Your real hourly rate on a gig app in Canada is what the app paid, minus a vehicle cost you can explain, divided by all the time you were logged in. The number on the offer is gross for that trip. Provincial floors cover assignment or engaged time and leave the wait unpaid. This worksheet suits couriers and drivers who will log one shift before they decide the app is “worth it.” It does not publish a Canadian average, because the pay pages do not publish one.
Per-offer accept-or-decline math for food delivery is how much food delivery drivers make. Package blocks are package courier earnings. The logbook rules are vehicle expenses for delivery and rideshare.
Why is there no single gig hourly rate in Canada?
There is no single gig hourly rate in Canada because each app prices an offer, and your car and your wait are not in that offer. DoorDash’s Canadian pay article says base pay ranges from $2 to $10+ per offer when you earn per offer, and that it rises for longer, slower, or less popular offers. Promotions add on. Tips do not change the base. Uber’s Canadian delivery page says you see the pay before you accept, and it does not publish a per-kilometre rate card. Skip’s courier pay article says Transit Pay comes from estimated distance and time, and that tips are not used to subsidize it. A $2 base and a $10 base cannot be averaged into a national wage from those sentences alone.
| Input | What to record | Source if it is a rule |
|---|---|---|
| Offer pay | Base, promotions, and tips from the statement | The app’s pay page, above |
| Assignment or engaged time | From accept to complete, using the province’s definition | Ontario or B.C. page |
| Logged-in time | Online to offline, including the wait | Your log |
| Kilometres | Odometer, including the drive home | Mileage log |
| Vehicle stand-in | Your receipts, or 73 cents only as a benchmark | CRA allowance page |
How do Ontario and B.C. floors fit a real hourly rate?
Ontario and B.C. floors fit a real hourly rate as a minimum on part of the clock, not as the result of the division. In Ontario, the digital platform workers page requires at least the general minimum wage, checked per work assignment or per pay period. Tips and other gratuities are excluded. A work assignment generally starts when you accept it. It includes travel after the start and before the end. It does not include travel before the start or after the end. The Ontario minimum wage page sets that general rate at $17.95 an hour from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.
In British Columbia, the minimum wage page sets a separate engaged-time minimum and a per-kilometre amount for online platform delivery and ride-hail. The figures and the engaged-time definition are written up in when to quit a gig app. Other provinces do not have an equivalent rule on the pages this guide checked. Outside Ontario and B.C., the offer is the number, and your costs still come off.
A top-up, if the platform owes one, is calculated the way that province describes, often across the pay period. Do not invent a top-up from a single offer that mixes base pay and tips. Read the weekly statement.
How do you turn CRA per-kilometre rates into a cost line?
You turn the CRA rates into a cost line only as a temporary benchmark, then you replace them with receipts. For 2026, the allowance page prescribes 73 cents per kilometre for the first 5,000 kilometres in a province and 67 cents after that. Territories are 77 cents, then 71 cents. Finance Canada’s January 2026 announcement states the same provincial increase, one cent over 2025.
That rate is what the CRA treats as a reasonable allowance an employer pays an employee for the employee’s own car. Motor vehicle expenses for a self-employed driver are actual fuel, insurance, maintenance, and the business percentage from a log. Claiming 73 cents instead of receipts is the mistake the vehicle guide warns against. Using 73 cents in a notebook, labelled as a stand-in, shows whether the shift still works if the car’s full cost is in that neighbourhood. Your receipts might be lower or higher. When they exist, they win.
Step 1: Write the gross from the statement
Base, promotions, and tips. Do not type a number from someone else’s screenshot.
Step 2: Write assignment minutes and logged-in minutes separately
Assignment or engaged time is the floor’s clock. Logged-in time is the evening you gave up.
Step 3: Multiply kilometres by a cost you named
Either your own per-kilometre figure or, until you have one, $0.73 for provincial driving under 5,000 km in the year. Label which one you used.
Step 4: Subtract, then divide by logged-in hours
That quotient is the real hourly rate for the shift. Dividing by assignment hours hides the wait.
Step 5: Compare with the target you wrote down before the shift
If several normal weeks miss it, the next page is when to quit a gig app. A month-scale version of the same subtraction is which side hustles can reach $1,000.
Illustrative example
This is a teaching sketch. The $55 gross, the 40 km, and the 3 hours are assumptions. They are not a DoorDash, Uber, or Skip average.
Suppose one evening pays $55 including tips, you are logged in for 3 hours, assignment time is 1.5 hours, and you drive 40 km.
- Ontario floor on the assignment clock: 1.5 × $17.95 = $26.93. Tips do not count toward that floor. Because this sketch does not split the $55 into base and tips, it does not say whether a top-up is owed. The statement does.
