How much can you make from DoorDash? That’s the number one question if you’re thinking about signing up. DoorDash drivers are paid per order, so you can experience a wide range of pay, and there are also several ways to boost your DoorDash pay.
We talked with current DoorDash drivers to find out how much this side hustle pays and hacks for earning more than the average driver. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about DoorDash pay!
Quick Summary
DoorDash drivers get paid for each delivery they complete — You can earn more than average by making yourself available during busy hours (evenings, weekends, and holidays), and DoorDash drivers are paid weekly, with an option to get paid daily.
What is DoorDash?
DoorDash is an on-demand food delivery service that serves over 7,000 cities across the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany. It controls nearly 65% of the U.S. food delivery market — making it the most popular one, by far!
People who drive for DoorDash are called Dashers, and they are independent contractors who accept delivery orders, pick them up, and deliver them.
Dashers always keep 100% of their tips, and savvy ones know the secrets to making more than average. Don’t worry, we’re going to share the best tips and hacks for making the most DoorDash pay!
About DoorDash Driver Pay
Like other top food delivery companies, DoorDash driver pay has gone through multiple iterations. The most recent pay model launched in 2019 and guarantees that drivers keep 100% of their tips. It also changed the base pay to $2-$10 per order depending on factors like estimated time, distance, and desirability.
There's no average DoorDash driver pay because pay varies for each order.
Understanding the new pay model will help you get a better sense for how much DoorDash drivers make. Let’s take a look:
Like we said, base pay ranges from $2-$10 per order. Drivers always keep 100% of that amount, and it goes up based on difficulty.
Promotions are one of the first ways to boost your pay, and DoorDash offers these opportunities during busy periods. Here’s how they work:
- Peak Pay: Drivers will see the in-app map light up red with areas that are paying an extra $1-$4 per delivery. This is added to your base pay.
- Challenges: This promotion incentives drivers to complete a certain number of deliveries in a set amount of time. An example is, “Complete 15 deliveries between June 1 - June 7 for an extra $20.”
You can see how much tips increase your pay in the screenshot below. One of our readers shared this with us, and you can see that over the course of a week, his tips were 1.5x more than delivery pay.
Drivers always see the base pay amount and any promotions before they accept the order. Some drivers get picky with those amounts and only select ones that meet a certain pay threshold. Their thinking is that hitting a certain pay amount will make the delivery “worth it.”
DoorDash Disclaimer: Actual earnings may differ and depend on factors like number of deliveries completed, time of day, location, and expenses. Hourly pay is calculated using average Dasher payouts while on a delivery (from the time you accept an order until the time you drop it off) over a 90 day period and includes compensation from peak pay, tips, and other incentives.
How Much Can You Make From Doordash in a Day?
The amount you make in day with DoorDash really depends on how many deliveries you're able to complete over the course of a day, whether it's a busy day in the DoorDash app, and what kind of deliveries you're completing.
Remember the DoorDash pay model above? It factors in things like time, distance, and promotions, and all of those things change throughout the day and week.
While we can't give you a concrete idea on pay, we can share what readers have said.
One of our readers shared that they recently made $285 over a 6-hour period! The weather was bad, so more customers were ordering in and there were fewer drivers on the road.
It’s really important to remember that DoorDash drivers aren’t paid hourly. Pay varies by order, and some times of the day are busier than others. For example, if you’re working in an area with lots of businesses, you can expect a busy lunch rush. In more suburban areas, the dinner rush is busier.
Learn more in When Are The Best Times to DoorDash for Money?
Weekly & Monthly Doordash Driver Pay
As with daily pay, your weekly and monthly pay depends on how many hours a week you can work and what types of orders you complete.
The reality is that pay will vary based on the amount of time you’re able to work. If you can only put in a few hours here and there, your pay is going to be significantly lower. The fact that you can work as much or as little as you like is one of the main benefits of DoorDash.
One of our readers mainly delivers for about an hour or two after work, and here’s his DoorDash pay over the past few weeks.
How Are Doordash Drivers Paid?
DoorDash drivers are paid weekly through direct deposit. This is a free and automatic payment service. However, if you want to be paid more often, drivers have two options:
- Fast Pay: For a fee of $1.99 per transaction, you can use Fast Pay, and DoorDash will immediately transfer your earnings to your bank account.
- DasherDirect: This is a free prepaid Visa business debit card available to Dashers (subject to approval), and DoorDash automatically transfers pay from each delivery to your DasherDirect card if you've signed up for it.
