per week is the magic number that makes rideshare worth full-time effort.

We found many examples of Lyft drivers that have made over $1,000 per week.

Some made $1,000 in only 30 hours, while others took 50 or even 70 hours to hit $1,000 in earnings.

See what earning $1,000 per week looks like on Lyft, and secrets to the highest pay on Lyft.

Hint: High pay is all about getting streaks, challenges, and other promotions.

Article Contents

• Examples of Lyft drivers earning $1,000 per week
• The secret of the $1,000 week: Streaks, challenges, and promotions
• At base rates, how much driving does it take to earn $1,000?
• Results not typical: Other industry averages
• Back to basics: How does driver pay work on Lyft?

These drivers earned over $1000 from Lyft in a week

Here are several examples of real Lyft drivers that managed to earn more than $1,000 in one week of driving.

Weekly Driver Earnings	Earnings per Hour	Earnings per Ride
$1210 67 rides in 21.5 hours	$56.27	$18.06
$1563 116 rides in 33 hours	$47.36	$13.47
$1310 84 rides in 31.9 hours	$41.06	$15.60
$2875 259 rides in 71 hours	$40.49	$11.10
$1022 79 rides in 30.5 hours	$33.50	$12.93
$1317 91 rides in 42 hours	$31.35	$14.47
$1664 132 rides in 56.5 hours	$29.45	$12.60

Examples of  Lyft drivers making over $1,000 per week

Here’s how $1k in a week looks for real Lyft drivers.

The driver below clocked $1210 in 67 rides over 21.5 hours. That’s over $56.27 per hour! This driver undoubtedly got huge payouts from bonus promotions like streaks and challenges.

Below, this Lyft driver got $1563 in 33 hours. But the most interesting part is that only $552 was from ride earnings!

$354 was from streak bonuses, and $311 was from other bonuses. With only ride earnings, tips, tolls, and the fuel surcharge, their hourly earnings would drop to $22 per hour. Bonuses make all the difference.

Below is another solid week, $1,310 in 32 hours of driving. That’s $41 per hour.

Here’s a big one: Over $2875 in one week! But here’s what made this week unlike many others: They drove for over 71 hours.

An average of $40 per hour over a 71-hour week is an amazing result, but it isn’t something most other drivers could—or even should—do.

Below is a week that resulted in $1,022 over 30 hours. That’s around $33 per hour.

The earnings of $1,317 below stand out because their earnings from promotions aren’t as high as the others.

Bonus Zones likely made up a significant amount of earnings, but those don’t get their own category in the earnings statement like streaks and challenges do.

In the $1,664 payout below, the driver drove over 56 hours. That’s a long week, but the payout is more than worth it for most drivers.

One thing in common with all of these examples: Over $12 per ride on average

To reach $1,000 per week in any reasonable amount of time, you will have to make about $12 per ride or more.

If your average ride earnings are less than $12 per ride, it will take a lot of hours and a lot of miles to make $1,000.

Try to target bonuses and promotions to increase your average per-ride earnings to $10 or more.

The secret of the $1,000 week: Streaks, challenges, and promotions

What’s the secret of the drivers earning $1k+ per week? How are they getting $30 or even $40 per hour when most are closer to $15–$25?

The answer is almost always bonuses and promotions. To earn $1,000 per week without driving 50+ hours, you need to take full advantage of promotions.

The best example of the power of promotions is the payout below, for $1,463. Notice that just $552 of the payout was from ride earnings! The rest was from promotions.

$354 was from streak bonuses, and $169 was from challenges. $311 was from other unspecified bonuses.

That’s $834 in bonuses on $552 in earnings!

If you want to hit $1,000 per week, you will need promotions to get you there.

Now that shared rides are back, targeting shared rides is an excellent way to quickly hit a streak. Each pickup during a shared ride counts toward the streak.

“The key to $40 per hour: Hit as many ride streaks as possible”

HankVanDank on Reddit

About Lyft promotions: Streaks, challenges, bonuses

The main promotions offering big payouts are streaks, challenges, earnings guarantees, and bonus zones.

Streaks offer a bonus for completing a certain number of rides back to back without skipping any requests or cancelling any rides.

Challenges pay a bonus for completing a certain number of rides within a period. You can skip ride requests while on a challenge as you hit the goal in time.

Earnings guarantees pay a bonus if your ride earnings don’t match the guarantee. For example: An earnings guarantee is $150 for 10 rides. After 10 rides, you earned $100. Lyft will then pay you a $50 bonus to match the $150 guarantee

A Bonus Zone pays a bonus for driving into a busy areas on the map. After you drive into the bonus zone, the bonus applies to your next ride—even if you leave the zone.

