How Much Do Uber Drivers Make in 2026? What 251 Million Real Trips Paid

Most answers to this question come from driver surveys or from Uber's own claims. We used the public record instead. New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) publishes every Uber and Lyft trip, with the fare, the tip and what the app paid the driver. It also counts how many drivers worked each month and for how many hours. Put together, that shows what drivers really earn, per trip and per hour.

All dollar amounts are before the driver's own costs and taxes unless we say otherwise. New York has some of the strictest pay rules in the country, so treat these numbers as the upper end for the US. We cover other cities further down.

How Much Do Uber Drivers Make Per Ride?

The typical Uber trip in New York paid the driver $16.11 before tips. The average was higher, $21.55, because a few long trips pull it up. Half of all trips paid between $9.46 and $27.45. One trip in ten paid less than $6.20.

Distance decides most of it. A trip under a mile paid $6.65 on average. A trip of 20 miles or more paid $85.72.

Source: RideWise analysis of NYC TLC trip records. Averages. "Per hour with a rider" counts only the time from pickup to drop-off.

Look at the per-hour column. Trips of 1 to 5 miles paid the least for the time they took, about $60 to $62 an hour. Long trips paid the most, $96 an hour, because highway miles go by fast.

Where the rider's money goes

On the average Uber trip the rider paid $34.09 before tip. The driver got $21.55. That is 63% of what the rider paid, or 77% of the $28.14 fare before taxes, fees and tolls. Our guide to how much of your fare goes to the driver covers Uber's cut in other cities.

One surprise: on about one Uber trip in six (17%), the driver was paid more than the rider's fare before fees. This can happen when the fare is low, for example after a promo, but the minimum pay rule still applies. On Lyft it happened on 8% of trips.

How Much Do Uber Drivers Make an Hour?

There are two honest answers, and the gap between them is the most important number in this article.

• Per hour with a passenger: $68.84 on Uber, tips included. This is the clock running from pickup to drop-off.
• Per hour on the road: $39.17 for Uber and Lyft drivers together. This includes the time between trips.

Drivers spent only 58% of their time on the road with a passenger. The rest went to waiting for a request and driving to the pickup. On average a driver finished 1.7 trips per hour on the road.

One catch: the TLC only counts hours in which a driver had at least one trip. Its 2025 pay rule counts all logged-in time, and by that measure drivers carry riders 53% of the time. So per logged-in hour, pay is closer to $36.

Uber's own figure counts a third kind of hour. Uber says the US median is "more than $30 an hour" including tips and incentives, but it counts only "the time drivers spend between accepting and completing a trip." Waiting for the next request is left out. So when you see an hourly figure, ask which hour it counts.

How Much Do Uber Drivers Make a Day, a Week and a Year?

The TLC counted about 87,000 Uber and Lyft drivers on the road each month. The average driver worked 21.8 days a month and 6.3 hours a day. That is close to full time. Here is what they made, before costs:

• Per day: $248
• Per week: about $1,246, over about 32 hours
• Per month: $5,398
• Per year: about $65,000

That lines up with the TLC's own check, which uses the middle driver rather than the average. Its February 2026 license review found "drivers' median gross weekly earnings ranged from roughly $1,100 to $1,400."

What you make depends on your hours. This table uses the New York averages:

RideWise estimate. $39.17 per hour on the road from TLC data, counting hours with at least one trip. Per logged-in hour, cut these by about 8%. Car costs as explained in the next section. Before income tax and self-employment tax.

So can you make $1,000 a week? In New York it takes about 26 hours on the road, or 34 hours if you count car costs. And $200 a day takes about 5.1 hours before costs.

