Delivery Driving Compared: What DoorDash, Instacart, Shipt, Grubhub, and Amazon Flex Actually Pay

Delivery driving is still the fastest side hustle to start: no interview, no resume, approval in under a week, and money in your account the same day. What makes it confusing is that every platform advertises gross pay — the number before gas, car wear, and the tax bill that shows up in April.

Here’s what each of the five major platforms actually pays, what it costs you to earn it, and how to pick.

The Side-by-Side Comparison

Net figures assume roughly $0.30–$0.35 per mile in true vehicle cost and a 25% tax set-aside. Your market matters enormously — the same hours in a dense metro can gross 40–60% more than in a spread-out suburb.

How Each Platform Actually Works

DoorDash has the largest order volume in most U.S. markets, which means less idle time between offers. Pay is base ($2–$10+ per delivery, set by distance and desirability) plus 100% of tips, which often make up 40–60% of total earnings. Peak Pay bonuses stack during busy windows. Scheduling a Dash block in advance gets you priority over drivers using “Dash Now,” which matters in competitive zones.

Grubhub advertises $15–$20 an hour with drivers keeping all tips. It offers “Missions” — hit a delivery count in a set window for bonus pay. Order volume is generally lower than DoorDash, so it works best as a second app running alongside another.

Instacart is a different job: you shop the order inside the store, then deliver it. A full-service batch averages about $16 before tip, with base pay of $7–$10 and tips running about a third of earnings. Note there are two roles — in-store shopper is a W-2 part-time job at roughly $15–$16/hour with no vehicle costs and taxes withheld; full-service shopper is the 1099 contractor role with the higher ceiling and all the expenses.

Shipt works like Instacart — per-order trip pay plus 100% of tips, median tip around $5.83. The defining feature is that customers can request a preferred shopper again, so building a repeat base genuinely raises your rate.

Amazon Flex pays by the block, not the hour. You claim a scheduled 3–4 hour window and get a flat rate — typically $65–$85 — regardless of how long the route takes:

Because pay is fixed, route efficiency is your only lever — drivers who know their zone cold routinely finish 30–45 minutes early and effectively raise their own hourly rate.

The Costs Nobody Advertises

You’re a 1099 contractor on all five platforms. Every operating cost is yours:

All in, running your own car costs roughly $0.30–$0.35 per mile. That single number reframes every offer you see: a $3 delivery with a 6-mile round trip costs you about $2 in vehicle wear before you count your time.

A worked example. Twenty hours of DoorDash over a week, mostly dinner rushes and Saturday:

• Gross: 20 hrs × $22/active-hour × 0.85 (idle time) = ~$374
• Miles driven: ~180
• Vehicle cost: 180 × $0.35 = −$63
• Tax set-aside: 25% of ~$311 profit = −$78
• Net: ~$233, or about $11.65 per hour worked

The grocery-app version of this math is harsher. A single Shipt order covering 15 total miles for $12 in pay and tip nets about $2 after mileage. Batching two or three orders from one store trip splits that driving cost across multiple payouts — which is why stacking batches, not shopping faster, is the real lever on grocery-app earnings.

Which One Should You Pick?

• Want the most consistent volume? DoorDash. You’ll wait less between offers in almost every market.
• Don’t mind shopping and want a higher ceiling? Instacart or Shipt — but only if you batch orders aggressively.
• Want a predictable, scheduled shift? Amazon Flex. You know the pay before you accept, and blocks fit neatly around a day job.
• Want to minimize idle time? Run two or three apps simultaneously and take whichever offer clears your minimum. This is what most experienced drivers actually do.
• Prefer passengers over packages? Rideshare pays somewhat better per hour — see how much you can make driving for Uber or Lyft.
• Don’t want miles on your car at all? Renting your car out on Turo or the best side hustles for beginners cover lower-overhead options.

Five Ways to Raise Your Hourly Rate

1. Set a dollar-per-mile floor. Most experienced drivers decline anything under $1.50–$2.00 per mile. You’ll sit idle more; the trips you take will actually be profitable.
2. Work the peaks only. Lunch (11 a.m.–1:30 p.m.), dinner (5–9 p.m.), weekends, and bad weather carry the highest base pay, tips, and bonuses. Off-peak hours are mostly waiting.
3. Stay in a tight, dense zone. Short deliveries in a small radius mean more orders per hour and far less gas burned.
4. Batch and stack. Take stacked orders on the same route; on grocery apps, never drive to a store for a single order if a second is available.
5. Multi-app. Keep two platforms open and take the better offer. It’s allowed, widely done, and cuts dead time more than any other tactic.

Taxes: Don’t Get Surprised in April

You’ll get a 1099-NEC from each platform you earn $600 or more on. Two habits protect you:

• Track every business mile. The IRS standard mileage deduction (check the current year’s rate at IRS.gov) is usually larger than deducting actual costs and often wipes out most of your taxable profit. A background mileage app pays for itself.
• Move 25–30% of every payout into a separate account immediately, and pay quarterly estimated taxes to avoid an underpayment penalty.

Also worth a call to your insurer: most personal auto policies exclude commercial delivery, and a delivery or rideshare endorsement is usually inexpensive compared to an uncovered claim.

Making It Fit Your Budget

Treat delivery income as variable, not guaranteed — demand swings week to week. Building it into a zero-based budget, where even irregular gig income gets assigned a job, keeps you from committing to fixed expenses based on your best weeks.

Delivery driving is excellent for a specific, time-boxed goal: an extra $200–$400 a week can build a $1,000 starter fund in a month or two, or meaningfully accelerate a credit card payoff. It’s a poor permanent plan — after expenses, net pay often lands near local minimum wage with no benefits, no raises, and a car depreciating on your dime.

The Bottom Line

Across DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, Shipt, and Amazon Flex, gross pay runs $15–$22 an hour and real take-home lands at $10–$18 once gas, vehicle wear, and self-employment tax come out. The platform matters less than three habits: decline low dollar-per-mile offers, work only the peak windows, and track your miles from day one. Use it as a focused sprint toward a specific number, then stop.

Related reading: How Much You Can Make Driving for Uber or Lyft, How to Save $1,000 in 3 Months, and Zero-Based Budgeting Guide.