How Much Do DoorDash Drivers Make a Week? 10, 20 and 40 Hours in 2026
Short answer: about $240 a week is the national average across all Dashers, according to Gridwise. At its $12.43 gross per active hour, 20 active hours is about $249. After roughly $32 of gas you hold about $216. Count the full cost of the car at the IRS rate and very little of it is profit, which is also why most of it is tax-free if you log your miles.
"A week" is the number that decides whether dashing fits around a day job, so this page works in weeks. It uses one measured benchmark and shows the arithmetic, so you can swap in your own numbers.
A mileage log is the difference between a $6 and a $35 weekly tax bill.
The tracker logs each trip at the right 2026 rate and shows what to set aside each week. Excel, Sheets and a printable log.
Get the tracker – $9 one time →The numbers this page uses
Gridwise tracks pay across thousands of active Dashers. Its 2025 benchmark is $12.43 gross per active hour and $0.92 per mile, and it puts the average week at $240. Active hours only count time on an order, so the wait between orders is extra time you spend but do not get paid for.
Two costs come off that. Gas at about 30 mpg and $3.50 a gallon is roughly 12¢ a mile. The IRS standard mileage rate for self-employed driving is 76¢ a mile for July to December 2026 (72.5¢ before July). That rate is the IRS estimate of the whole cost of running a car: gas, tires, oil, repairs, insurance and the value the car loses.
At $12.43 an hour and $0.92 a mile you drive about 13.5 miles per active hour.
What a week pays at 5, 10, 20 and 40 active hours
| Active hours | Gross | Miles | Gas | Cash after gas | Car cost at 76¢ | Left after the full car cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | $62 | 68 | $8 | $54 | $51 | $11 |
| 10 | $124 | 135 | $16 | $108 | $103 | $22 |
| 20 | $249 | 270 | $32 | $216 | $205 | $43 |
| 40 | $497 | 540 | $65 | $432 | $411 | $86 |
Read the table in two columns. "Cash after gas" is what you can spend this week. "Left after the full car cost" is what the work earns once the tires, repairs and lost resale value catch up with you. For a paid-off older car the truth sits somewhere between the two, closer to the cash column. For a new car on a loan it sits closer to the right-hand column.
And a year
Fifty working weeks at 20 active hours grosses about $12,430. You drive about 13,500 miles doing it. At 40 hours a week that becomes about $24,860 gross and 27,000 miles. Most people forget the miles, and the miles are what the IRS lets you deduct.
The part that changes your tax bill
Dashers are self-employed, so you pay self-employment tax of 15.3% on 92.35% of your profit, plus income tax. Profit is gross pay minus the mileage deduction, and only if you can show a mileage log. At 20 active hours a week:
- With a mileage log, profit is $248.60 minus $205.37 of mileage, about $43. Self-employment tax on that is about $6 a week.
- Without a log, profit is the whole $249. Self-employment tax is about $35 a week, before any income tax.
That gap is about $29 a week, or roughly $1,450 over 50 weeks, in self-employment tax alone. The IRS wants the date, miles, destination and purpose of each trip. DoorDash only counts the miles from accepting an order to dropping it off, so the drive to your first pickup, the miles between orders and the laps around a hotspot are yours to record. The rules are in DoorDash mileage deduction in 2026 and the due dates in DoorDash taxes in 2026.
Log every mile at the correct 2026 rate: DoorDash Driver Mileage & Tax Tracker, $9 one time →
Is it worth it as a side hustle?
It depends on which column you live in. If the car is paid off and you would own it anyway, 10 hours a week puts about $100 in your pocket and most of it is not taxed, provided you keep the log. If you are paying off a car to dash, the right-hand column is closer to the truth and the money is thin.
Two things move the numbers more than anything else here. Tips are more than half of the pay on the Gridwise figures, so the hours you pick matter: dinner, weekends and bad weather. And the ratio of active to online time decides your real hourly rate. The table counts active hours only. For how base pay, tips and Peak Pay add up per order, see how much DoorDash drivers really make in 2026.
Check your own week
Put one real shift into the calculator below, with your pay, tips, miles and hours. Multiply by the shifts you plan to do. That number beats any average, including this one.
FAQ
How much do DoorDash drivers make a week on average?
About $240 gross, according to Gridwise's data across Dashers on every kind of schedule. At its $12.43 per active hour that is roughly 19 to 20 active hours.
How much do DoorDash drivers make a year?
At 20 active hours a week for 50 weeks, about $12,430 gross. At 40 hours, about $24,860 gross. Take off gas, car costs and tax to get what you keep.
How much do DoorDash drivers make per order?
Base pay starts at $2 and most orders pay $2 to $6 base before tips. DoorDash passes on 100% of tips, and tips make up more than half of total pay in the Gridwise data.
Do I pay tax on all of it?
You pay tax on profit, which is pay minus deductions. With the 76¢ mileage rate most part-time Dashers deduct most of what they earn, but only with a mileage log.
Log the miles. Keep the deduction.
The IRS wants a log with the date, miles, destination and purpose of every trip. This workbook does the math for you: each trip at the correct 2026 rate (72.5¢ before July, 76¢ after), your self-employment tax estimate, what to set aside each week, and the four 1040-ES due dates. Excel, Google Sheets and a printable log sheet. $9, one time.
- Never logged a mile? Start on the Mileage Log tab. Each row gets 72.5¢ or 76¢ from its own date.
- Dreading April? The Quarterly Taxes tab shows what to pay by each 1040-ES date.
- Not sure what you really make? The Dashboard gives net profit per hour and per mile.
- Kept your gas receipts? The Expenses tab records them and keeps them out of the mileage deduction, so nothing is counted twice.
Rather fill it in online? Milepad builds a printable IRS mileage log in your browser, free for up to 20 trips.
Sources: Gridwise, "How Much Do DoorDash Drivers Make" (weekly average, per active hour and per mile figures); IRS standard mileage rates for 2026; DoorDash Dasher Help Center on base pay and on-delivery mileage.