What Uber Drivers Keep After Gas and Car Costs

Drivers pay for their own car, gas and insurance. Here is how we estimated those costs per hour:

1. In each hour on the road, drivers drove 8.6 miles with a rider. The TLC says 68.5% of all miles drivers drive are on a trip (2023–24 data). So a driver covers about 12.5 miles per hour in total.
2. Gas, maintenance and tires cost 29¢ a mile for an average new car, according to AAA's 2026 driving costs study (fact sheet). That is $3.64 an hour.
3. The full cost of a car, with wear, insurance and registration, is closer to the IRS business mileage rate: 76¢ a mile since July 1, 2026. It was 72.5¢ before that. The IRS raised it because of fuel prices. That is $9.53 an hour.

That leaves about $36 an hour after gas and upkeep, and about $30 after the full cost of the car. New York drivers can pay more than these averages: TLC licenses, for-hire insurance, and renting a TLC car often cost more than the IRS rate assumes.

Then come taxes. Drivers are independent contractors, so they pay self-employment tax of 15.3% plus income tax. The upside: drivers who deduct their business miles at the IRS rate usually owe tax on much less than their gross pay.

Do Uber Drivers Get Tips?

Yes, but not often. Only 19% of Uber trips in New York had a tip. Lyft riders tipped a bit more often, on 21% of trips.

When riders did tip, they were generous. The average Uber tip was $6.49 and the typical one was $4.86. Spread over all trips, tips added $1.25 per Uber trip and 5% of drivers' earnings. Lyft says tips made up 8% of driver earnings in 2023.

Drivers keep their tips. Uber says "There are zero service fees applied to your tips," and Lyft tells drivers to "Keep 100% of your tips." If you want to tip well, our tipping guide has typical amounts.

Best Times to Drive for Uber in New York

Per hour with a passenger, the early morning paid best. On weekdays, trips starting around 4 a.m. paid $85 an hour, and the average 4 a.m. Uber trip paid $24.34, more than the $21.55 average. The lowest was around 4 p.m., at $63.

But this chart only counts time with a rider. The busiest hour on weekdays was around 8 a.m., with 28,399 Uber trips on a typical weekday. At 4 a.m. there were only 5,765. At busy times you may wait less between trips. The trip records can't show the wait, so the early morning is not automatically the best shift. It is the best-paid time to be on a trip.

Airport trips

Source: RideWise analysis of NYC TLC trip records. Newark is in New Jersey, so the New York records hold only drop-offs there.

Uber pickups at JFK paid $57.44 on average. But pickups there start with a wait in the app's waiting lot, which is not in this data. For a rider's view of the same trips, see how much Uber costs to the airport.

By borough, Uber trips starting in Manhattan and Staten Island paid the most per hour with a rider ($73 and $72). Trips from Brooklyn and the Bronx paid the least ($63 and $64).

How Much Do Lyft Drivers Make?

A little less than Uber drivers, in New York. The typical Lyft trip paid the driver $15.23 before tips, and the average was $20.02. Uber paid about 8% more on the average trip. Lyft's average fare before fees was lower ($25.87 vs $28.14), partly because Lyft trips were shorter.

Over the year, both apps paid drivers about 77% of the fare before fees. In August 2026, Lyft's share was 76% and Uber's 78%.

Source: RideWise analysis of NYC TLC trip records. The TLC minimum is computed with the in-city rate in force each month.

Lyft changed its pay promise this year. Since May 1, 2026 it says "the total Lyft fee will never exceed 30% of what passengers pay in a month." That replaced its old promise that drivers earn at least 70% of rider payments each week, after outside fees such as insurance and taxes. Many drivers use both apps. Our Uber vs Lyft for drivers comparison covers bonuses and commissions in other cities.

Is Uber Driver Pay Going Up?

Slowly. Comparing August 2025 to July 2026 with the year before:

• Pay plus tips per hour on the road rose 2.3%, from $38.28 to $39.17.
• Prices in the New York area rose 3.8% over the same months (BLS consumer price index). So drivers' pay bought a little less.
• Uber's pay per trip rose 3%, a bit faster than what riders paid (up 2%).
• The number of drivers grew 6%, faster than trips (up 4%). On average, drivers spent less of their time with a passenger (59% down to 58%).

