Do Grubhub Drivers See Tip?

Do Grubhub drivers see the tip? You may be asking yourself this question if you’re a customer placing an order on Grubhub or if you’re a Grubhub Driver wondering how payouts work.

There are two reasons why this is an important question to answer. If you’re a customer, whether or not a Grubhub driver can see the tip you leave could impact how fast your order is delivered and what type of service you receive. The better tip you leave, the better service you’re likely to receive – but only if the driver can see your tip.

As a driver, whether you can see the tip or not will impact if you accept the order. If you’re receiving a good tip and a high payout, you’re probably more likely to accept the order. Also, more information is always better to help you make an informed decision about whether a delivery is worth it.

So here’s the answer. When it comes to whether Grubhub drivers see the tip, the short of it is that drivers technically don’t see the tip until after they complete the order. That being said, Grubhub drivers can still tell if the customer tipped based on the payout that Grubhub is offering for the delivery. If the payout is low, it’s likely the tip was low. By contrast, if the payout is high, it’s likely the customer left a good tip.

Let’s get into more detail about whether Grubhub drivers see tips.

How Grubhub Pays Drivers

Grubhub uses independent contractors to deliver orders, rather than employees. Drivers are paid per delivery, rather than by the hour.

The payout for every order consists of two parts:

The base pay that Grubhub is paying the delivery driver
The tip the customer leaves the delivery driver.

For example, if Grubhub offers a driver a $6 payout for a delivery and the customer tipped $4, that means Grubhub paid $2 to the delivery driver and the customer paid $4 to the delivery driver.

In the past, Grubhub paid a decent base pay, but recently has dropped their base pay to where it’s often in the $2-5 range. Much of the payout to the Grubhub delivery driver usually comes from the tips customers give them.

Now that you understand how Grubhub pays its delivery drivers, you’ll have a better understanding of whether or not Grubhub drivers can see tips.

Technically, Grubhub drivers can’t see tips before they deliver the order. However, in practice, it’s easy for most delivery drivers to figure out if a customer tipped or not.

That’s because Grubhub typically offers a low base pay, with most of the delivery payout coming from tips. If an order comes in with a payout of a few dollars, it’s easy to figure out that the customer likely didn’t tip (or left a small tip).

When you receive a Grubhub order, you see the full payout you’ll receive for the order. After completing the order, you can look in the Grubhub driver app to see what the breakdown of the order was (i.e. how much Grubhub paid and how much the customer tipped).

For example, here’s a recent delivery I completed on Grubhub. As you can see, it didn’t pay much (I only accepted it because I was working during non-peak hours and the order was going in the direction I wanted to go).

In this case, Grubhub paid $2 of delivery pay, made up of time and mileage. In this case, Grubhub pays based on how long they think the order will take to complete and the distance traveled between the restaurant and the customer. In addition to the delivery pay, the customer left a $2.12 tip. Together, this led to a $4.12 payout for this order.

When I saw the order, it only showed me that I would earn $4.12. Based on the low payout, I assumed the customer didn’t tip, but in this case, they did actually leave a solid tip for the order they placed.

Why You Should Tip Your Grubhub Driver

If you’re a customer reading this, you should be aware that while Grubhub delivery drivers can’t technically see your tip before they deliver the order, in practice, delivery drivers make decisions about whether to accept or reject orders based on the payout. Since Grubhub drivers can see exactly what they will earn for a delivery, if the tip is low, the payout is likely to be low as well, which makes it more likely drivers won’t want to accept the order.

In short, tips make up an important part of delivery driver earnings. As a customer, if you don’t tip, you’ll likely find that your order takes longer to be delivered since the payout for your order will likely be low. If you want your order delivered quickly, consider tipping generously.

Final Thoughts

Grubhub drivers can’t technically see the tip before they deliver the order, but in practice, most drivers can tell if the customer tipped based on the payout for the order.

If you are a Grubhub driver reading this, be strategic about how you approach your delivery requests. Only accept orders that are paying you enough to make it worth your time. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether the customer tipped. It just matters what you’ll earn for the order.

Grubhub is good here since they don’t play games with the payout. What you see is exactly what you’ll earn for the delivery.

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Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
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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 $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
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 $100 for opening an account.
Empower. 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.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.

How Grubhub Pays Drivers