Courier delivery costs - checked October 18, 2026
Uber Direct lists delivery from $6.99 on Uber's own page, and from US$7.99 on its US Uber Eats merchant page. DoorDash Drive On-Demand lists $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery. Neither takes a commission or a monthly fee. Toast publishes what its restaurants pay: $6.99 with Uber Direct and $7.49 with DoorDash Drive for a delivery under 5 miles.
The two services
Both are delivery-only services. The customer orders from your own website, app or phone line, and a courier from Uber or DoorDash picks the order up and drives it over. You pay per delivery, not a percentage of the order. That is the difference from the Uber Eats and DoorDash apps, where the customer orders inside the app and you pay a commission.
Uber describes it as a fee per delivery with 0% commission and pricing “as low as $6.99 per delivery based on distance, speed of delivery, and region.” Couriers come from Uber's network. Orders can be delivered in under 2 hours, the same day, or scheduled up to 30 days ahead, and you do not need an Uber Eats listing. Source: Uber Direct.
DoorDash says it lets “Dashers fulfill delivery orders from your website or app. Pay a flat fee per order and we'll handle all the logistics of delivery.” The listed price is $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery order, with no signup, subscription or termination fees. Source: DoorDash Drive On-Demand.
Side by side
Every line is read from Uber's, DoorDash's or Toast's own pages. Where a page does not cover a point, the table says so instead of guessing. Your own quote can differ: both companies price by market and by how you connect.
| What you are comparing | Uber Direct | DoorDash Drive On-Demand |
|---|---|---|
| Listed price | "As low as $6.99 per delivery" on Uber's Uber Direct page. Uber's US Uber Eats merchant page lists "as low as US$7.99". | $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery order. |
| What moves the price | Distance, speed of delivery, region, order type and how you connect (channel partner, API or dashboard). | A flat fee per delivery inside the listed range. The product page does not say what moves it within the range. |
| Commission and monthly fees | 0% commission. No startup costs, commissions or monthly minimums. | No signup, subscription or service termination fees. |
| Published distance schedule (through Toast) | $6.99 under 6 miles, $8.74 from 6 to 8, $9.49 from 8 to 9, $9.99 from 9 to 10. | $7.49 within 5 miles, plus $0.50 for each mile above 5, up to 10. |
| How Toast measures distance | Straight line, "as the crow flies". | Driving distance. |
| Delivery radius | Typically 10 miles on the US page, up to 20 miles on Uber's main page. Toast's default is 10. | Set by DoorDash and dynamic. Basic-plan merchants typically reach nearby customers; Plus and Premier get a larger radius. Toast's default is 10. |
| Delivery windows | Under 2 hours, same-day, or scheduled up to 30 days ahead. | On demand. Scheduling is not covered on the pages read. |
| Tips | Through Toast, a 20% tip is pre-selected at checkout. The guest can change it and 100% goes to the driver. | 100% of customer tips go to the Dasher. |
| How you are billed | Through Toast, the fee, tip and a Toast service fee are withheld from card payouts. The Uber pages read do not detail billing. | An itemized DoorDash invoice each month (ACH, wire or check, with card and autopay in the invoice portal), or an invoice from your ordering provider. |
| How you connect | Your POS or order system (over 90 integration partners), the Uber Direct API, or the Uber Direct Dashboard for manual orders. | Your online ordering provider (DoorDash names Square, Toast and Olo), DoorDash's developer tools, or requesting Dashers in the Merchant Portal. |
| Customer support | Brand-managed (you handle customers), or Uber-managed, where additional charges may apply. | Customers can get delivery status updates by text. Support options are not covered on the pages read. |
| Marketplace listing needed? | No. Uber says you do not have to be listed on Uber Eats. | Not stated. Self-serve onboarding is for restaurants only. |
The two Uber pages disagree on the starting price: $6.99 on merchants.uber.com and US$7.99 on Uber's US Uber Eats merchant page, whose footnote says rates vary by order type, distance, speed, integration type and region. Plan on the higher figure until you have a quote.
