Instacart Review:
Is Working for Instacart Worth It in 2023?

Instacart is a grocery pickup and delivery app. Customers can place orders, choosing the items they need from participating stores. A paid shopper then visits the store, collects the items, and purchases them. The customer can either pick up the order themselves or have it delivered to their door.

When you sign up to work as an Instacart shopper, you can choose between two roles:

• In-store shopper: These shoppers are part-time employees of Instacart. They work set hours and don’t actually deliver orders. Instead, they leave each order at the store for the customer to pick up.
• Full-service shopper: These shoppers, by contrast, are independent contractors and have full control over their schedules and how much work they take on. They use the app to view orders in their area and accept ones that appeal to them, then they shop for the requested items and deliver the order directly to the customer’s home.

Working as an in-store shopper is a decent option if your schedule is open and you’re looking for a part-time job rather than independent gig work. That said, most Instacart gig workers sign up as full-service shoppers. This role offers a lot more flexibility, so if you’re fitting your Instacart work around other commitments (such as another job or college coursework), it’s your best bet.

Accepting orders in the app

As a full-service shopper, when you open the Instacart app, you’ll see a list of available orders. Each will display:

• How much you’ll earn
• The number of items
• The distance from the store to the customer’s location
• Any expected tips

You can choose whichever orders you like and are under no obligation to accept any.

Shopping and delivering

After you accept an order and arrive at the store to shop, the customer’s list of items will appear. The app will help you navigate the store and find each item. If you have a question or need to make a substitution, you can message the customer within the app.

Once you have all the items, you’ll just check out like you normally would. There’s no need to worry about footing the bill for someone else’s groceries—Instacart will issue you a payment card.

The only thing left to do is deliver the order, which the app makes easy by giving you step-by-step directions.

Depending on the options the customer checked, you may hand the order to them or just leave it at their door. (If the order includes alcoholic beverages, you’ll have to hand it off, as you’ll be required to check their ID.)

How much you earn with Instacart depends on what kind of shopper you are:

• In-store: These employees earn an hourly wage and work assigned shifts in particular stores for no more than 29 hours per week. Rates vary based on location and other factors, but they typically make around $17 per hour.
• Full-service: These shoppers have much more unpredictable incomes, although in general, they make between $17 and $25 per hour. Instacart guarantees a $7–$10 minimum for each order. Shoppers can see exactly how much they’ll get paid for each order before they accept it.

When we created this review, we contacted Rachel Johnson, an Oregon-based Instacart driver who has earned more than $25,000 on the app. She confirmed that these estimates were reasonable and told us that $20 for a batch that took an hour to deliver “seemed correct in her area.”

Factors that affect the pay for full-service orders

Three factors determine how much you’ll get paid for each Instacart order:

• Batch pay: This is based on the order’s size, how far you have to drive, and the effort the order will require (e.g., how much walking you’ll have to do in the store and how heavy the items are).
• Promotions: Instacart may boost the pay on orders when there’s high demand for shoppers.
• Tips: Customers can (optionally) leave tips. You keep 100% of any tips that you earn.

The Instacart app shows the peak earning times in your area. You can maximize your income by accepting orders at the times of day or week that pay best.

You can also make money via referrals by sharing a unique code with a friend. When they sign up as a shopper and fulfill a certain number of orders in a certain time period—which varies by location—you’ll get a cash bonus. (The amount is also highly variable; there are reports of it being as small as $50 and as large as $1,000.)

How you’ll get paid

Instacart pays via free weekly direct deposits into your bank account. For a $0.50 fee, you can also choose to cash out your earnings in as little as two hours after you make a delivery.

Where can you work for Instacart?

Instacart is available in all fifty states and in Canada. You can see a list of cities they operate in on their website.

That list is non-exhaustive, so if your city doesn’t appear, try searching for your zip code.

As with any gig app, there are benefits and drawbacks to working for Instacart.

It’s pretty easy to qualify to become an Instacart shopper. You need to satisfy the following requirements:

• 18 or older (21 or older to deliver alcohol)
• Legally eligible to work in the US
• Able to lift up to 40 lb without accommodations
• Have a driver’s license and access to a reliable car
• Have a smartphone with the Instacart Shopper app installed

You’ll also need to pass a background check, which can take a few days to be processed. It will be conducted by Checkr, a third-party company that also performs background checks for other gig apps, including Uber Eats.

Get started by going to Instacart’s shopper page and creating an account. You’ll need to download the Shopper app to finish setting up your profile.

Where to download Instacart Shopper

You can download the Shopper app by entering your phone number on Instacart’s download page or clicking the buttons below.

App Store Google Play

Required documents and information

As part of the sign-up process, you’ll need to provide the following:

• A photo of a valid driver’s license
• Your Social Security number
• Bank account information for direct deposit

After that’s done, you’ll have to wait for Instacart to approve your application before you can start accepting orders. Note that once you’re approved, it may take five to seven business days for your payment card to come by mail.

