What Do You Actually Make Driving for Gig Apps?
The app shows you gross pay. This calculator shows you the real number after mileage costs and taxes. Adjust the sliders to match your situation.
Pre-filled with typical DoorDash earnings. Adjust sliders to match your experience.
Uses the 2026 IRS mileage rate of $0.70/mile. SE tax of ~7.1% is included (approximated for self-employed contractors).
How this is calculated
The number gig apps show you is gross pay, before you account for the two biggest costs most drivers ignore.
Vehicle costs: The IRS mileage rate ($0.70/mile in 2026) is the standard proxy for the true all-in cost of operating a vehicle: gas, insurance, depreciation, and maintenance. Every mile you drive for a gig app costs you money, and that cost comes out of your gross before you see real income.
Self-employment tax: As a 1099 contractor, you pay both the employee and employer sides of FICA, roughly 15.3%, though half is deductible. This calculator adds an approximation on top of your income tax bracket.
The mileage deduction also reduces your taxable income, which is factored in. The result is a conservative but realistic estimate of your true hourly take-home.
How to improve your real rate
- Drive during surge windows. Dinner hours (5 to 9 PM) and weekends consistently pay more per order.
- Track every mile. Without records, you can't take the deduction at tax time. Apps like Stride or MileIQ do this automatically.
- Multi-app. Running DoorDash and Uber Eats simultaneously reduces dead time between orders and increases your effective hourly rate.
- Minimize dead miles. Long drives between pickup and dropoff kill your rate. Staying in dense areas keeps miles-per-order low.