How Much Can You Make On DoorDash In A Day? (Latest Data!)
In the gig economy world, DoorDash is one of the most popular side hustles around. In fact, it's actually the leading food delivery app in North America, even outdoing the likes of Uber Eats and Grubhub!
But how much can you make on DoorDash in a day? And is your daily DoorDash earning potential enough to offset taxes and fuel expenses?
In this post, I'm using data, personal experience, and stories from other Dashers to share how much you can make with DoorDash in a day. Hopefully, by the end, you can decide if DoorDash is worth it or not and have an idea of its earning potential.
Looking for other side hustle ideas? Checkout:
- Uber Eats: Start making money by delivering with Uber Eats!
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How Much Can You Make On DoorDash In A Day?
How much you make with DoorDash in a day largely depends on your market, how many hours you deliver for, tips, and numerous other factors. Some Dashers might make $200 a day or more, while others might earn less if they only make a few deliveries.
This video from DoorDash YouTuber Nuggs also provides some amazing insight on what daily income is like as a DoorDash driver.
In this ridealong video, Nuggs tries to make $400 in a single day with DoorDash. He starts early in the morning and works for 15 hours with just a few breaks. But some bad luck and a slow start in the morning resulted in him earning $267.25, or about $17.81 per hour.
This is just one example of DoorDash's daily earnings. And again, a lot of factors determine how much you make, especially how long you work for.
For example, many Dashers only work a few hours in the morning or at night since they have a day job. This means they're probably making $30 to $60 a day from Dashing since they're not working 8 hours.
In contrast, I know Dashers who regularly deliver 40 hours a week sometimes make $250 per day or more if they get lucky. And with some DoorDash tips and tricks, plus some luck, your earnings can increase.
What Do Other DoorDash Drivers Say?
Another great way to learn how much you can make a day doing DoorDash is to see what other real Dashers have to say. This can also give a lot of valuable information about specific markets.
In this Reddit post, dozens of other drivers share how much they make per day with DoorDash, as well as some information on gas expenses:
- Pinched1 says: “I tend to try between 80 and 100 each day.”
- cheesevolt says: “I get about $40-50 for a dinner rush.”
- Etronun says: “Between $160-170 at the moment except Monday, Monday is $130-$140.”
- FilmseyScene says: “About $150 within 4-5 hours.”
- OwlGroundbreaking869 says: “Really depends on day of the week, holidays, weather, location, hours worked etc. But Monday and Tuesday are typically $100-$120 (slowest days unless raining or snowing), Wednesday and Thursday typically around $150, Friday and the weekends are anywhere from $200-$300.”
As you can see, these Dashers all have pretty different daily DoorDash earning reports. But for ones who work at least 8 hours a day, they're usually in the $150 to $200 range.
These Dashers also point out that timing and days of the week matter a lot. I'll share more DoorDash hacks and tips below you can use to increase your daily DoorDash pay. But hopefully, these reports from other Dashers provide a bit more insight.
How Much Can You Make With DoorDash In 3 Hours?
If you work a dinner rush or on weekends, you can usually make around $60 to $80 in three hours of DoorDash. However, tips, your market, luck, and delivery speed all influence how much you actually earn.
My advice is to test out some different times in your market to find out the highest-paying times. DoorDash can be a great part-time gig, especially if you work smart.
What Factors Influence Your Daily DoorDash Earnings?
DoorDash is an excellent side hustle, and I like that it's flexible and easy to start.
But like any gig economy job, it's important to work efficiently. So, here are some of the most important factors to consider if you want to make the most money with DoorDash.
1. Delivery Time
One of the most important factors that influences how much you make on DoorDash in a day is the time period you deliver at. This is because there are great times to DoorDash as well as slow times.
Generally, the best times to DoorDash are during a lunch and dinner rush when customers are ordering. In contrast, mornings can be slow in many markets, especially since fewer restaurants are open.
Friday and the weekend are also great days for DoorDash, especially if there's a major event like the Super Bowl or bad weather that's keeping people inside. So, if you only have a few hours to deliver per day, I'd aim to hit the dinner rush to maximize your daily DoorDash pay.
2. Your Market
The market you deliver in also plays a massive role in how much you earn per day with DoorDash.
Larger markets typically have higher order volume than tiny towns. This is why some of the best places to DoorDash include cities like San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston are so lucrative.
Being close to plenty of restaurants also helps. Overall, you want to deliver in a busy market with as much opportunity as possible.
You can DoorDash in different states and cities to the one you signed up in, but make sure driving the extra distance is worth the gas.
3. Tips
As a DoorDash driver, you keep 100% of all tips. So, getting lucky on a delivery can make a massive difference in your daily DoorDash earnings.
In my experience, many customers don't tip at all, or very much. This is why you shouldn't accept low-paying orders in the hopes of a good tip since you're often wasting your time.
That said, there are some basic customer service tactics you can use to increase the odds you get a good tip like:
- Being friendly when handing off food
- Grabbing extras for the customer like napkins, straws, and sauces if they're available
- Double-checking that you have everything before leaving the restaurant
- Messaging the customer if there's any delay and trying to be on time
Again, you can't control your tips. But getting lucky can really make a difference in your pay.
4. DoorDash Challenges
One new feature that's in beta is DoorDash Challenges. This program isn't available in every market, but it lets Dashers make bonus cash for completing a certain number of deliveries or meeting some other challenge requirement.
DoorDash runs challenges when they need more drivers on the road. And it can be a nice way to score some quick money if you planned on Dashing a lot that day or week anyway.
Again, this program is still rolling out to other markets and is in beta. But it's worth keeping an eye on in case it's available where you live.
Extra Reading – How To Make $500 A Week Doing DoorDash.
5. Using Other Apps
If DoorDash is slow in your market, one of the easiest ways to increase your daily DoorDash pay is to multi-app with other driving apps.
Thankfully, there are plenty of gigs like DoorDash that you can mix in, including:
- Uber Eats: One of the leading food delivery apps in the entire world.
- Shipt: A leading grocery delivery gig that pays around $15 per hour.
- Instacart: Another way to get paid to shop for people's groceries.
- Grubhub: A popular delivery gig like Uber Eats and DoorDash that's popular for multi-apping.
- Amazon Flex: Lets you earn $18 to $25 per hour for delivering packages.
- Walmart Spark: Another gig that pays you to pick up and deliver everyday essentials to people.
You can make excellent money with DoorDash in a day. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter which app pays you as long as you're getting as many orders as possible and are keeping busy while out on the road.
You can also use apps like Everlance to automatically track your gas and expenses to help you find deductions during tax season.
6. Working Efficiently
I know this is a general tip for any gig job, but it really matters for jobs like DoorDash. For example, experience teaches you things like which orders to accept or not. And you also learn when to cancel DoorDash orders, like when you're stuck in an endless drive-thru line and it's hurting your hourly pay.
Experienced, efficient Dashers also accept stacked orders, or even multi-app with other gigs like Uber Eats and Instacart.
The bottom line is that there are lots of small tweaks you can make to your delivery strategies to complete more deliveries per hour. And all of these tweaks make a difference for how much money you make a day with DoorDash.
Extra Reading – How To DoorDash For The First Time.
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide provides some clarity on how much money you can make a day with DoorDash to help you decide if this gig is right for you.
Again, DoorDash is the leading food delivery app, and I think it has a lot of potential to help people make more money.
But it's also important to have realistic earning expectations so you can decide if this gig is worth it. The same goes for other delivery gigs, including jobs like Instacart and Uber Eats.
Hopefully, with the tips and info in this guide, you can make meaningful money doing DoorDash each day and boost your monthly income.
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