Pay in New York tracks the city's pay floor closely. The TLC raised its minimum rates by 3.36% on March 1, 2026, to $1.283 a mile plus $0.681 a minute. On the average trip, Uber paid 11% above the floor and Lyft 6%. Over two years, from July 2024 to July 2026, pay per hour on the road went from $37.05 to $38.33. It drops every January after a busy December.

How Much Do Uber Drivers Make Outside New York?

Less, in most places. No other US city publishes what drivers are paid on each trip, so here is what the best outside sources say:

• Uber: the US median is "more than $30 an hour" from accepting a trip to drop-off, with tips and incentives (January 2026).
• Gridwise (a driver app with data from 500,000+ drivers and couriers): Uber drivers earned a median of $21.18 per active hour in 2025, counting time on a trip or heading to a pickup, and $522 a week for 21.2 active hours.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median taxi driver at $20.24 an hour (May 2025). Its survey leaves out the self-employed, so it does not cover most Uber drivers.

The biggest difference between cities is the law. Only a few places set a minimum. This table shows what each rule guarantees for the same ride: 5 miles and 20 minutes with the rider, close to the average New York trip.

RideWise calculation from each official rule. California uses 120% of the $16.90 state minimum wage; cities with a higher minimum wage get more. California and Massachusetts also pay for the drive to the pickup, so their real minimum for this ride is noticeably higher, and they check the minimum over each pay period, not trip by trip. Seattle, Washington and Minnesota also set a minimum per trip.

New York's floor for this ride is $20.04, about twice California's. Seattle's is higher still. In states with no floor, such as Texas, Florida and Georgia, the app decides. That is why New York pay is the upper end, not a national average.

How Do Uber Drivers Get Paid?

• Weekly. Uber's pay week runs from Monday 4 a.m. to the next Monday 3:59 a.m. Earnings are usually deposited by Thursday.
• Instant Pay. Drivers can cash out up to six times a day (once a day in New York City, where it is free). Uber lists the fee as $1.25 to $1.75.
• Uber Pro Card. Uber's debit card pays out after each trip, for free.
• Lyft. Lyft sends weekly earnings every Tuesday. Express Pay costs $1.75 per transfer, with no fee in New York State, and the Lyft Direct card has no payout fee.

Renting a Car to Drive for Uber: Does It Pay?

You can drive without owning a car. Uber's Hertz program starts at "as low as $240 per week excluding taxes and fees", plus a $200 refundable deposit. Insurance, basic maintenance and unlimited miles are included. Hertz requires at least 30 trips a week to extend the rental. Lyft's Express Drive rentals include insurance and maintenance too, but Lyft says renters' base ride earnings are about 17% lower, and earnings go to the rental bill first.

Here is the simple math. At Gridwise's national median of $21.18 per active hour, $240 takes about 11 active hours each week before you earn anything for yourself. A rental is a way to try driving without buying a car. If you only drive a few hours a week, it rarely pays.

New York is a special case. New TLC vehicle licenses are only open to wheelchair-accessible cars, so most new drivers there rent, lease or buy a car that already has TLC plates.

Our Take: Is Driving for Uber Worth It in 2026?

1. Judge by the hour on the road. A $16.11 trip or a $69 "hour with a rider" sounds better than it is. In New York, the real number is $39 an hour before costs.
2. Count your car. In New York, gas and upkeep cost about $3.64 an hour, and the full cost of the car about $9.53.
3. Test your hours. Early mornings pay the most per minute with a rider but have few requests. Airport runs pay well, but count the wait in the lot. Rush hours pay less per minute and may keep you busier.
4. Know your local rules. New York, Seattle, the rest of Washington, Minnesota, Massachusetts and California have pay floors. Elsewhere, compare apps and track your own numbers.
5. Plan for change. Robotaxis now carry paying riders in several cities. Our Waymo vs Uber city guide shows where.

Riding instead of driving? The same trip data powers our Lyft vs Uber price study, and you can price any trip with the Uber price estimate calculator.