Gig platform earnings compared (UK 2026)

Summary

For most UK gig workers in 2025-26, real take-home after all costs is much lower than the apps' headline hourly rates, and full-time gig work is often at or below the National Living Wage² once you include fuel, tyres, insurance, waiting time and vehicle depreciation.

The strongest net results usually come from low-cost vehicles in busy peaks, especially bikes and e-bikes on food apps, or carefully chosen London PHV hours, while cars and vans get hit hardest by costs.

Academic research from the University of Bristol found median gig-economy earnings of £8.97 an hour and 52% below minimum wage, which matches what many UK drivers and riders say when they stop quoting gross screenshots and start counting all their costs.

Key facts (UK 2025-26)

• The National Living Wage² for workers aged 21 and over is £12.21/hour from 1 April 2025, and the 18 to 20 rate is £10.00/hour.
• University of Bristol research reported that the median gig worker earned £8.97/hour, and 52% earned below minimum wage, with the study covering work including food delivery and private hire.
• HMRC mileage benchmarks still matter in 2025-26 when judging whether "great" gross app pay is actually good:
  • Cars/vans: 45p/mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p/mile.
  • Motorcycles: 24p/mile.
  • Bicycles: 20p/mile.
• Uber in London commonly produces £15 to £25/hour gross before costs, but many experienced drivers report only £9 to £13/hour net after all costs and tax, especially once dead miles, insurance and depreciation are counted.
• Deliveroo's current fee logic uses a pay floor of £12.30/hour plus vehicle-cost allowance for estimated order time, but that is not a guaranteed hourly wage; riders still report actual averages around £12 to £18/hour gross in busy areas and much less when quiet.
• Amazon Flex officially advertises £14 to £18/hour for car delivery in the UK, with some surge blocks above £20/hour, but driver reports often put real net at £10 to £15/hour after fuel, insurance and mileage.
• Just Eat's employed model can be more stable because hourly pay links to minimum-wage rules, but self-employed couriers often report £9 to £14/hour and sometimes less in quiet towns.
• Stuart's minimum fees were cut to around £3.35 for bikes and £3.65 for scooters in 2024, making its gross hourly performance much less attractive than older YouTube videos suggest.
• Hidden costs that most platform ads skip:
  • tyre replacement every 15,000 to 25,000 miles for many gig cars, sometimes much sooner on heavy city use;
  • PHV/courier insurance often £1,500 to £3,000 a year for cars and scooters;
  • rapid depreciation on high-mileage hybrids, EVs and scooters;
  • unpaid waiting and dead miles, which can destroy the hourly maths even if the app screenshot looks strong.

Legislation, case law, regulation

• National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and related annual rate changes matter because they give the benchmark for whether gig work is genuinely paying enough; from 1 April 2025, the NLW² is £12.21/hour for 21+.
• Uber BV v Aslam⁴ [2021] UKSC 5 matters because Uber drivers are "workers" and Uber must pay at least the National Living Wage² for "working time" between accepting and completing trips, but that still does not guarantee a strong net income after the driver's vehicle costs.
• Deliveroo, Stuart, Amazon Flex and most self-employed Just Eat courier work do not carry minimum-wage protection for logged-in time in the same way, because riders are still treated as self-employed contractors.
• Road Traffic Act 1988 matters for every motor gig because proper insurance is legally required; using the wrong policy can leave drivers uninsured and make "net pay" calculations meaningless if the work is not legally covered.
• HMRC's mileage rates are not compulsory pricing rules, but they are a useful official benchmark for judging whether your per-mile or hourly gig income actually covers real business costs.

How it actually works

1. Gross pay is not take-home pay

Gig platforms mostly advertise gross hourly or per-job figures. That headline number is before:

• fuel or charging,
• insurance,
• tyres, servicing and repairs,
• depreciation or finance,
• phone/data,
• tax and National Insurance,
• unpaid waiting, dead miles, and time returning from a distant drop.

That is why a rider can truthfully say "I made £20/hour tonight" and still only clear £11 to £13/hour across a whole month.

2. Honest platform-by-platform numbers

Here is the realistic 2025-26 picture.

Uber

• Typical gross hourly: London £15 to £25/hour gross; regional £12 to £18/hour.
• Platform cut: Uber commonly takes 20 to 25% commission plus booking/service fees.
• Typical costs: fuel/charging, PHV insurance, finance/rental, tyres, servicing, dead miles, phone.
• Realistic net: London often £9 to £13/hour after all costs and tax; regional often £8 to £11/hour.

Deliveroo

• Typical gross hourly: busy bike/e-bike zones often £12 to £18/hour gross; peaks can briefly go higher.
• Fee structure: per-order fee based on estimated time, distance, boosts; no standard commission shown to riders.
• Typical costs: bike upkeep, phone, theft risk, or fuel/insurance if scooter/car.
• Realistic net: bike/e-bike often £10 to £15/hour net; scooter/car lower once fuel and insurance are counted.