Distance
Neither Uber nor DoorDash publishes a US per-mile schedule on the pages read. Toast does, for its restaurants that use Toast Delivery Services, which runs on Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive. These are Toast's rates, read October 18, 2026, before any regulatory fee.
| Delivery distance | Uber Direct (straight line) | DoorDash Drive (driving) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 miles | $6.99 | $7.49 | Uber $0.50 less |
| 5 miles | $6.99 | $7.49 | Uber $0.50 less |
| 7 miles | $8.74 | $8.49 | DoorDash $0.25 less |
| 10 miles | $9.99 | $9.99 | Same |
Toast prices Uber Direct on the straight-line distance and DoorDash Drive on the driving distance. A straight line is never longer than the road route, so the same address can sit in a cheaper Uber band than the table row suggests. A customer 7 miles away by road may be under 6 miles in a straight line, which is $6.99 with Uber Direct.
| Place | Uber Direct | DoorDash Drive |
|---|---|---|
| California | +$2.00 | +$2.00 |
| New York City | +$3.00 | +$2.99 |
| Seattle, WA | +$5.00 | +$4.99 |
From Toast's schedule. Both default to a 10-mile radius, except in New York City.
One order, four ways
The same $35 order, delivered by a marketplace app, by Uber Direct, by DoorDash Drive and by your own driver. Marketplace rates are the 25% Plus plan on both apps, with processing included (DoorDash read September 5, 2026, Uber Eats read October 3, 2026). Orders on your own site pay Stripe's 2.9% plus $0.30. Courier fees are Toast's base rates. Tips go to the driver and are left out.
| How the order is delivered | You pay all of delivery | Guest pays a $3.99 delivery charge |
|---|---|---|
| Uber Eats or DoorDash Marketplace, Plus plan, the app's driver | 25% = $8.75, processing included. You keep $26.25. | Not your charge to set. The app sets and keeps the customer fees. You keep $26.25. |
| Your own site, Uber Direct courier ($6.99) | $6.99 + $1.32 processing = $8.31. You keep $26.69. | $6.99 + $1.43 processing - $3.99 collected = $4.43. You keep $30.57. |
| Your own site, DoorDash Drive courier ($7.49) | $7.49 + $1.32 processing = $8.81. You keep $26.19. | $7.49 + $1.43 processing - $3.99 collected = $4.93. You keep $30.07. |
| Your own site, your own driver, one order per trip | $4.56 mileage + $6.21 wage + $1.32 processing = $12.09. You keep $22.91. | $4.56 + $6.21 + $1.43 - $3.99 collected = $8.21. You keep $26.79. |
| Your own site, customer picks up | $1.32 processing. You keep $33.68. | No delivery charge. You keep $33.68. |
Toast adds a $3.99 delivery service charge by default to offset the Uber Direct or DoorDash fee, and lets the restaurant raise or lower it. It is used here as a real example of a customer delivery charge. With the charge, processing is on $38.99, which is $1.43.
A 6-mile round trip at the IRS 2026 business rate of 76 cents a mile is $4.56. Twenty minutes of a driver's time at $18.64 an hour is $6.21. The wage is the BLS May 2025 median for driver/sales workers, $38,770 a year, over 2,080 hours, before payroll taxes and insurance. The 20 minutes is an assumption: time your own trips. A driver who carries two orders per trip roughly halves the cost per order.
Break-even order size
A commission grows with the order. A courier fee does not. These are the order subtotals above which the courier fee plus Stripe processing costs less than each marketplace plan, with the restaurant paying all of delivery at the base rate ($6.99 Uber Direct, $7.49 DoorDash Drive).
| Marketplace plan | Uber Direct costs less above | DoorDash Drive costs less above |
|---|---|---|
| 15% (DoorDash Basic) | $60.25 | $64.38 |
| 20% (Uber Eats Lite) | $42.63 | $45.56 |
| 25% (DoorDash Plus, Uber Eats Plus) | $32.99 | $35.25 |
| 30% (DoorDash Premier, Uber Eats Premium) | $26.90 | $28.75 |
Worked from fee + 2.9% of the order + $0.30 = the plan rate times the order. A customer delivery charge lowers every break-even point. A longer trip, or a regulatory fee, raises it.
