Grubhub drivers earn per delivery: base pay that Grubhub sets from mileage, delivery type, time spent delivering and your local market, plus any bonuses, plus 100% of tips. Grubhub doesn’t publish a rate per mile or per minute, so what you make depends on your market, your hours and the offers you take. This guide explains each part of Grubhub pay, scheduled blocks, the rules in New York City and California, and how to judge an offer yourself.
How Grubhub pays drivers
Grubhub says what you earn per delivery is your base pay plus any bonuses that apply. Base pay reflects mileage, delivery type, time spent delivering and your local market, but Grubhub doesn’t publish the rates behind it.
Time and mileage estimates are set when you receive the offer. For an offer with several orders, Grubhub estimates the time and miles for all of them together, and if an offer arrives before you finish a delivery, the estimate starts where that delivery ends. Your daily total for mileage, time and promotions appears as Delivery Pay at the top of the Pay Summary in the driver app. The parts of your pay are:
- Base pay: set per offer from estimated mileage and time, delivery type and market.
- Tips: you keep 100% of tips from completed deliveries.
- Missions: time-limited goals that pay extra, in some markets and periods.
- Grubhub contribution: a top-up toward a minimum rate in your market on slower days, explained below.
- Catering and large orders: paid the same way as other offers, but often bigger orders with room for a bigger tip, for drivers whose level gets them.
How much do Grubhub drivers make before tips and per hour?
No official average fits every market, and figures you find online often mix tips, bonuses and different years. Your own number, worked out from the Pay Summary, is more useful.
Separate Delivery Pay from tips, then divide each by your number of deliveries and by the hours you were toggled on to take offers. Say a week shows $196 in Delivery Pay and $124 in tips over 28 deliveries and 18 hours. Before tips, that’s $7 per delivery and $10.89 per hour. With tips, it’s $11.43 per delivery and $17.78 per hour, before gas and car costs. These are hypothetical numbers, not typical earnings.
The before-tips number shows what Grubhub itself pays. Grubhub says you can see each order’s tip after you accept it, in the Tasks section of the driver app, so after a few shifts you’ll know how much of your pay comes from customers.
Scheduled blocks or open shifts?
You can reserve blocks of time in the Scheduling section of the app. Blocks run from 30 minutes to two hours or more depending on the market, and drivers on a block are considered for nearby offers ahead of drivers who aren’t scheduled. You can also deliver without a block by turning on Taking offers, when your market has room.
Grubhub says it will help you earn a minimum guaranteed rate for your local market when you toggle on for a scheduled block and meet its Offer Commitment Rate criteria, which track how many offers you accept and follow through on. The pay page doesn’t list the rate or the exact criteria, so check the details for your market in the app.
Your level decides when you can pick blocks. Levels use your offer commitment, on-time arrival at the restaurant and schedule commitment over the last 14 days, and update every Monday. Premier drivers (above 95%, 80% and 95%) get next week’s blocks on Thursdays, Pro drivers (above 80%, 70% and 80%) on Fridays, and Partner drivers on Saturdays. Dropping blocks often, less than 72 hours before they start, can cost you scheduling access.
Minimum pay for Grubhub drivers in NYC, California and Seattle
Some places set a floor under Grubhub pay. These floors count active delivery time from accepting an offer to dropping it off, not time spent waiting for offers, and in both NYC and California tips are paid on top.
- New York City: city rules require at least $22.13 per hour, not including tips, for time spent preparing and making deliveries. The rate rises each April 1.
- Grubhub in NYC checks your active-time earnings each week and adds an adjustment at the end of the weekly pay period if you fall short.
- California: under Prop 22, Grubhub guarantees at least 120% of the local minimum wage at the pickup location for active delivery time, plus per-mile pay. The state set that rate at $0.37 per engaged mile for 2026.
- Seattle: for 2026, the city’s minimum payment rules require, for each offer, the greater of $0.47 per minute plus $0.80 per mile, or $5.34.
How to judge a Grubhub offer with pay per mile and per hour
Because Grubhub sets its estimates when the offer arrives, the offer screen is where you decide. Add the miles and minutes to the restaurant, the wait you expect there and the drive to the customer, then the trip back to an area where you get orders.
Run your own numbers in the free Grade your offer calculator, and see how to calculate pay per mile and hour for the formulas.
In this hypothetical comparison, the smaller payout is the better use of your time and car.
| Detail | Offer A | Offer B |
|---|---|---|
| Pay shown | $9.50 | $6.75 |
| Miles to restaurant and customer | 6.2 miles | 2.5 miles |
| Estimated time through handoff | 28 minutes | 15 minutes |
| Trip back to your area | 2 miles / 6 minutes | 1 mile / 4 minutes |
| Total miles and time | 8.2 miles / 34 minutes | 3.5 miles / 19 minutes |
| Pay per mile | $1.16 | $1.93 |
| Pay per hour | $16.76 | $21.32 |
Using Grubhub with another app
Many drivers use Grubhub alongside another app to fill slow periods. Accept one job at a time and pause the other app while you finish it; our Grubhub and DoorDash guide covers the details. On a scheduled block, remember that declining Grubhub offers can affect your Offer Commitment Rate and the minimum rate that depends on it.
Giga Driver’s offer grades don’t cover Grubhub, so for Grubhub offers use the free Grade your offer calculator: enter the payout, miles and minutes to see pay per mile and per hour. You always accept or decline in the Grubhub driver app yourself.
Key takeaways
- Grubhub pays base pay set from mileage, time, delivery type and market, plus bonuses and 100% of tips.
- Time and mileage estimates are fixed when the offer arrives, so judge each offer before you accept.
- Scheduled blocks put you ahead for nearby offers and can come with a minimum rate if you meet the Offer Commitment Rate criteria.
- New York City and California set pay floors for active delivery time, with tips paid on top.
- Work out pay per mile and per hour for each offer with the free Grade your offer calculator.
Common questions
When do Grubhub drivers get paid?
Direct deposit goes to your bank every Thursday. Instant Cash Out lets you move up to $500 a day, and earnings are available 15 minutes after a delivery; it’s free for Chase customers and $0.50 per cash out for other banks. Money not cashed out by 11:59 pm Central time on Monday goes through the usual weekly pay.
Do Grubhub drivers get paid for canceled orders?
If an order is canceled after you pick it up, Grubhub says you receive the full offer amount. If it’s canceled before pickup, you may get part of it. If you ask for an order to be reassigned, you aren’t paid for it.
Does Grubhub pay for gas?
Not separately. Base pay accounts for mileage, but Grubhub says drivers pay their own gas, maintenance and insurance. In California, the Prop 22 per-mile amount only matters when your earnings would otherwise fall below the guaranteed floor.
Does Grubhub+ change what drivers earn?
Grubhub+ is a paid membership for customers that removes delivery fees on eligible orders, not a driver program. Grubhub’s pay page lists mileage, delivery type, time and market as the base pay factors. The programs that affect drivers are levels, Missions and scheduled blocks.
How much do Grubhub drivers make a day?
Multiply your own pay per hour toggled on by the hours you plan to drive, then subtract car costs. At a hypothetical $17 per hour for 5 hours, that’s $85 before expenses. That’s an example, not a typical day, and block availability in your market affects how many hours you can get.
