Full-service Instacart shoppers are paid per batch: Instacart’s batch payment plus 100% of customer tips, deposited weekly or cashed out sooner. You pay for the groceries with an Instacart payment card, not your own money. This guide explains how batch pay is built, when tips are final, how payouts work and how to judge a batch per mile and per hour with shopping time included.
Full-service shoppers and in-store shoppers
Most people asking how Instacart pays are full-service shoppers: independent contractors who accept batches in the Shopper app, shop the order and deliver it in their own car. Everything below about batch pay, tips and Instant Cashout is about them.
Instacart has also used in-store shoppers, who pick orders inside a store and don’t deliver. That role has been hourly employee work rather than contract work paid per batch, and it isn’t offered everywhere. If you see it listed in your area, the job offer sets the pay.
DoorDash announced on October 29, 2026 that it plans to buy Instacart, with the deal expected to close in late 2027 or the first half of 2028 if approved. The companies say they will operate separately until then, so the pay details below are Instacart’s own. DoorDash says it expects to keep the Instacart app and that shoppers would be able to choose whether to also take DoorDash orders.
How Instacart batch pay is built
Each batch offer shows what you’ll earn, including the customer’s tip, before you accept. Instacart’s part is the batch payment. In its July 2023 pay update, Instacart said the smallest, quickest batches pay at least $4 before tips, and bigger or more complex batches may pay $10 or more.
You may see older posts mention a quality bonus. Today quality feeds into Cart Star, Instacart’s rewards program: your quality score, customer rating and points set your tier, and tiers bring priority access to batches, gas cash back and other perks rather than extra pay on each batch.
Instacart doesn’t publish its full formula. The 2023 update named these ways a batch can pay more:
- Heavy pay: at least $2 on top of the batch minimum when a batch has items of 8 pounds or more that add up to 50 pounds or more. You can opt out of heavy batches.
- Busy times: batches on high-demand days and hours can pay more.
- Long drives: batches with a longer expected drive to the store can pay more.
- Tips: 100% go to you, separate from and on top of Instacart’s pay.
When are Instacart tips final?
The tip is part of the total you see before accepting, but it isn’t settled at delivery. Instacart’s shopper post on tipping says customers can adjust a tip for 24 hours after delivery, and customers who remove a tip after delivery must leave feedback. When it shortened the window from three days, Instacart said fewer than 0.5% of orders had tips removed after delivery.
You can cash out tips 24 hours after you complete the delivery. That post is several years old, so check the current timing on the earnings screens in your Shopper app.
How and when you get paid
Earnings go to your bank account weekly by direct deposit at no charge. If you want money sooner, Instant Cashout moves available earnings before the weekly payout, usually within minutes. You see a summary of earnings and fees before you confirm, and tips join after their 24-hour window.
Instacart also offers the Shopper Rewards Card, a Mastercard debit card and account from Branch that began rolling out to US shoppers in October 2025. Earnings can go to it after every batch for free. Instacart said that once the card is available to you, an Instant Cashout to any other bank account costs $1.50, and its terms say it may add a fee for card payouts later, so read the fee screen before each cashout.
The Shopper Rewards Card is only for your earnings. It isn’t the card you use to pay for groceries.
How do Instacart shoppers pay for groceries?
You don’t use your own money for a customer’s order. Instacart gives you a physical payment card for shopping, and you pay for each order with it at the register.
If your card is lost, forgotten or waiting to be replaced, Mobile Checkout lets you pay by tapping your phone through Apple Pay or Google Pay. It runs as a credit transaction only and isn’t accepted at every store, so Instacart asks shoppers to carry the physical card too.
If the card is declined, contact Instacart through the Shopper app before you try anything else, rather than paying with your own card.
Minimum pay for Instacart shoppers in California and NYC
California: under Prop 22, Instacart guarantees at least 120% of the local minimum wage for each hour spent shopping and delivering, plus per-mile pay, checked weekly. If your batch payments fall short, a weekly adjustment is added, and tips don’t count toward the guarantee. The state set the per-mile rate at $0.37 for 2026.
New York City: since January 26, 2026, grocery delivery apps, Instacart included, must meet the city’s minimum pay rate. It rose to $22.13 per hour, not including tips, from the first pay period on or after April 1, 2026, and covers time spent preparing an order and making deliveries.
How to judge an Instacart batch per mile and per hour
A batch pays for shopping as well as driving, so a big payout can still be a slow hour. Count every minute from accepting to the customer’s door, plus the drive back to a store you like. Time your own shops for a week to learn how long an order of a given size takes you.
Run the numbers in the free Grade your offer calculator. Giga Driver’s offer grades don’t cover Instacart, but the calculator works for any app’s offer. If you also deliver restaurant orders, our DoorDash and Instacart guide explains how to fit batches around other work.
Here’s a hypothetical batch paying $28. Counting only the drives to the store and the customer, it looks like $73.04 per hour. Counting everything, it’s $28 ÷ 12 miles = $2.33 per mile and $28 ÷ 78 minutes × 60 = $21.54 per hour.
| Step | Minutes | Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Drive to the store | 8 | 2 |
| Shop 32 items | 35 | 0 |
| Check out and load the car | 7 | 0 |
| Drive to the customer | 15 | 7 |
| Hand off the order | 5 | 0 |
| Drive back to your area | 8 | 3 |
| Total | 78 | 12 |
Key takeaways
- Full-service shoppers earn Instacart’s batch payment plus 100% of tips, and the total shows before you accept.
- Heavy items, busy times and long drives can raise batch pay, but Instacart doesn’t publish the full formula.
- Instacart has said customers can adjust tips for 24 hours after delivery.
- Pay arrives weekly by free direct deposit, or sooner through Instant Cashout or the Shopper Rewards Card.
- Groceries go on Instacart’s payment card, never your own money.
- Judge each batch per mile and per hour with shopping time included.
Common questions
Do Instacart shoppers get paid for mileage?
There’s no separate mileage reimbursement. Instacart says batches with a longer expected drive can pay more, and in California the Prop 22 per-mile amount counts toward the weekly guarantee. Keep your own mileage log, since your car costs come out of what you earn.
How long does Instacart Instant Cashout take?
Instacart says Instant Cashout gets money to you in minutes, though your bank can affect timing. Tips aren’t included until 24 hours after delivery. Check the fee shown before you confirm, since it depends on where the money goes.
Do Instacart shoppers have taxes taken out?
Full-service shoppers are independent contractors, and contractor pay normally has no tax withheld, so set money aside as you go. Keep records of your miles and expenses. Does DoorDash take out taxes explains how contractor taxes work for delivery work in general.
Can you do Instacart and DoorDash at the same time?
Many shoppers use both apps in the same day, but a batch takes longer than a restaurant delivery, so finish one job before starting another. Go offline or pause in the other app while you shop. Our DoorDash and Instacart guide covers how to plan it.