A real month
200 delivery orders at a $35 subtotal, about 3 miles each. The marketplace columns are the 25% Plus plan and the 30% top plan (DoorDash Premier, Uber Eats Premium). The courier columns add ordering software for your own site: Orderitto Starter is $149 a month after a $799 setup fee, from Orderitto's pricing page on October 18, 2026. Uber asks restaurants with more than 200 monthly orders from their own channels to talk to its team, so at this volume ask for a quote.
| Line | Marketplace, Plus 25% | Marketplace, top plan 30% | Your site + Uber Direct | Your site + DoorDash Drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commission | 200 x $8.75 = $1,750 | 200 x $10.50 = $2,100 | $0 | $0 |
| Courier fees | Included | Included | 200 x $6.99 = $1,398 | 200 x $7.49 = $1,498 |
| Card processing | Included | Included | 200 x $1.32 = $263 | 200 x $1.32 = $263 |
| Ordering software (Orderitto Starter as the example) | $0 | $0 | $149 | $149 |
| Month total, you pay all of delivery | $1,750 | $2,100 | $1,810 | $1,910 |
| Month total, guests pay a $3.99 delivery charge | $1,750 | $2,100 | $1,398 + $286 processing + $149 - $798 = $1,035 | $1,498 + $286 processing + $149 - $798 = $1,135 |
If you pay every delivery yourself on a $35 order, a courier on your own site costs about the same as a 25% marketplace plan, and about $290 less a month than a 30% plan with Uber Direct. The saving comes from three things the marketplace does not give you: a delivery charge you set ($775 a month in this example with Uber Direct), bigger tickets, where the flat fee stays flat, and the customer's name and number, which stay yours. Pickup orders on your own site pay only processing.
Run my delivery numbers in a 15-minute demoWhich one
Before you sign up
Most restaurants reach Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive through their ordering system, and the system can change the price. Toast, for example, withholds the delivery fee, the tip and a Toast flat service fee from payouts, and the page read does not state that service fee's amount.
If your system does not connect to either courier, you can still book deliveries by hand in the Uber Direct Dashboard or in the DoorDash Merchant Portal.
Where Orderitto fits
A branded ordering website on Starter ($149 a month), or a website plus your own mobile app on Pro ($249 a month), with no per-order commission, so a $35 order costs about $1.32 in card processing. Orderitto's Smart Delivery Zones let you define delivery areas by distance or ZIP code, with your own fees and minimums for each zone.
Bring your delivery addresses and your last marketplace statement to a demo. We will work out which orders your own drivers should take, where a courier makes sense, and what a customer delivery charge would cover, using the rates on this page.
Cited numbers
Uber lists Uber Direct at "as low as $6.99 per delivery" based on distance, speed and region, with 0% commission and no startup costs or monthly minimums. Uber's US Uber Eats merchant page lists the same service from US$7.99.
Source: Uber Direct (Uber for Business) · 2026DoorDash lists Drive On-Demand at $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery order: a flat fee per delivery with no signup, subscription or termination fees, and customer tips passed 100% to the Dasher.
Source: DoorDash Drive On-Demand · 2026Toast Delivery Services publishes both schedules: Uber Direct is $6.99 for orders under 6 miles in a straight line, and DoorDash Drive is $7.49 within 5 driving miles plus $0.50 per extra mile up to 10.
Source: Toast Support: Toast Delivery Services · 2026DoorDash's marketplace delivery commission ranges from 15% on Basic to 30% on Premier; pickup is listed separately at 6%.
