How Much Can You Make With Instacart? (Hourly, Weekly...)
There are still plenty of skeptical people in this world who do not believe that it is possible to make money with side jobs. In reality, there are numerous success stories of gig workers who have made extra money and paid off debt.
Instacart is just one of many ways you can become a gig worker and make money while working independently.
In today's post, we'll help you better understand how much you make when working for Instacart, so you can decide if it's still worth working with the grocery delivery app.
Instacart is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies offering same-day delivery and pickup services to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada.
Instacart delivers everything you need - food delivery, home essentials and alcohol. You can even have your breakfast delivered to you with the Instacart app.
If you are curious like me, you are probably wondering when did Instacart start? The company was founded in 2012 by the entrepreneur Apoorva Mehta who graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Instacart is a successful YCombinator company. The company partners with more than 600 retailers including:
During the COVID-19 crisis, the demand for food delivery and grocery delivery has risen dramatically and Instacart is today an essential on-demand service for millions of families and individuals.
The instacart business model is pretty simple. Instacart makes money by charging commissions on all the orders it delivers for convenience grocery stores. They also generate revenue from subscription services, including Instacart Express, and with commission from partner fees.
While for customers, Instacart is a great way to get 1-hour grocery delivery, the San Francisco headquartered company offers earning opportunities for hundreds of thousands of gig workers.
Anyone can enter the gig economy, regardless of their skills or education. Since you will not provide passengers transportation, you do not even need to be a better driver.
So, if you are looking for a weekly pay job with the option to get paid the same day, Instacart is one option for you.
Instacart workers make their money through shopping and delivering. Basically, you get paid to shop for others.
Here is a detail of the main positions available on the platform:
This is a contract job. How much one can make varies depending on location, the number of items in the order and the number of orders you are able to complete.
Some Instacart highest paying orders may take you more than 2.5 hours to complete. Indeed, it is a job that requires time and patience to pick out the items and deliver them.
Instacart Shopper pay rate may be higher with tips and promotions.
You can find below with our earnings reports some examples of high pay orders.
We suggest you consult our complete guide with all the requirements to become a shopper.
Related Guide: Does Instacart hire felons
In-store shoppers are part-time Instacart employees.
You cannot find out the average pay. There isn’t an earnings estimator that you can use to give a spin and find out how much Instacart pays per hour exactly.
For thousands of grocery shoppers, the answer is “nothing,” or “very little.” However, there are many independent contractors who make a comfortable living off their side hustles. DoorDash is another company that offers similar opportunities. You can take a look at our complete comparison of Instacart vs DoorDash.
Shopping for Instacart isn’t a traditional part-time job or full-time job, so you don’t earn a guaranteed and set salary. However, job search sites still try to collect Instacart salary information to estimate wages.
While we cannot really talk about salary with Instacart, using our earnings stats we tell you that the Instacart wages and base pay for orders range between $5 and $7
So, can you make $200 a week? You can make $200 a week by working on the grocery delivery platform for 14 hours.
💡 PRO TIP: Job hunting sites try to attract people and make it as quick and easy as possible for them to find and apply for your open position. What Instacart pays is a gross income. Your paycheck is before taxes or other deductions. Take a look at our ultimate guide to Instacart taxes.
Experience is what matters most. Be sure to maintain a perfect rating since Instacart, like most apps, will closely monitor driver ratings. The app will offer the best drives to higher rated drivers first.
Instacart delivery can cancel you from the app if your rating falls below a certain threshold.
My key advice is to acknowledge that experience makes a big difference, just like in any other business.
Some drivers lose confidence after a few drives. Those who take time to learn see a significant increase in their earnings as they learn the tricks: the best places and areas, the best times to work during the day, during the week and during the weekend, and the most rewarding gigs.
As in any job, experience makes a huge difference.
If you want to make more money fast, we suggest you consult our guide with the best tips on how to make more with Instacart.
👀 Related Article: How Much Do Skip The Dishes Drivers Make
Instacart full service shoppers are independent contractors. One of the great advantages is that you can work on your own flexible schedule.
Since Instacart workers are their own boss, they do not have a set hourly rate. This means that there is not a set hourly wage or an amount of money that you receive for each hour you spend shopping with Instacart.
Overall, how much you earn as an Instacart shopper mainly depends on a number of factors:
Instacart workers' pay is related to the number of orders you fulfill. The more grocery orders you complete, the more you’ll make. Larger deliveries also pay more.