Amazon Flex

• Typical gross hourly: base £14 to £18/hour, surge £20+/hour on good blocks.
• Fee structure: no commission percentage; you accept a fixed-price block.
• Typical costs: fuel, H&R insurance, tyres, maintenance, mileage overruns, phone.
• Realistic net: often £10 to £15/hour net if you avoid bad blocks; under £10/hour on poor long-distance blocks.

Just Eat

• Typical gross hourly: employed hourly roles around NMW/NLW² plus bonuses; self-employed often £9 to £14/hour gross.
• Fee structure: employed model = hourly pay; self-employed = per-order Transit Pay.
• Typical costs: lower if employed and moped provided; higher if self-employed using own vehicle.
• Realistic net: employed can be steadier around £11 to £13/hour net; self-employed often £8 to £12/hour net.

Stuart

• Typical gross hourly: highly variable; can look good on supermarket jobs but base fees have been cut hard.
• Fee structure: base fee + distance + incentives; minimums around £3.35 bike / £3.65 scooter after cuts.
• Typical costs: similar to food-delivery costs, plus waiting/time volatility.
• Realistic net: often £8 to £13/hour net depending on area; worse than old videos suggest.

3. London vs regional cities

London can pay better gross on Uber and some dense bike delivery routes because:

• more surge,
• more trip density,
• more short journeys,
• more restaurant concentration.

But London also brings:

• higher insurance,
• more traffic,
• more parking and ULEZ pressure,
• more expensive vehicle rental/finance.

So London often produces the highest gross and only a slightly better net, unless you are on a bike/e-bike or you have a very efficient hybrid/EV.

Regional cities usually mean:

• lower gross,
• fewer surges,
• less traffic,
• lower insurance than London,
• but longer waits between jobs and more dead miles.

4. Peak vs off-peak

Peaks are where the decent money lives:

• Uber / Bolt / FREE NOW: commuter rush, Friday/Saturday nights, airports, events.
• Deliveroo / Uber Eats / Just Eat: lunch, dinner, Friday/Saturday evenings, bad weather, football nights.
• Amazon Flex / Stuart / Gophr: Christmas, Prime-style peaks, supermarket rushes, last-mile pressure.

Off-peak is where the lies collapse. An app that pays £18/hour on a Friday dinner rush can fall below £10/hour by averaging in slow Tuesday afternoons with waiting and no boosts.

5. Vehicle type changes everything

The cheapest vehicle usually wins on net hourly rate.

• Bicycle: low costs, but lower range and more weather exposure.
• E-bike: usually the sweet spot for city food delivery: low running costs with higher order volume than a push-bike.
• Scooter / moped: can gross more than bikes, but fuel, tyres, servicing and insurance bite hard.
• Car: flexible across food delivery, Flex and PHV, but worst exposed to fuel, insurance, tyre wear, depreciation and dead miles.
• Van: can work for Gophr and parcels, but the mileage and depreciation can be brutal unless day rates are genuinely strong.

6. costs nobody mentions enough

These are the killers.

• Tyres: gig mileage means a car doing 25,000 to 40,000 business miles a year may need tyres every 15,000 to 25,000 miles, sometimes sooner in city stop-start use.
• Brakes and suspension: repeated urban delivery miles destroy pads, discs and suspension faster than ordinary commuting.
• Insurance uplift: moving from normal social use to courier/PHV use can add hundreds or thousands per year.
• Depreciation: high-mileage gig work wrecks resale values, especially for financed hybrids, EVs and scooters.
• Phone and data: constant navigation, hotspot use and app tracking make this a real business cost, not an afterthought.
• Unpaid time: dead miles, waiting at restaurants, depot queues, failed drops, returning parcels.

7. Honest assessment against NMW

The blunt answer: full-time gig work is often at or below the National Living Wage² once you count everything properly.

Who can beat it?

• bike/e-bike riders in busy cities,
• Uber drivers who work profitable London peaks and keep car costs low,
• Amazon Flex drivers who cherry-pick good surge blocks,
• employed Just Eat couriers with provided mopeds and holiday pay.

Who often falls below it?

• full-time car-based food delivery drivers,
• Amazon Flex drivers taking weak base blocks with long mileage,
• regional private-hire drivers outside peak periods,
• anyone financing an expensive vehicle on thin gig margins.

Worked example

Take three realistic 2025-26 workers.

1. London Uber driver, hybrid car

• Gross receipts: £46,200 a year on 45 hours a week over 48 weeks, including tips, based on a blended £20/hour gross and current driver reports.
• Costs:
  • fuel £5,500,
  • PHV insurance £2,000,
  • finance £7,200,
  • maintenance/tyres £1,800,
  • phone/cleaning/parking £800.
• Profit before tax: £28,900.
• Effective rate before tax: about £13.38/hour.
• After tax, closer to £10.65/hour.

That is below the 21+ NLW² of £12.21/hour once tax is in.

2. Manchester Deliveroo e-bike rider

• 20 hours a week at £16/hour gross through smart multi-apping around Deliveroo-heavy shifts.
• Weekly gross: £320.
• Weekly costs: roughly £25 (maintenance, electricity, phone, small kit).
• Weekly net before tax: £295.
• Effective rate: £14.75/hour before tax, still comfortably above NLW² on a pre-tax basis.

