Gig Driver Earnings: What Each Hour Pays After the Car
By PlainSight — Insightful Actions · Updated October 2026 · ~5 min read
The apps show what you earned. They don't show what the car cost to earn it. Fuel, wear, insurance and the value the car loses with every mile come out of the same trips, so the hourly figure in the app's weekly summary is always higher than the money that is really yours. The numbers below put the car back in, app by app and hour by hour, so you can tell which work is worth your time.
Where your numbers live
Each app lets you download your earnings statements or activity. Combine them in one sheet with a row per day (or per trip) for each app: the date, the platform, the type of earning (fare, tip, bonus) and the amount.
Add your hours online and the miles you drove; the odometer at the start and end of each shift is enough.
The numbers that tell you what you really make
1. Net per hour
What good looks like: known for each app, and above what you would accept from a job.
Take your earnings, subtract what the miles cost, and divide by your hours online, not just the hours with a passenger or an order. The IRS mileage rate is a fair stand-in for the full cost of driving a mile: 72.5 cents for January to June 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, after a rare mid-year increase for fuel prices. At 76 cents, a 30-mile hour costs $22.80 before you have earned anything.
An example, to show the arithmetic (not a benchmark)
| One week | App A (rides) | App B (delivery) |
|---|
| Earnings, tips included | $620.00 | $410.00 |
|---|
| Hours online | 25 | 20 |
|---|
| Miles driven | 480 | 390 |
|---|
| What the miles cost, at 76¢ | $364.80 | $296.40 |
|---|
| What the app shows per hour | $24.80 | $20.50 |
|---|
| Net per hour online | $10.21 | $5.68 |
|---|
2. Net per mile
What good looks like: comfortably above your cost per mile, on every app.
Earnings divided by every mile you drove for them, including the miles to pickups and back. An offer that pays $8 for a 12-mile trip is 67 cents a mile before costs; at the IRS rate it doesn't cover the car. Set a floor per mile and turn down the offers below it.
3. Active time
What good looks like: rising, because you work the hours and places where the demand is.
Minutes with a passenger or an order divided by minutes online. Waiting is unpaid. Compare your active share by hour of day and by area; most drivers find a few windows that pay far better and some that barely pay at all.
4. Each app's share of your earnings
What good looks like: you know which app pays best per hour where you drive, and no single app holds all your hours.
Split earnings and hours by platform. The apps change their pay formulas with little notice; a driver who runs more than one can move hours to whichever pays best this month.
5. Tips, and the new deduction for them
What good looks like: tips tracked apart from fares, every week.
Treasury's list of occupations for the new federal deduction on qualified tips includes rideshare drivers and goods delivery workers. The deduction applies for 2025 through 2028, up to $25,000 a year, and phases out above $150,000 of income ($300,000 filing jointly). Keep tips in their own column so the number is ready at tax time.
6. Bonuses and incentives
What good looks like: counted, and never what makes the week worth it.
Quests, streaks and surge add up, and they change week to week. Track them separately so you can see what your earnings would be without them.
Warning signs worth acting on
- An app whose net per hour trails the others for a month.
- Long hours online with a low active share.
- Miles not written down every day — the biggest deduction most drivers have.
- No tax set aside from earnings that have none withheld.
- Bonuses making up most of a good week.
Make it a weekly rhythm
Once a week, download each app's statement and your miles, and read net per hour and per mile by app and by time of day. Move next week's hours toward the best of them.
Let PlainSight read your earnings
Upload a sheet of your app statements and PlainSight breaks earnings down by platform and type, shows which app carries the week and how that is changing, and writes the next steps in plain English. Everything runs in your browser — your data never leaves your device.
See it on a live example →
Thinking of driving full-time? Read the free handbook for driving rideshare & delivery for a living — the market, the stages ahead, how each kind of work pays, and what to do first. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
- What file does PlainSight need from a driver?
- A sheet combining your apps' statements: date, platform, type of earning and amount. Hours online and miles driven make the per-hour and per-mile figures possible.
- Should I use the mileage rate or my actual costs?
- For taxes you can usually choose the standard mileage rate or your actual expenses, with rules about switching between them; an accountant can say which suits your car. For knowing what you really net, the mileage rate is a sensible stand-in for what each mile costs.
- Will I get a tax form from each app?
- Apps report on Form 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions in a year, or on Form 1099-NEC for some other payments. The income is taxable whether or not a form arrives.
- Is my data safe if I use PlainSight?
- Yes. Files are processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Optional AI features send only anonymized summary totals, never names or raw rows.
Sources
This guide is general information for drivers, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Figures described as “typical” or “common” are survey results and rules of thumb, not standards — always read your own numbers in context.