The DoorDash referral bonus is a bonus that DoorDash sometimes offers to new Dashers who sign up to Dash using a current Dasher’s referral link. The referral bonus changes regularly and will differ depending on where you live and who refers you. Typically, the bonus will require you to complete a certain number of deliveries within a specified number of days to earn a bonus.
In this post, we’ll go over everything you need to know about the DoorDash referral bonus, including how it works, what’s the catch with it, and how to share your DoorDash referral bonus link with others.
The DoorDash Referral Bonus – How It Works
DoorDash sometimes gives referral bonuses to Dashers who refer new Dashers to deliver for DoorDash. The referral bonus typically will offer new Dashers a signup bonus after completing a certain number of deliveries within a specified number of days (typically 30 to 60 days). Dashers that refer new Dashers will also get a bonus after the referred Dasher meets the bonus requirements.
For example, here’s an example of a referral bonus that was recently offered in my Dasher app:
For this bonus, the offer was a $600 bonus after completing 290 deliveries within 60 days. Doing the math, that comes out to an extra $2 per delivery if the referred Dasher completes the required 290 deliveries. If the person I referred met those requirements, I would also get a $900 bonus just for referring them.
The terms change regularly and sometimes DoorDash won’t offer any referral bonus. Sometimes, you’ll see large bonuses after completing a large number of deliveries. Other times, you’ll see smaller bonuses where you only need to complete a few deliveries. For example, here’s a bonus in my Dasher app where the referred Dasher only needed to complete 1 delivery to earn a $20 referral bonus:
What’s The Catch With The DoorDash Referral Bonus?
Earning the referral bonus is nice and on its face, earning extra money seems great. The issue is that the terms are often very difficult to meet.
For instance, when DoorDash offers a large bonus (usually of a few hundred dollars or more), you’ll usually need to complete hundreds of deliveries in a relatively short amount of time. If you’re delivering for DoorDash full-time, then that might not be a problem, but if DoorDash is a side hustle for you, completing hundreds of deliveries in a month isn’t going to be easy. If you’re multi-apping (which I highly recommend doing), completing hundreds of deliveries on DoorDash will be difficult too since you’ll be splitting your deliveries between multiple apps.
The large bonus also isn’t as good as it seems if you have to complete hundreds of deliveries. For example, the bonus I described in the previous section paid $600 after completing 290 deliveries. While $600 sounds like a lot, it comes out to an extra $2 per delivery. That’s nice, but it’s not as big a number as it might seem. And if you miss the requirements by even a single delivery, you miss out on the entire bonus, which can be devastating. Indeed, some people swear that DoorDash will limit your deliveries as you get close to meeting the bonus requirements, but I don’t think this is true in my experience.
In my view, it’s much better when DoorDash offers a small referral bonus for completing just a few deliveries. The bonus in the previous section that paid $20 for completing 1 delivery is better because it’s quick and easy to meet. It also comes out to an extra $20 for a single delivery.
Another good question is whether you should wait to sign up to be a Dasher when a referral bonus is being offered. My advice is that it doesn’t matter. If you’re looking to sign up to be a Dasher, you should just sign up regardless of whether there’s a signup bonus. Most of the time, the bonus is going to be too hard to earn or it’ll be small enough that it doesn’t really matter.
How To Share Your DoorDash Referral Bonus
That being said, it’s still worthwhile to share your DoorDash referral link with people who are interested in signing up to Dash. I wouldn’t rely on it as a reliable source of income, however, especially given how difficult it can be to meet the bonus requirements.
To find your referral link, open your Dasher app, then click on the “account” tab at the bottom of your app.
On the next screen, you’ll see your referral link at the top of the page. If there is no referral bonus being offered or you aren’t eligible to refer people, the link will say that there are no referrals or it’ll say you’re ineligible.
If there’s no bonus being offered in your area, it’ll say there’s no bonus. Sometimes, you might see a message saying you’re not eligible to refer people. If you see this, it’s because you haven’t been a Dasher for 30 days and you haven’t completed 30 deliveries yet. You’ll need to meet both those requirements before you’re eligible to refer other people to DoorDash.
Final Thoughts
The DoorDash referral bonus is a bonus that you can sometimes earn depending on when you sign up and which market you’re signing up to Dash in. Sometimes, it can be a nice way to earn some extra money. Most of the time, however, DoorDash makes it difficult to meet the bonus requirements, so for most people, it’s not worth worrying about too often.
If you can, it’s worth signing up using a referral link and it’s worth referring people if you have a DoorDash referral link. But I wouldn’t count on it as a significant source of income and I wouldn’t wait around for a good bonus. Think of it as a nice windfall if it’s there, but don’t worry too much about it.
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