- CRA stand-in: 40 × $0.73 = $29.20.
- Remainder: $55 − $29.20 = $25.80.
- Real hourly rate on logged-in time: $25.80 ÷ 3 = $8.60.
- The same remainder divided by assignment time: $25.80 ÷ 1.5 = $17.20, which sits near the legal floor and describes a different evening than the one you spent.
Suppose your own receipts support an assumed $0.25 per kilometre instead. Then 40 × $0.25 = $10, the remainder is $45, and $45 ÷ 3 = $15.00 per logged-in hour. The stand-in and the receipt are not the same fact. Write down which one you used. Neither figure is a forecast.
Keep the payouts in an account that is not the rent account, so the tax portion is still there in April. KOHO is one Canadian option. Any separate account works.
What changes for rideshare compared with delivery?
Rideshare changes the GST/HST clock. The CRA’s taxi and ride-sharing page requires registration from the first fare when you carry passengers for a platform. Food delivery uses the $30,000 small-supplier test unless you also carry passengers. A registered driver has GST/HST in the fare math. The rideshare driving guide is where that rule is applied. Do not subtract a delivery courier’s tax assumption from a passenger shift.
Insurance is the other change. Tell the insurer you are driving for a platform before the first shift, and get the answer in writing. This guide does not price a policy.
What mistakes hide a low hourly rate on gig apps in Canada?
The mistakes are dividing by assignment time, treating the CRA allowance as a tax deduction, and judging the app by one boosted night. Also common: ignoring the drive home, and comparing a gross offer with an employee wage that includes a vehicle you do not fuel.
DoorDash also describes an Earn by Time mode in select cities on the same pay article. Where it exists, the guaranteed rate is for active time, not for the whole login. Read the offer. It is still not the logged-in result until you subtract kilometres.
Which tax rules apply to gig pay after costs in Canada?
Gig pay is self-employment income on Form T2125. The vehicle claim is the business percentage of actual expenses, with the log. GST/HST follows the small-supplier test for delivery and the first-fare rule for passengers. Platform reporting is covered in tax on reselling and gig apps.
This is not tax, legal, or insurance advice. Recheck Ontario’s $17.95 rate each October, the CRA’s per-kilometre table each year, and the three app pay pages whenever you rely on a base-pay range. B.C.’s engaged-time figures are on the provincial page linked above.
Which guides sit next to this hourly worksheet?
The decision after the number is when to quit a gig app. Offer-level food delivery math is food delivery earnings. The three apps are compared in Uber Eats vs DoorDash vs Skip. Skip’s Transit Pay and deposit timing are in the SkipTheDishes courier review. The log is mileage tracking for the CRA. Tasks that stay on the phone, with smaller rewards and no fuel line, are phone side hustles.
What are the common questions?
How do I calculate my real hourly rate on a delivery app in Canada?
Add base pay, promotions, and tips. Subtract a vehicle cost for the kilometres you drove. Divide by every hour you were logged in, including waiting. Dividing only by time on an order hides the wait.
Does Ontario's gig minimum wage include waiting time?
No. The Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act applies the general minimum wage to a work assignment or a pay period. A work assignment generally starts when you accept it and does not include travel before it starts or after it ends. Tips are excluded. From October 1, 2026 the general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour.
Can I use the CRA's 73 cents per kilometre as my deduction?
No. For 2026 that rate is a prescribed allowance for employees in a province, for the first 5,000 kilometres. Self-employed drivers deduct actual expenses using a log. You can use 73 cents only as a labelled stand-in while you collect receipts. This is not tax advice.
Why can't I use DoorDash's $2 to $10 as an hourly wage?
DoorDash's Canadian help page describes base pay per offer, from $2 to $10 or more, plus promotions and tips. It is not an hourly wage. Your hourly rate still depends on how long you were logged in and what the kilometres cost.
When should I quit the app?
When the logged-in rate, after costs, stays under the target you wrote down for several normal weeks. The quit guide is the decision page. One slow night is not the test.
Which sources support this guide?
The rules, rates, and platform requirements in this guide are checked against these primary sources. Retail price ranges are labelled as ranges to verify locally, and they are not quotes.
- How Dasher Pay Works — DoorDash
- Become a delivery driver using Uber Eats — Uber
- How Courier Pay Works — SkipTheDishes
- Rights and protections for digital platform workers — Government of Ontario
- Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: Minimum wage — Government of Ontario
- Minimum wage (including online platform workers) — Government of British Columbia
- Automobile or motor vehicle allowances — Canada Revenue Agency
- 2026 automobile deduction limits and expense benefit rates — Department of Finance Canada
- Motor vehicle expenses — Canada Revenue Agency
- Charge and collect the GST/HST for taxi and ride-sharing services — Canada Revenue Agency