Unlike Dashers and Uber Eats drivers that can even deliver by bicycle and motorcycle, and so reduce expenses, Instacart drivers are required to own a vehicle or rent one through a delivery rental company.
Beyond fixed costs like annual registration fees, car insurance, you should consider the annual cost of running a car. Of course, some cars look like a great deal when you buy them, but they have high maintenance costs that limit how much you can make when delivering an order.
You can keep your car costs low if you do small maintenance by yourself. Learn how to change brake fluid.
Related Article: Why Is My Car Insurance So High
Instacart compensation does not include gas expenses. You cannot ignore the costs of the gas at the pump as it is an expensive one that you need to set money aside for. If you want to be a successful delivery driver, you should always keep track of your miles.
You have other opportunities to save gas money by using Getupside, with Safeway gas rewards or by using fuel-efficient driving techniques to lower your vehicle's fuel consumption.
Gas is one of the main expenses independent contractors have to face, and Instacart will not reimburse you. We suggest you take a look at our guide and learn how to find cheap gas.
It is not new: you earn less or more depending where you live. Instacart is currently available in more than 5,500 cities in North America.
Today, more than 85% of households in the U.S. and more than 70% of households in Canada can use the grocery delivery app to order online and get items they need delivered to their house.
You can check if Instacart is available in your area directly on their locations page on their website.
However, today only few companies are paying their employees or contractors with no consideration of where they live.
In the same way, Instacart's base pay is location-based. How much you make a week varies depending on your market. At Bestreferraldriver we are a team of gig workers working across the United States and even Canada. We compared our weekly earnings and for the same amount of hours they were pretty different.
For example, the Instacart personal Shopper in California earned $800 per week while the personal shopper in Kansas earned $600 per week.
Thanks to the success of digital platforms, the gig economy is providing new opportunities to people that do not have to only rely on their classic 9-to-5 job.
Marketplaces like Instacart facilitate direct and real-time connections between the customers who need a service performed and the workers willing to provide that service. The Instacart shopper app is the main work tool for shoppers as well as a tool for communication with the customer.
App-based platforms know that high customer service (and satisfaction) levels depend on having enough delivery guys being available when an order arrives.
While companies like Uber and Lyft are suffering from a labor shortage, as a result are offering incentives to new drivers and increasing fares to attempt to reduce the losses, the number of Instacart shoppers greatly increased from 130,000 in 2019 to 500,000 in 2020.
Today, one of the major Instacart Shopper complaints is that there are too many drivers.
Gig economy workers very similar to freelance workers in platforms like Upwork are in competition with each other.
Instacart started a system of waiting lists. However, some markets are saturated and this has a strong impact on your driver pay.
Very similarly to ridesharing and food delivery drivers, personal grocery shoppers are people businesses. You get paid for food shopping, but customer satisfaction always comes first. Small things matter (use the right gears) and tips can make a big difference at the end of the day.
Instacart Shoppers keep 100% of customer tips. You can increase your tip income by being on time and providing excellent customer service.
The default tip on the platform is 5%. There is a minimum suggested tip of $2 in the app’s checkout screen. If you want to learn more, we suggest you consult our guide to Instacart tipping .
PRO TIP: One issue faced by quite a few Shoppers is the tip baiting. Beware. Take a look at our complete guide to Instacart scams.
Summarizing: If you want to figure out how much an instacart shopper makes, you need to have a clear idea of the earning structure. The Instacart Shopper pay breakdown can be calculated by summarizing the following elements:
If you are an Instacart worker in California, it is important that you know that the PROP 22 has an Impact on your driver earnings.
California is one of the principal markets for the grocery app, which has almost 120,000 shoppers that take advantage of the benefits.
According to an Instacart press release, the employees' benefits and protections for California workers include:
Workers in California are guaranteed to earn at least 120% of California's minimum wage of $13. The guarantee is calculated per hour, most particularly for each hour gig-workers spend shopping and delivering. Additionally, shoppers get $.30 per mile driven each week.
To take advantage of healthcare benefits, you must work on the platform on average more than 15 hours per week. Here are some details:
Related Article: How Much Do GrubHub Drivers Make
In this article, we looked in detail at how much typical Instacart shoppers make. The average hourly pay for Instacart is $14. The actual rates the grocery app pays vary, usually between $5 to $7 per order.
Earning money when grocery shopping for Instacart is not that complicated. You can consider it a part-time gig which allows you to get paid to shop while keeping your day job.
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