This is why low-cost two-wheel setups often beat cars on real net pay.

3. Amazon Flex driver, regional city, petrol estate

• 5 four-hour blocks a week at £68 a block = £340 a week gross.
• Weekly mileage about 275 miles.
• Running costs averaged: fuel, H&R insurance, tyres, servicing, misc = about £92 a week.
• Weekly net before tax: £248.
• Effective rate: £12.40/hour before tax, and noticeably lower if blocks overrun or mileage spikes.

That means a "good" Flex week can scrape past NLW² pre-tax, but a weak week quickly drops under it.

What Reddit, TikTok and forums get wrong

1. "I make £25 to £30/hour every week on [platform]" Usually that is a screenshot from a short surge window, not a whole week or month. University of Bristol research found the median gig worker earned £8.97/hour and 52% earned below minimum wage, which is much closer to what honest long-term workers report than influencer clips are.

2. "Fuel is my only real cost" Wrong. costs include tyres, brakes, servicing, insurance uplift, depreciation, cleaning, phone/data and unpaid time. HMRC's own mileage benchmarks of 45p/25p³ per mile for cars, 24p for motorcycles, 20p for bicycles are a reminder that the true cost per mile is much bigger than petrol alone.

3. "If the app says £14 to £18/hour, that's what you earn" Amazon Flex's official £14 to £18/hour and Deliveroo's £12.30/hour pay floor plus vehicle cost allowance are gross or fee-calculation figures, not guaranteed net wages. Drivers and riders repeatedly report net figures closer to £10 to £15/hour and often lower in bad weeks.

4. "Gig work always beats minimum wage because you choose your own hours" The University of Bristol study directly undermines this, finding most workers in its sample earned less than minimum wage. Flexibility has value, but flexibility does not pay for tyres, dead miles or unpaid waiting.

5. "Cars always earn more than bikes because they can do more jobs" Bikes and e-bikes often come out better on net because their cost base is dramatically lower. Cars may gross more in certain conditions, but they carry much heavier costs.

Action steps for the reader

1. Calculate your own net hourly rate, not your app's headline hourly rate: gross pay minus fuel/charging, insurance, maintenance, tyres, depreciation, phone and tax set-aside.
2. Use the HMRC mileage rates as a reality check; if your gross hourly earnings collapse once you apply a sensible per-mile cost, the work is worse than it looks.
3. If you can choose vehicle type, strongly consider a bike or e-bike for dense urban food delivery before taking on the fixed costs of a car or scooter.
4. For car-based work, avoid expensive finance or rental unless you have very strong local demand and have already tested the platform with realistic numbers.
5. Treat app income as volatile and build a spreadsheet around your real weekly average, not the best Friday night you ever had.
6. If your net hourly average is below £12.21/hour for 21+, be honest with yourself that the work is underperforming the National Living Wage² benchmark.

Related tools GigKiln should build

• Cross-platform net-pay calculator using real costs by vehicle type and city.
• Mileage-and-depreciation estimator for gig drivers at 10k, 20k, 30k and 40k annual business miles.
• "Above or below NLW²?" checker comparing real net hourly pay with 2025-26 wage rates.
• Weekly gig-income tracker that separates gross app pay from actual profit.
• Vehicle-type comparison tool showing bike vs e-bike vs scooter vs car vs van net outcomes.

Related guides

• Uber complete guide.
• Deliveroo complete guide.
• Amazon Flex complete guide.
• Just Eat complete guide.
• Working multiple platforms at once.
• Insurance for couriers and PHV drivers.
• Tax and expenses for gig workers in 2025-26.

Sources

Primary

• GOV.UK, "National Living Wage² to increase to £12.21 in April 2025", accessed 18 April 2026.
• Deliveroo Riders UK, "How are fees calculated?", accessed 18 April 2026.
• Amazon Flex UK, "How much can delivery drivers with Amazon Flex make?" and FAQ, accessed 18 April 2026.
• Just Eat Courier Help, "How Courier Pay Works", accessed 18 April 2026.
• Stuart Help Centre, "Earnings structure in the UK" and "All about your earnings", accessed 18 April 2026.

Academic / research

• University of Bristol, "Gig economy worker research", 10 May 2023.
• University of Bristol, Gig Rights & Gig Wrongs report, accessed 18 April 2026.
• WageIndicator and Personnel Today write-ups of the Bristol/Cambridge/Oxford findings.

Secondary / driver and rider evidence

• Reddit r/UberUK, London 2025 earnings breakdown.
• Inshur, GM Direct Hire, Ayan, Indeed and Zego on Uber driver earnings in 2025-26.
• r/deliveroos and r/AskUK on Deliveroo hourly pay.
• r/AmazonFlexUK and r/AmazonFlexDrivers on base blocks and true net pay.
• Breakroom, Indeed, Lexham and Service Club on Just Eat pay.
• The Grocer and rider threads on Stuart fee cuts.
• HMRC mileage explainer sources summarising current AMAP rates, accessed 18 April 2026.