Does Uber pay well in Toronto? What the numbers say

The short answer

Uber pays well for the minutes a passenger is in the car and poorly for everything else. That is the finding of the largest independent look at Toronto ride-hail earnings to date, a peer-reviewed study that combined 84 million trips taken between January 2023 and April 2024 with vehicle cost data for the cars that did them. The gross numbers look healthy. The net numbers, once fuel, depreciation, insurance and the time spent waiting are counted, are a different story.

This guide walks through those numbers, what Ontario changed in July 2025, the costs that decide whether a shift is worth it, and how a different kind of driving work, intercity courier runs, is paid by comparison.

What the Toronto data shows

The study, published in 2025 and drawn from the trip data the City of Toronto collects from licensed platforms, measured earnings three ways. Each tells you something different about a shift.

Two of the study's findings matter most. First, 57% of drivers earned less than the minimum wage of the time, $16.55, per engaged hour once costs were deducted. Second, when all logged-in time was counted, more than 95% did. The gap between those two figures is the waiting: time spent driving to a pickup, sitting in a queue, or cruising for a request, none of which a per-trip fare pays for.

What a trip actually pays the driver

The study reproduced Uber's driver rate card for Toronto as of January 2024. For UberX, the most common service, a driver earned a base of $3.17, plus $0.18 a minute and $0.81 a kilometre, with a $0.35 a minute rate for waiting at pickup. Uber has since moved most trips to upfront pricing, where the driver sees a single amount before accepting, so treat the rate card as a guide to the economics rather than today's exact formula.

The CRA rate is a reasonableness benchmark for employer allowances, not a measure of any one car's costs, but it is a fair reminder that kilometres are not free. A fuel-efficient hybrid will cost less per kilometre; a larger vehicle more.

What changed in July 2025

Ontario's Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act came into force on July 1, 2025. It covers ride-share, delivery and courier drivers who get work through an app, and it guarantees at least the general minimum wage for the time spent on each work assignment. The general minimum wage rose to $17.60 on October 1, 2025 and to $17.95 on October 1, 2026.

The protection is real but narrow. It applies to engaged time, roughly from accepting a request to completing it, and tips do not count toward it. The waiting that drags in-app earnings down is still unpaid, and the minimum is measured before your vehicle costs, so it does not guarantee $17.95 an hour of take-home pay.

The costs that decide whether a shift is worth it

• Fuel or charging, the most visible cost, and the one that rises fastest with dead kilometres.
• Depreciation and maintenance: tires, brakes and oil come due sooner at ride-hail mileage.
• Insurance: Uber's commercial policy covers drivers while they are using the app for ride-share in Ontario, but your personal policy still has to be right for the rest of the time, and your insurer should know you drive.
• GST/HST: the CRA requires ride-share drivers to register for GST/HST from their first fare, even if they earn under the $30,000 small-supplier threshold that applies to most other businesses.
• Your time spent waiting, which no per-trip fare pays for.

Where courier work is different

Courier runs between cities are a different shape of work. A same-day run from Toronto to London or Niagara is one job of one to three hours of driving, booked and priced in advance, rather than a string of short trips with gaps between them. That changes where the waiting goes.

At PrimeRoutes, which works with independent contractor drivers, the job fee is 70% of the job price before tax and tips, and drivers keep 100% of tips. Every offer shows the job fee and estimated total before you accept, and declining has no penalty. Pay is weekly, on the Friday after each Monday to Sunday pay period, by direct deposit or Interac e-Transfer, with no minimum, fees or deductions. And if job fees for your job time in a week come to less than Ontario's minimum wage, the difference is paid as a top-up.

Courier work has its own costs. You need insurance with a commercial-use endorsement that covers deliveries, with at least $1 million in liability, because there is no platform fleet policy doing that job for you. And because it is the delivery of goods rather than passenger transport, the ordinary $30,000 small-supplier threshold for GST/HST registration generally applies; check your own situation with the CRA or an accountant.

So, does Uber pay well in Toronto?

It pays well per engaged minute, and it can work for drivers who keep their cars busy at peak times and control their costs. For many drivers the unpaid gaps and the cost of the kilometres between trips eat most of the gross. If you have a reliable vehicle and want longer, pre-priced runs, pairing ride-hail shifts with intercity courier work is one way to make more of the same car. Read how PrimeRoutes driving works, and the full pay information every driver receives, before you decide.