Source: DoorDash Merchant Pricing (public site) · 2026Uber Eats charges US restaurants a 20% (Lite), 25% (Plus), or 30% (Premium) Marketplace Fee on delivery orders, with Lite reduced to 15% in 13 listed markets including New Jersey and New York City.
Source: Uber Eats Merchant Pricing · 2026Stripe's standard online card processing fee is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction — the platform-agnostic baseline cost of accepting card payments online.
Source: Stripe Pricing · 2026Lite, Plus and Premium fees, the Uber One surcharge, the 15% city rates and Webshop.
DoorDash Basic, Plus and Premier fees, pickup at 6%, and the payout on a real order.
Basic 5%, Plus 15%, All-access 20%, the delivery fee from 10%, and processing on top.
Use marketplaces for discovery and your own ordering for repeat customers.
Every delivery-app fee in one place, and how to avoid paying it on regulars.
Flat monthly plans with no per-order commission and no guest fee.
Uber Direct is Uber's delivery-only service. Uber's couriers deliver orders that customers place on your own website, app or phone, and you pay a fee per delivery instead of a commission. Uber says your business does not have to be listed on the Uber Eats Marketplace to use it. You connect through your POS or ordering system, the Uber Direct API, or the Uber Direct Dashboard for manual orders.
Uber's Uber Direct page, read October 18, 2026, says "as low as $6.99 per delivery" based on distance, speed of delivery and region. Uber's US Uber Eats merchant page says "as low as US$7.99". There is no commission and no monthly minimum. Toast publishes the rate its restaurants pay: $6.99 under 6 miles, rising to $9.99 between 9 and 10 miles, plus a regulatory fee in California, New York City and Seattle.
DoorDash lists Drive On-Demand at $6.99 to $10.99 per delivery order, read October 18, 2026, with no signup, subscription or termination fees. Customer tips go 100% to the Dasher. Through Toast, DoorDash Drive is $7.49 within 5 driving miles plus $0.50 for each mile above 5, up to 10 miles.
On short trips, usually. Toast's published rates put Uber Direct at $6.99 and DoorDash Drive at $7.49 for a delivery under 5 miles. Between 6 and 8 miles the order can flip, and at 10 miles both are $9.99. Uber measures a straight line and DoorDash measures the driving route, so the same address can land in different bands. Ask both, or your ordering provider, to price your ten most common delivery addresses.
Per order, once the ticket is big enough. A flat $6.99 courier fee plus card processing costs less than the 25% Uber Eats Plus fee on any order above $32.99, and less than the 20% Lite fee above $42.63. Uber Eats rates were read October 3, 2026. Below those amounts, the marketplace plan costs the same or less, unless your customer pays part of the delivery fee.
The restaurant pays the courier fee. You can pass part of it to the customer as a delivery charge on your own site: Toast adds a $3.99 delivery service charge by default to offset the Uber Direct or DoorDash fee. Tips are paid by the customer and go 100% to the driver on both services.
Uber says you do not need an Uber Eats Marketplace listing to use Uber Direct. DoorDash's Drive page does not say a Marketplace listing is required, but it says your Drive delivery radius depends on your DoorDash partnership plan: Basic merchants typically reach nearby customers, and Plus and Premier get a larger radius.
Yes, in three ways. Your ordering provider may send orders to the courier automatically; ask which of the two it supports. You can book each delivery by hand in the Uber Direct Dashboard or the DoorDash Merchant Portal. Or a developer can connect through the Uber Direct API or DoorDash's developer tools.
Those are Australian prices. One Australian ordering provider's help page lists a $10 base fee plus $1.10 per kilometre, both excluding GST. US restaurants should use Uber's US pricing: from $6.99 or US$7.99 per delivery, depending on the Uber page.
Bring your delivery addresses and your last marketplace statement. We will show what your orders would cost with Uber Direct, DoorDash Drive or your own drivers on your own ordering site.