• Our full guide to Lyft bonuses: How to max out your earnings

Not getting promotions?

Ok, so it’s clear that promotions are the best way to earn $1,000 per week. How can you get more?

Unfortunately, there are no steps you can take to get more promotions. Promotions are mainly based on the current supply and demand in the region you’re in. And to add even more confusion, not every driver gets the same promotions.

The best thing you can do is to closely monitor the app for promotions and take full advantage of them as soon as they’re available.

• Streak strategies on Lyft

At base rates, how much driving would it take to earn $1,000?

The reality is that most drivers won’t earn $1,000 per week from base rates alone. At the current mileage and time rates, it takes a ton of driving to hit $1,000.

We estimate that you would have to drive around 900 miles in a 48-hour work week to hit $1,000 at base rates.

Let’s use the current rates in Los Angeles as an example.

Per Mile:$0.795
Per Minute:$0.1275
Base fare: $0

Let’s say you’re willing to work 8 hours per day and 6 days per week to hit your goal of $1,000.

Of those 48 hours on the road, you might only have a paid passenger in your car 75% of the time or less. That’s 36 paid hours.

36 paid hours will get you $275 from the time calculation alone.

With $275 in paid time, you’ll need $725 in paid miles to hit $1,000.

At a rate of $0.795 per mile, you would have to drive 916 miles to get your $725.

So at base rates, you would have to drive 916 paid miles in 36 paid hours to get $1,000 weekly.

That’s around 25 paid miles per hour, which is quite high in the real world.

Hitting $1,000 per week from Lyft’s base rates alone isn’t too likely or profitable.

It requires a ton of driving over grueling hours to make $1,000 at base rates.

Results not typical: Other rideshare & delivery earnings averages

While $1,000 per week is certainly possible for a Lyft driver, it’s not a typical result.

If you look at income data from similar driving gigs like Uber, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Instacart, you’ll see that the typical driver makes around $15–$20 per hour.

To make $1,000 at that rate, it would take 50–66 hours of work each week. 50 hours is doable, but for most drivers, that isn’t sustainable in the long run.

Most Lyft drivers earn closer to the industry average, and only work part-time. The typical Lyft driver does not earn $1,000 per week.

Back to basics: How does driver pay work on Lyft?

There are two payment systems for Lyft drivers: The upfront payment system and the rate card system.

Upfront fare system: In some markets, Lyft shows drivers an upfront pay estimate that is not based on a rate card.

Instead of a rate card, ride payouts are calculated with a private algorithm that includes mileage, time, and other factors. You’ll know your pay before you accept the ride, but you won’t know how Lyft calculated it.

Upfront fares show the passenger’s destination and total ride time + distance on the acceptance screen. Under the rate card system, you don’t see the passenger destination or an upfront estimate on the ride acceptance screen.

• Upfront fares for Lyft drivers: See the passenger’s destination!

The Rate card system: The rate card lists pay per mile, pay per distance, and other factors. Pay rates are unique to each region and to each ride type (Lyft, Lyft XL, Lux, etc).

The payment for each ride is a calculation of: Base fare, pay per mile, pay per minute.

After each ride, an earnings statement shows the time & distance calculation and list any other payments.

In the example below, the driver was paid a base rate, time, distance, and fuel surcharge.

It’s a mostly transparent system that makes it easy to figure out how much you were paid, and why.

What can Lyft drivers do to make $1,000 per week?

The best way to earn $1,000 or more per week on Lyft is to drive when Lyft is running promotions. Drive as much as you can when promotions are active.

Regularly check the Lyft Driver app for streaks and challenges, and plan your days around them.

If your promotions look like the image below, hit it hard, and you might get a $1,000 week.

But if there are no promotions, you might only want to drive during the busiest hours, like rush hours and weekend nights.

By driving only the busiest hours without any extra promotions, you may not be able to reach $1,000, but your average hourly earnings can still be enough to make driving worth it.

The best strategy is to drive as much as possible when promos are active, then take a break when promos go away.

“Without surge, streaks, or bonuses, we’re NOTHING”

RoddyThick on Reddit

More Reading for Lyft Drivers

• Lyft Driver Requirements
• How to Rent a Car for Lyft – Express Drive Review
• Use the Skeddy App to Get More Scheduled Rides on Lyft
• Lyft Deactivations: How to Get Reactivated