Best Time To Grubhub - Lessons From My Real World Experience

Understanding the best time to Grubhub is one of the most important things you need to figure out if you want to maximize your delivery earnings. I’ve been delivering with Grubhub for years – more than 5 years at this point – so I’ve acquired a lot of personal experience on the best times to Grubhub.

In this post, we’ll look at the best time to Grubhub and how those times might change depending on what day it is. Hopefully, the information and tactics in this post can help you maximize your delivery earnings with Grubhub.

The Best Time To Grubhub

As with any food delivery or gig economy app, staying busy is the most important thing. If you’re sitting around doing nothing, you’re not going to be earning any money. That means it’s important to be strategic about when you work so you can maximize your time and your earnings.

As you likely expect, the busiest times for food delivery coincide with when people eat – typically during the lunch and dinner hours. That means, in general, the best times to Grubhub are from 11 am to 2 pm (during the lunch rush), and from 5 pm to 8 pm (during the dinner rush). These times coincide with the typical lunch and dinner rushes for most people.

While lunch and dinner are usually the best times to work, it can sometimes make sense to look at other hours too. This will mainly depend on your schedule and on where you live. If you have a schedule that only allows you to work during off-peak hours, you have to make do with what you have.

One thing to note is that, in my experience, working Grubhub during the morning hours usually isn’t worthwhile. I’ve rarely had busy mornings with Grubhub and most of the time, I find the delivery volume to be very slow in the morning.

Working during late-night hours could be worthwhile in some circumstances. However, there are downsides to working late at night – mainly that it’s not as busy and most of the restaurants that are open are fast food restaurants. Even worse, you often have to wait in long drive-thru lines since the lobbies for these restaurants usually close at night. The main reason I’d work late at night is primarily if that’s the only time I have available. Maybe you work all day and late-night delivery is the only option you have.

Best Days To Grubhub

In addition to the hours that you work, picking the right days to work matters too. Certain days on Grubhub are always going to be busier than others. And the best time and places to work will also differ depending on what day it is.

In general, here’s what I’ve noticed with my deliveries:

During weekdays, the lunch and dinner rush is typically the busiest. For the lunch rush, I recommend sticking to busy urban areas, primarily in downtown areas with offices. For dinner, busy residential areas will usually be the best spots to work (think hip, young professional neighborhoods or college campuses).
On weekends, I find that demand is generally steady throughout the day. The dinner hours will usually be the busiest, however.
If you’re looking to do late-night delivery, you’ll want to stick to working during the weekends, mainly on Friday and Saturday nights. These are usually the days when people are up late and ordering food. Be aware of the downsides with late-night delivery, mainly that the restaurants are usually fast food places and might require you to wait in the drive-thru line.
Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the slowest days of the week, in my experience. It’s not clear why, but I think it’s that people are starting the work week and aren’t “treating” themselves to Grubhub delivery the way they might treat themselves towards the end of the week.
Big events where people are at home watching TV are typically good for Grubhub drivers. You’ll usually find things are busier during large sporting events (like the Super Bowl), awards shows, or similar types of events where people are in front of the TV and ordering food.
Most holidays tend to be slow for Grubhub. The major holidays will be especially slow (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc). Summer holidays like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day also tend to be slow (people are either on vacation or are grilling food at home, rather than ordering delivery).

Final Thoughts

When you work is important. You can’t think of Grubhub like a normal job – you need to treat it like a business and be strategic about when you work. Only accept orders and work when it’s profitable for you.

I usually stick to working during lunch hours, mainly because I’m at home with my family during the dinner rush. On weekends, I can usually make solid money at any time, even during the middle of the afternoon (people seem to order more randomly during the weekend).

Hopefully, this post was helpful to you. For some additional strategies to maximize your Grubhub earnings, check out these other posts I’ve written on similar delivery services (the tactics and strategies there can be applied to Grubhub as well): How To Make $500 A Week With DoorDash and How To Make $1,000 A Week With Uber Eats.

More Recommended Ebike/Scooters

Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:

GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.

More Recommended Investing App Bonuses

For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:

M1 Finance ($10) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $10 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with $100 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
Moomoo (5 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 5 free stocks (usually worth around $75-$100) if you open an account using a referral link and deposit $2,000. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
Webull (5 free stocks) – Webull also gives you 5 free stock valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free stocks using Webull.
Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.

More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses

If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.

Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
Digital Federal Credit Union ($100) – Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $100 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a saving account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000. Check out my in-depth post on how to set this account up.
Upgrade ($100) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $100 referral bonus if you open an account and complete three debit card transactions. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Importantly, this bonus says that it’s now scheduled to end on January 31, 2023. As long as you get your account opened before January 31st, you should be eligible. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $100 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
SoFi Money ($275) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $250 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link.Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
Fairwinds Credit Union ($100) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
OnJuno ($60) – OnJuno is a fintech/neobank that is currently offering a $10 referral bonus if you open an account using a referral link and make a deposit of $50 or more. You will also get 1000 JCOIN. The 1000 of JCOIN is cryptocurrency. At the time I'm writing this, it'll be worth about $50. Check out my OnJuno referral bonus guide here.
Varo ($30) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $30 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
Albert ($150) – If you can manage to do a real direct deposit, Albert is an easy account you can use to earn a referral bonus. Here’s a review about Albert I wrote. And here’s a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Albert referral bonus.
Netspend ($20 + 5% Interest Savings Account) – Netspend is a company that provides 5% interest savings accounts. If you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get a $20 signup bonus once you make your first deposit into your Netspend account of $40 or more. That means you get a 5% interest savings account and a free $20 to start! Make sure to check out my in-depth guide on how to set up these accounts.

Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $100 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
Novo Bank. Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. It’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog.
M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $10 for opening an account.
Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.