Overall, Instacart’s signup process is relatively painless. You can find a handful of horror stories online (most of which center around the background check company, which sometimes gets information wrong and can be slow to respond to complaints), but Johnson told us that she was approved promptly and without any hassle.

She did note that she knew a few people who tried to become full-service shoppers and were put on a waiting list because there were too many shoppers in their area. This is relatively rare, but if your market happens to be saturated when you sign up, you might have to wait for a few months to start.

If you’re considering working for Instacart, one of your biggest concerns is probably what the work is like on a day-to-day basis.

We asked Johnson to describe a typical day in the life of an Instacart shopper. She broke down her routine for us:

Driving around and accepting batches

Johnson said that work on the app is usually plentiful, which makes her Instacart gig easy to fit around her regular schedule.

“After my part-time job or on my days off, I usually drive around town near the main grocery stores waiting for batches to appear,” she said. “I usually get notifications for batches within a few minutes of driving and accept the best one.”

She also said that she “fairly frequently” signs into the app and accepts a batch before even getting in her car, and noted that you can accept multiple batches from the same store (or from stores that are near each other), which lets you work more efficiently.

The shopping experience

Johnson told us that shopping at the stores is usually relaxing, “especially if the items are all placed where they are supposed to be.” She finds it especially nice to put in headphones and listen to music while walking around and collecting items.

She told us that checking out orders can sometimes be frustrating. “The process in the app is almost always easy and works correctly, but sometimes the long lines at checkout and slow cashiers can make this part of the job very stressful.”

When this happens, it can put you over the time limit for the delivery. This means forfeiting the order, and if it happens repeatedly, Instacart may ban you from the app.

“There are ways to alert Instacart about these things when they are not your fault, but it is still frustrating all the same,” said Johnson.

Dropping off batches

According to Johnson, once the checkout process is complete, completing orders is rarely a challenge. “Again, it’s really nice to be able to listen to music while driving to the customer’s house, and dropping off the order is usually a breeze.”

She did cite a few occasional difficulties:

• Climbing stairs: In some apartment complexes, you’ll have to carry the order up several flights of stairs. Although this might seem like a small thing, it can be a real challenge when it’s a large batch.
• Finding the address: Finding the right address can also be a pain in large complexes, especially when the house numbers aren’t visible from the street.

Johnson said that overall, these were minor difficulties (although they might pose more of a problem for you if you’re mobility-challenged in some way).

She said that most customers were genuinely appreciative and that she frequently received tips and reviews thanking her, which she called “immensely rewarding.”

To figure out whether Instacart is worth your time, you have to look at the numbers—how much money you’ll really earn after accounting for your expenses, and how your take-home pay compares to what you’ll get from its competitors.

How much will expenses eat into your profits with Instacart?

Most gig work has at least a few overhead expenses associated with it. With delivery driving side hustles, it’s usually a good idea to put aside around 35% of what you earn to pay for them. This will leave you with 65% as profit.

In other words, if you earn a long-term average $20 per hour, your effective pay will actually be around $13 per hour.

Many of your expenses will come from your vehicle. They’ll include:

Fuel

Plan on budgeting: 10% of your earnings

Instacart won’t pay for your gas. You’ll have to pay your fuel expenses yourself.

The price of gas varies from month to month and even week to week, and how much you’ll have to spend also depends on the mileage your vehicle gets. That said, delivery drivers commonly set aside 10% of their earnings to pay for gas.

Maintenance

Plan on budgeting: 10% of your earnings

With any driving-centric side hustle, you need to make regular vehicle maintenance a part of your budget. The amount of wear and tear you’ll be putting on your car means you’ll need to take it into the shop frequently.

Many veteran drivers recommend taking every dollar that you spend on gas and setting aside another dollar for future maintenance. This means another 10% expense that will eat into your profits.

Taxes

Plan on budgeting: 15% of your earnings

Nobody likes thinking about taxes, but they’re an important part of your budget. As a full-service shopper, you’ll legally be classed as a contractor, not an employee, which means Instacart won’t withhold your taxes. You’ll have to report and pay them on your own.

You can write off many of your expenses as tax deductions, including gas and maintenance. This will greatly reduce your tax burden, but you’ll still have to pay something.

To get an idea of what you’ll owe, spend a few minutes playing with this self-employment tax calculator. In general, expect to pay around 15% of what you make. (To be safe, you should actually consider setting aside 20%–30%; the odds are, you won’t actually have to pay that much, but it’s better to have too much saved than too little.)

What you’ll be left with

Again, if gas eats away 10% of your earnings, maintenance eats 10%, and you pay 15% in taxes, you’ll end up with 65%, which will translate to around $13 for a batch that takes an hour to complete.

It’s understandable if that rate is a little disappointing—it’s a big drop from the $20 you might have been expecting.

However, it’s important to look at it in context. Most comparable gigs have similar expenses. For instance, none of Instacart’s competitors pay for gas either; it isn’t an anomaly here.