You can use your DasherDirect card like any other credit or debit card. But you can also transfer the balance to a bank account for free. Transfers take 1-2 business days to see the money hit your account, and there's a $2,000/day transfer limit and a monthly limit of $5,000 with no more than 30 transfers per month.
DoorDash Driver Expenses
DoorDash typically doesn’t cover gas and other driver expenses, but they made an exception in March of 2022 when DoorDash and a handful of other food delivery services (like Uber Eats and Instacart) offered a fuel stipend for drivers.
The stipend was discontinued in June 2022, and it was in response to surging gas prices. Customers paid a surcharge on top of their order cost, and DoorDash passed it onto drivers in the form of a weekly gas bonus of $5-$15 and 10% back when they used their DasherDirect card on gas purchases.
Because DoorDash drivers are independent contractors, they’re responsible for things like:
- Wear and tear on your car
- Gasoline
- Insurance
- Parking costs
You also need to report and pay self-employment taxes. We have a complete guide to DoorDash taxes that explains more.
How To Get Started With Doordash
Becoming a DoorDash driver is an incredibly simple process overall. There are requirements that all DoorDash drivers must meet, but beyond that, you are simply signing up to drive — there’s no interview or anything like that.
Click here to begin the sign-up process.
Here are the requirements to become a DoorDash driver:
- Must be 18 or older
- Have access to a car, scooter, or bicycle in some cities
- Have a driver’s license
- Have auto insurance
- Social Security number if delivering in the U.S.
- Consent to a criminal background check
- Have had no major driving violations in the past 7 years
The requirements are nearly identical to other services like Instacart and Shipt.
DoorDash asks that you fill out a short application that asks for your zip code, name, date of birth, driver’s license information, email address, and vehicle type.
Once you’ve filled out the application to sign up, DoorDash will review your information and approve you in 3-5 days on average. They notify you via email or in the DoorDash app.
How To Make the Most Money With Doordash (Tips From Real Drivers!)
After asking real drivers how much you can make with DoorDash, we also asked for tips, hacks, and advice for new drivers. They’ve given us some excellent advice that we’re sharing below:
- Take advantage of incentives and promotions. With Peak Pay and Challenges you have a couple of opportunities to increase your driver pay. These are during the busiest times or when there aren’t enough drivers to fulfill every order.
- Accept more than one order at a time. Brand new drivers might want to get a few orders under their belt before trying this hack, but batched orders help you optimize your time.
- Make yourself available during peak hours. Being available during the busiest times is huge, and the busiest times for DoorDash are during the afternoon lunch rush, dinner hours, late hours on Friday and Saturday nights, major sporting events, big televised events, and holidays. This varies based on location, so test things out to find the best hours in your area.
- Avoid small orders. Bigger orders = larger tips and base pay. But declining all small orders means you might be missing out on DoorDash jobs and pay all together.
- Fit deliveries into your schedule. Every successful driver we spoke to said that you have to make it part of your daily routine. You can take a delivery or two on your way home from work, after a dinner with your spouse, before picking your kids up from school, and so on.
- Track your mileage from the beginning. At tax time, you can take a mileage deduction to account for gas and the wear and tear on your car. To get the most, you need to take an accurate deduction. We recommend using an app like Everlance to start tracking.
- Drive for multiple services. Because you’re an independent contractor, there are no rules preventing you from working for Instacart, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and so on. You can toggle between a couple of apps to pick the best orders.
How Much Can You Make With Doordash & Is Doordash Worth It?
DoorDash drivers are paid for each order they complete, so there is no average daily, weekly, or monthly range. It also depends on how much time you have to deliver!
If you have a car and want a flexible and low-commitment side hustle, DoorDash pays well compared to alternatives like online surveys or online tutoring. For many people, DoorDash is very worth the time!
But if you want more options, read Best Side Jobs to Make Extra Money for even more choices.
FAQs
DoorDash driver pay isn’t standardized because DoorDash use a formula to pay drivers based on each order they complete. Your pay depends on how many drivers are available, distance, difficulty, and desirability.
It entirely depends on how often you’re able to deliver, the types of orders you take, and the demand for drivers.
About Millennial Money Man
Bobby Hoyt is a former band director who paid off $40,000 of student loan debt in 18 months on his teaching salary and then left his job to run Millennial Money Man full-time. He helps other Millennials earn more through side hustles, save more through budgeting tools and apps, and pay off debt. He is a personal finance expert who has been seen on Forbes, Reuters, MarketWatch, CNBC, International Business Times, Business Insider, US News, Yahoo Finance, and many other personal finance and entrepreneurship media outlets.
