How an Uber Eats fare is built
Uber’s help centre describes a courier’s earnings for a delivery as:
Base fare + trip supplement + promotions + tips = total
- Base fare covers the pick-up, the drop-off, and the time and distance of the trip.
- Trip supplement is added when the whole trip, including getting to the restaurant, takes longer or goes further than expected.
- Promotions such as Boost and Surge add to the fare at busy times or in busy areas. Quests pay a bonus for completing a set number of trips.
- Tips are separate from the fare, and Uber Eats says couriers keep 100% of them.
The help centre also says an Uber service fee is taken from the gross fare before your earnings are worked out. In practice the figure that matters is the one on the trip request, which already shows what you will be paid before you accept.
The Uber Eats pay floor
Uber Eats and the GMB union have agreed minimum fees for couriers. The GMB says these apply to Uber’s estimated time from accepting a trip to dropping it off, and that every order is expected to meet the floor on its own rather than as an average over a day or week.
| Vehicle | April 2025 | Proposed 2026 | 20-min trip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bicycle | £12.30 | £12.80 | £4.10 |
| Motorbike or scooter | £14.10 | £14.70 | £4.70 |
| Car | £15.90 | £16.55 | £5.30 |
The last column is the minimum for a trip Uber estimates at 20 minutes, at the 2025 rates. In July 2026 the GMB announced that it and Uber Eats had proposed the higher rates in the middle column, rises of 4% to 4.3%. It did not give a start date, so check your trip requests to see which rates apply to you. The GMB’s list names bicycle, motorbike and car couriers and does not mention e-bikes separately.
Why the floor is not your hourly pay
The floor only counts the minutes Uber estimates for each trip. It does not count time waiting for the next request, riding back to a busy area, or a long wait at a restaurant that Uber’s estimate did not expect. So your pay for each hour you are online depends on how many trips you get.
At an average fare of £4, before tips and promotions:
| Deliveries per hour online | Fares per hour |
|---|---|
| 1.5 | £6.00 |
| 2 | £8.00 |
| 2.5 | £10.00 |
| 3 | £12.00 |
| 3.5 | £14.00 |
A bicycle courier who does two 20-minute trips an hour can be paid at least the floor on both trips and still earn only about £8.20 for that hour, because the other 20 minutes are unpaid.
Same week, four vehicles
This is our own example. A courier does 70 deliveries in 28 hours online, 3 miles each, at £4 a fare, plus £12 of tips and £15 of promotions: £307.00 a week, or £10.96 an hour before costs. We keep the fares the same for every vehicle to show the effect of running costs. In reality, the pay floor for cars and motorbikes is higher, so their fares on longer trips may be too.
| Vehicle | Running cost per mile | Costs a week | Keeps per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bicycle | 3p | £9.30 | £10.41 |
| E-bike | 5p | £13.50 | £10.26 |
| Petrol scooter Includes £15 a week for delivery insurance | 15p | £49.06 | £9.21 |
| Petrol car Includes £20 a week for delivery insurance | 26p | £76.71 | £8.22 |
On the same fares, the car keeps £2.19 an hour less than the bicycle. Cars earn their keep on longer suburban trips that bicycles cannot do quickly. Try your own week in the Uber Eats calculator and switch the vehicle to compare.
Tips and promotions
Customers can tip when they order and can add more after the delivery. Uber says tips go to the courier in full and are added on top of the fare. Promotions appear in the Discover section of the Driver app. A Quest that asks for extra trips is only worth chasing if those trips come in your normal hours; two extra slow hours can cut your hourly rate even with the bonus.
When Uber Eats pays you
- Weekly: earnings you have not cashed out by Monday at 4am are paid into your bank account by the end of that week.
- Instant cash-out: up to five times a day if you are eligible, for a 50p fee each time, once your balance is at least £1.
- Two-day cash-out: no fee listed, paid within one to two working days.
What you need to start
Uber’s UK sign-up offers three vehicle types: bicycle, motorbike or scooter, and car. Couriers in the UK must pass a background screening, and the documents you upload depend on your vehicle. If you deliver by car, you need hire and reward insurance for food delivery on top of your normal cover. Zego, for example, quotes pay-as-you-go cover from 80p an hour and annual policies from £1,023 a year, for drivers with a good record.
Uber Eats couriers are self-employed. The 2021 Supreme Court ruling that gave Uber’s private-hire drivers worker status was about drivers who carry passengers, not food couriers, so Uber Eats couriers rely on the pay floor rather than a legal minimum wage.
Tax
You pay tax on your profit through Self Assessment once your trading income is over £1,000 a year. For 2026/27, motorbike and scooter riders can deduct HMRC’s simplified rate of 24p a mile, and car drivers 55p a mile for the first 10,000 miles. Bicycle and e-bike riders cannot use simplified mileage, so they deduct their real costs or the £1,000 trading allowance.
Questions people ask
How much does Uber Eats pay per delivery in the UK?
There is no fixed rate. Each fare is shown before you accept it and is based on pick-up, drop-off, time and distance, plus any promotions and tips. The GMB pay floor sets a minimum of £12.30 an hour by bicycle, £14.10 by motorbike and £15.90 by car for Uber’s estimated trip time.
What is the Uber Eats pay floor?
From 1 April 2025, the minimum is £12.30 per estimated hour on trip by bicycle, £14.10 by motorbike and £15.90 by car. In July 2026 the GMB announced proposed rises to £12.80, £14.70 and £16.55.
Do Uber Eats couriers get paid for waiting time?
No. The pay floor covers Uber’s estimated time from accepting a trip to dropping it off. Time waiting for the next trip is not paid.
Do Uber Eats drivers keep all their tips?
Yes. Uber Eats says 100% of tips go to the courier and are added on top of the fare.
How much does Uber Eats Instant Pay cost?
Instant cash-out costs 50p each time, up to five times a day for eligible couriers. Weekly payment and two-day cash-out have no fee listed.
Sources
- Uber Help: How are delivery fares calculated?
- GMB: Uber Eats noticeboard (pay floors, 2025 and 2026)
- Uber UK: How payments work
- Uber Eats UK: Tipping your delivery person
- Uber: Your earnings, explained (promotions)
- Uber UK: Deliver with Uber Eats
- Zego: What insurance do I need for Uber Eats? (21 November 2025)
- Lexham Insurance: How much do Uber Eats riders make in the UK (Supreme Court ruling)
- GOV.UK: Simplified expenses for vehicles
Calculators
- True hourly pay calculatorAny gig or delivery app, after costs and tax
- Evri pay calculatorYour real hourly pay after costs
- Amazon Flex pay calculatorBlock pay after fuel and extra time
- Deliveroo earnings calculatorOrders, tips and logged-in hours
- Uber Eats earnings calculatorFares, boosts and costs per hour