Moreover, $13 per hour is still relatively high compared to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 (although it’s below the minimum wage in 14 states and the District of Columbia, as of October 2023). 1

Whether driving for Instacart is “worth it” at a rate of $13 per hour is ultimately your call. Fortunately, it has a low barrier to entry, so you can always give it a try and see if you find it as relaxing as Johnson does or whether you’d rather direct your time and energy elsewhere.

Advice from an expert: who should become an Instacart driver?

We asked Johnson who she recommended Instacart to. She was definite in her response: “I think this app is best suited for people who have a part-time job already and are looking for a way to supplement their income.”

Notably, Johnson didn’t recommend driving for Instacart as a full-time gig. “I think that the payoff and consistency are not quite enough to make it a viable option … especially considering the cost of fuel and car maintenance,” she said.

How to boost your earnings on Instacart

If you’re able to increase your effective hourly rate, it will go a long way toward making Instacart worth it as a side hustle. Johnson offered several tips that she uses to ensure she’s spending her time efficiently:

• Figure out the optimal times to drive: You’ll gradually learn what the most lucrative times are to deliver in your area. Johnson said that she prefers working on Sundays and “either Wednesdays or Thursdays,” and that in her experience, the best times to drive are in the early morning (7 am to 8 am) and the evening (6 pm to 8 pm). Notably, those aren’t Instacart’s peak hours—they’re times when there are enough orders to keep busy but the stores aren’t clogged with other shoppers.
• Only accept worthwhile offers: “I only accept orders if the pay is clearly worth the time, gas, effort, etc., of the batch,” said Johnson. Her rule is that unless the order is very small (under 10 items), it can’t be worth less than $20. She also doesn’t accept batches that have 80+ items unless the pay is “significantly more” than what she’d get for a normal order (i.e., at least $40).

In addition to the above, you should do everything you can to fulfill your orders as quickly and professionally as you can, which will maximize your tip rate (at least theoretically).

Speaking of your tip rate, it’s worth paying close attention to it. Different stores have different clienteles, and over time, you might notice that you tend to get better tips when delivering from particular stores or in particular neighborhoods.

Instacart is one of the most popular gig apps in the US, but it isn’t the only game in town. If you’re considering a delivery driving side hustle, it makes sense to compare it with the alternatives.

Instacart vs. other delivery apps

The other major players in the delivery driving scene include:

• Uber Eats
• DoorDash
• Grubhub
• Postmates
• Shipt

These apps are similar to Instacart, although most focus on deliveries from restaurants rather than grocery stores. (All of them allow grocery deliveries—it’s just a question of what you’ll be doing more often.)

Working for one service is very much like working for the others; drivers for each tend to cite the same perks and frustrations. For example, the ability to earn money while listening to music or podcasts is possibly the most frequently named perks across all delivery apps.

How Instacart’s pay compares to its competitors’ rates

Most significantly, the apps listed above all offer roughly the same rates. Most online reports cite rates of around $20 per hour for each.

Johnson told us that in her experience, Instacart’s customers tend to tip better than the customers on food delivery apps like DoorDash. She also said she found the flow of work to be more consistent.

It might take some experimentation to tell whether that’s true in your area. Fortunately, if you have the time and energy, it’s easy to sign up for more than one app and compare them.

Some drivers even keep multiple apps installed permanently, accepting orders from whichever one happens to be paying more at any given time. As you’d expect, this is something these companies frown on, but it’s perfectly legal and doesn’t violate their terms of service.

Instacart vs. other gig work that anyone can do

Instacart’s alternatives aren’t limited to delivery driving gigs. There are other flexible, accessible, and app-based side hustles out there.

We’ve listed several popular options in the table below, alongside how much you can earn by doing them.

How Instacart Compares to Other App-Based Gigs

If you study that table, you’ll see that Instacart offers reasonable rates, but not the highest available. You can earn more with these types of app-based side hustles:

• Ridesharing: If you want a side hustle that involves driving, you’ll earn more if you work for a ridesharing (taxi) service like Uber or Lyft. Your rates will be higher because the work will be harder—you’ll have to drive longer distances and will need to invite people into your car and chat with them instead of listening to podcasts or music. It’s up to you whether that’s justified by the higher earnings.
• Manual labor: You can earn quite a bit by performing physically demanding services, such as mowing lawns or helping people move. If you’re considering Instacart (which requires you to be able to lift 40 lb), you’re probably capable of doing this type of work, but it’s tiring and carries an increased risk of injury. Again, you have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth it or not.

Instacart doesn’t stand head and shoulders over its competitors, but it’s a relatively relaxing way to make some extra cash. While it won’t make you rich and has limited potential as a full-time gig, it offers fair rates.

The good news is that you don’t have to sign a contract or make a long-term commitment to become a full-service Instacart shopper, so if you’re on the fence, you can give it a try and do it for exactly as long as you want.