How much can you earn with Uber Eats?
Why there is no honest national average, what actually drives the number, and how to work out your own rate after costs.
Last checked 12/09/2026.
Every answer you will find to this question is a number someone made up or averaged from a handful of drivers in one city. The honest version is more useful: here is what the number is made of, and how to work out yours.
How Uber Eats pays
Per delivery, not per hour. Each offer is priced from pick-up and drop-off distance, expected time and current demand, with surge added when restaurants are busier than couriers. On top of that sit tips and occasional promotions for completing a number of trips in a window.
Because you are paid per job, your hourly earnings are really: jobs per hour × average job value. Everything that changes your income changes one of those two.
What actually moves the number
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hour of the day | Largest single factor. Lunch and 6 to 9pm are the earning windows; mid-afternoon can be close to dead. |
| City and zone | Restaurant density decides how far you drive between jobs. A dense city centre beats a spread-out suburb by a wide margin. |
| Weather | Rain reliably increases demand and surge, and reduces the number of couriers online. |
| Vehicle | A bike is cheap and quick in a congested centre. A car covers ground but costs far more per mile. |
| Multi-apping | Fills the gaps in quiet hours, at the cost of complexity. See the multi-apping guide. |
What comes off
Gross earnings are not take-home. For a car driver the deductions are:
- Fuel, typically 12p to 25p a mile depending on the car
- Hire and reward insurance, hourly or annual
- Vehicle wear, servicing and depreciation
- Tax and National Insurance on the profit
Against that, the mileage allowance is worth 55p for each of your first 10,000 business miles, which for a busy courier is a substantial reduction in taxable profit.
Working out your own rate
Take a fortnight of driving, and for each session record: hours online, total miles, and gross earnings. Then:
- Gross earnings, minus fuel (miles × your cost per mile), minus the insurance for those hours = profit before tax.
- Estimate tax on the profit share above your personal allowance.
- Divide by hours online.
That figure - earnings after costs and tax, per hour online - is the one to compare against any other job. It is also what JoltMile calculates per shift automatically, which is rather the point of it.
What to expect realistically
Two things are consistently true across drivers, and worth more than a fabricated average. First, gross and net are much further apart than new couriers expect, mostly because of miles. Second, when you work matters more than how fast you work: the same effort in a peak window and a dead window produce very different days.
Track a fortnight properly and you will know your own number, which is the only one that can tell you whether the work is worth it for you.
About the author
Issac Davies, Founder of JoltMile
Issac Davies drives for gig apps in the UK and built JoltMile to show drivers what a shift actually pays once fuel, insurance and tax come off. Every guide here is checked against HMRC and gov.uk guidance, and is information rather than tax advice.
Track this automatically
The JoltMile app works this out from your own shifts, and keeps the figures ready for Self Assessment. Free for 12 shifts a month.
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