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The Best Driving Apps to Make Money With Your Car

In this article

  1. The best driving apps to make money
  2. Do you have the drive?
  3. FAQs

Did you know you can get paid to drive? We've rounded up the best driving apps to make money with your car. Just download the app, sign up, get behind the wheel, and start earning!

A young woman uses her phone on the side of the street to book a rideshare.

Timothy Moore • June 30, 2023

Most American households have at least one car1, and for many, it’s a major expense. You’ve got to juggle monthly car payments, car insurance, fuel costs, and maintenance and repairs.

But what if you could use your car to make money?

Thanks to the advent of smartphone apps and the gig economy, there are multiple ways to make money with your car, whether you’re taxiing people to and from the airport, delivering a fast food order, or even renting out ad space on your bumper.

Read on to find out how to make money with your car – and put that extra money toward your monthly car expenses.

The best driving apps to make money

The easiest way to make money with your car is by signing up to drive through a driving app. Basic requirements typically include a driver’s license and proof of insurance, but some rideshare apps, like Uber and Lyft, also have vehicle age limits.

In addition, you usually need to have a license for one to three years to qualify to drive for most driving app services.

Here are our favorite driver apps to make money:

1. Uber and Lyft

Rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft are among the most common ways to get paid to drive. The demand for rideshare drivers remains high, making it a viable source of additional income – or even a primary source of income for some drivers.

With Uber and Lyft, you can choose your hours and get paid quickly. Uber offers Instant Pay, which lets you cash out five times a day.2 Lyft offers fast payment methods as well, through Express Pay or a Lyft Direct debit card.3

How much money you earn depends on where you live, the time you’re driving, and the distance of your fares. The average is somewhere between $17 and $29 per hour.4 In addition to the income you earn from the app, drivers can also earn tips from their passengers.

2. Doordash, UberEats, and GrubHub

If you like the idea of driving apps to make money but don’t love the idea of strangers getting in your car, you still have options. Food delivery apps like DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub let you pick up various orders from local restaurants and deliver them to people’s homes.

It’s like being a pizza delivery person – but you can set your hours and aren’t tied to a specific pizza joint.

Like with Uber and Lyft, you’re responsible for paying for gas and car repairs to your vehicle, but some of these driving expenses qualify as business deductions when tax season rolls around.5

Earnings are a little lower than they are for rideshare drivers, somewhere between $18 and $27 an hour.6

3. Instacart

Since the pandemic, grocery delivery services have seen exponential growth.7 Apps like Instacart rely on contractors to pick groceries off the shelves and deliver them to people’s homes.

While you can work solely as a shopper, you’ll have more flexibility if you also deliver groceries (Instacart calls this a “full-service shopper.”) You can keep all the tips you receive, and you can cash out in as little as 2 hours, once you’ve completed five batches.8

Shoppers who also make deliveries earn an average of $24 an hour.9

4. Amazon Flex

It’s common now to see an Amazon Prime van whenever you drive through a neighborhood. But did you know Amazon relies on more than just its own fleet of vehicles to deliver your packages?

You can get paid to drive for Amazon as a contractor through Amazon Flex and make between $18 and $25 per hour.10

Amazon is actively recruiting in many cities,11 but even if your city’s not on the list, you can create an account and get a notification when Amazon Flex expands to your location.

5. TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is one of the best driving apps to make money – but you can do much more than drive to earn extra cash. The app allows you to find small odds jobs you enjoy at your chosen pay rate.

Taskers are paid to deliver items, run errands, help move (or assemble) furniture, perform handyperson work, and more.

TaskRabbit uses direct deposit, so you’ll need a valid checking account to earn money.

6. CarVertise and Wrapify

Wondering how to make money with your car more passively – that is, without actively driving someone or something to a specific destination? Consider advertising with your car. Some companies will pay you hundreds per month to drive around with their ads on your vehicle.

CarVertise and Wrapify are both leading companies in this space. How much you earn depends on whether you wrap your entire car or showcase a partial ad.

For example, Wrapify says you can make between $181 and $280 a month for wrapping roughly half your car. And if you go all in with a 360-degree wrap, you could make up to $452 a month.12

Some brands will require you to drive a certain number of miles during the ad campaign. This makes it an excellent opportunity for someone who already drives a lot or commutes to work daily. This could be a doubly lucrative venture if you’re a food delivery driver for Uber Eats or DoorDash.

7. Turo

Airbnb lets you rent out part or all of your home to people who need a place to crash. Turo provides the same type of service with cars.

If your car spends more time in your driveway or an apartment parking lot than on the road, you could rent it out to people who need to borrow it temporarily – and make some good money.

Turo makes it easy and even offers $750,000 in liability insurance. According to Turo, you can make an extra $10,516 a year on average by renting out a single car.13

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Do you have the drive?

Some of the best driving apps to make money offer unique and simple revenue streams to earn money in your free time. Drive for Uber, deliver food with DoorDash, or advertise a business or product with a custom wrap job on your car. You just need some spare time and, of course, a car.

While it’s great to get paid to drive – especially if you like being behind the wheel – it’s not the only way to earn extra cash. Try out any of our other side hustle ideas to add more money to your monthly budget.

FAQs

What is the driving app that gives you money?

Several driving apps give you money – and pay out quickly – just for driving passengers or delivering goods. Uber and Lyft are the top rideshare apps, and you can get into delivery services with apps like DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, Instacart, and Amazon Flex.

How can I make money by driving?

There are several ways to make money with your car, including transporting passengers (Uber and Lyft); making deliveries (DoorDash, UberEats, GrubHub, Instacart, and Amazon Flex); completing tasks (Task Rabbit); advertising (CarVertise and Wrapify); and even renting out your car (Turo).

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1 Information from Forbes as of June 23, 2023: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/car-insurance/car-ownership-statistics/

2 Information from Uber as of June 13, 2023: https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/

3 Information from Lyft as of June 13, 2023: https://www.lyft.com/drive-with-lyft

4 Information from Glassdoor as of June 13, 2023: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/rideshare-driver-salary-SRCH_KO0,16.htm

5 Information from TurboTax's “Tax Tips for Uber Driver-Partners" as of June 13, 2023: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/tax-tips-for-uber-drivers-understanding-your-taxes-/L7sbLCSc4

6 Information from Glassdoor as of June 13, 2023: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/food-delivery-driver-salary-SRCH_KO0,20.htm

7 Information from Morris Anderson as of June 23, 2023: https://www.morrisanderson.com/pandemic-sparks-exponential-growth-in-grocery-delivery-services/

8 Information from Instacart as of June 13, 2023: https://shoppers.instacart.com/instacart-jobs-in-cincinnati-oh

9 Information from Indeed as of June 13, 2023: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Instacart-Shoppers/salaries

10 Information from Amazon Flex as of June 13, 2023: https://flex.amazon.com/

11 Information from Amazon Flex as of June 13, 2023: https://flex.amazon.com/recruiting-cities

12 Information from Wrapify as of June 13, 2023: https://www.wrapify.com/drive/

13 Information from Turo as of June 13, 2023: https://turo.com/us/en/list-your-car

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