How much do Uber drivers make on average in Australia?
See hourly pay before and after car costs, what comes out of your earnings, GST rules, and how to find your own rate.
Published estimates put Uber driver pay in Australia at roughly $9 to $21 an hour after car costs, and $20 to $35 an hour before them. There’s no official national average, and the estimates run high or low depending on what they count.
Finder puts typical pay at $22 to $35 an hour after Uber's service fee on a page updated October 1, 2026 [1]. Once car costs come out, the studies land lower. A 2019 University of Queensland study of Brisbane drivers found about $10 to $17.50 an hour, and cited economist Jim Stanford's estimate of $9.07 to $15.72 [2]. An Uber-commissioned AlphaBeta analysis put Sydney at $21.00 an hour the same year [3]. All figures here are Australian dollars.
The numbers disagree because each source counts a different thing: the fare, your pay after Uber’s fee, or your pay after fuel, insurance, and the car itself.
Your own number, offer by offer: set a dollars-per-hour minimum in Mystro and it auto-rejects offers below it, so the trips you take clear your own rate.
Here's what this guide covers, so you can jump to the part you need:
What is the average hourly pay for Uber drivers in Australia?
Pay once Uber takes its fee sits in the $20s and $30s an hour across these estimates, and pay after car costs comes in well under that. Here’s each one, newest first, with who collected it and what it measures:
Estimate | Who it covers | What it measures | The figures |
|---|---|---|---|
Finder, updated October 2026 | Australia-wide estimate; method not stated | Before and after the fee, before car costs | $33.15 an hour before Uber’s cut; typically $22 to $35 an hour after the fee |
Transport Workers Union survey, December 2025 | More than 1,600 rideshare drivers | Weekly pay before and after costs | 47 hours a week; $1,161 earned, $458 in costs, $703 after costs [4] |
University of Queensland, 2018-19 | 24 Brisbane drivers interviewed | After the fee, then after expenses | $20 to $35 an hour after the fee; about $10 to $17.50 after expenses; economist Jim Stanford’s method in the paper puts it at $9.07 to $15.72 |
AlphaBeta for Uber, March 2019 | 3,621 Sydney drivers and 3.2 million rides | After the fee, then after costs | $29.46 an hour after the fee; $8.46 an hour in costs; $21.00 after costs, or $23.35 without commute hours |
The Transport Workers Union survey figures work out to roughly $15 an hour after costs. That's $703 divided by 47 hours, calculated from the survey's weekly numbers rather than a rate the union published, and those 47 hours include about 10 hours a week waiting for work.
Each row describes a city, a year, or a group of drivers, not you. The University of Queensland authors call their findings illustrative rather than representative, and the AlphaBeta report was commissioned by Uber. The figure that matters is the one you get from your own hours, pay, and costs.
The two detailed studies are from 2019, so read them as direction, not today’s rate.
What’s the difference between gross pay, pay after Uber’s fee, and take-home pay?
What the Driver app shows at the end of the week and what you can spend are two different numbers. Your pay moves through four layers before it’s yours:
Passenger fare: what the rider pays for the trip. Riders also pay a booking fee, which Uber says helps cover regulatory and operational costs such as insurance [5].
Pay after Uber’s service fee: the trip fare (a base amount plus time and distance), surge, other earnings such as waiting time and minimums, and promotions, minus Uber’s service fee.
Pay after costs: what’s left once fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and GST come out.
Pay after tax: what’s left after income tax, which depends on the rest of your income.
How big is Uber's cut? Finder's 2026 page cites 27.5%, the same figure the University of Queensland study reported in 2018-19 [1][2]. Uber's Australian earnings page doesn't publish a percentage [5].
Let’s say your week looked like the average Sydney driver’s in AlphaBeta’s 2019 analysis. You’d see $29.46 an hour once Uber’s fee came out, and your costs would run $8.46 an hour. Take one from the other and you’re at $21.00 an hour, with income tax still to come.
That last layer is the one nobody can average for you. How much tax you pay depends on your other income, so the Australian Taxation Office or a registered tax agent is the place to get your own figure.
What costs come out of Uber earnings in Australia?
Uber’s fee comes out before you’re paid. Everything below comes out of your own pocket after that. Here’s each cost and how the sources treat it:
Cost | What it covers | How the sources treat it |
|---|---|---|
Fuel or charging | Every km you drive, including the empty ones to a pickup | Counted in AlphaBeta’s costs; fuel for light vehicles can’t earn fuel tax credits [6] |
Maintenance and tyres | Servicing, tyres, and repairs | Counted in AlphaBeta’s costs |
Insurance | CTP plus third-party property damage cover; rideshare cover costs more than a private policy | Finder says check that your insurer covers rideshare use; AlphaBeta counts the extra cost of comprehensive rideshare cover |
Registration | The yearly rego on your car | Left out of AlphaBeta’s figure |
Depreciation or finance | Value the car loses with every km; loan or lease payments | AlphaBeta counts depreciation and leaves out financing |
Phone and data | The plan that runs your driver apps | Finder lists it as a cost to account for |
GST | GST on your fares, paid to the ATO | Counted in AlphaBeta’s costs; the ATO sets the rules |
AlphaBeta’s $8.46 an hour counts GST, fuel, maintenance, depreciation, and the extra cost of rideshare insurance. It leaves out registration, CTP, and financing, so if you’re paying those, your net number comes in lower than Sydney’s $21.00.
Uber’s page says fuel, insurance, and vehicle maintenance might be tax-deductible. Keep the “might” in mind and check with the ATO or an accountant before you count on a deduction.
Fuel, maintenance, tyres, and depreciation rise with every km you drive, and together they make one figure you can hold each offer against: your cost per mile, or per km if that’s how you think about distance. Insurance, rego, and your phone plan cost the same whether you drive or not, so leave them out of this number and cover them in your weekly target.
Put a number on your running costs: Mystro’s free Cost Per Mile Calculator works out fuel, maintenance, tyres, and depreciation for each mile you drive. A mile is about 1.6 km.
Do Uber drivers in Australia need an ABN and to register for GST?
Yes. You need an ABN and GST registration before your first trip, regardless of how much you earn. The usual $75,000 GST threshold doesn’t apply, because the ATO treats ride-sourcing as taxi travel for GST purposes [6]. The only exception the ATO names is driving as an employee [7].
Once you’re set up, the ATO’s rules for ride-sourcing drivers are:
Register for GST from the date you start; if you already have an ABN but not GST, register within 21 days of starting.
Report and pay GST monthly or quarterly; you can’t choose annually.
Lodge a BAS for each period.
Claim GST credits on business purchases, not personal ones [7].
Give a passenger a tax invoice for any fare over $82.50 if they ask for one.
Report all your ride income in your tax return, and claim only deductions that relate to carrying passengers for a fare.
Keep records; the free myDeductions tool in the ATO app is one way to do it.
GST sits on top of income tax, and you handle the two separately. Penalties and interest may apply if you don’t register for GST. For anything specific to your situation, the ATO and a registered tax agent are the people to ask.
What changes your hourly earnings from city to city and shift to shift?
When and where you go online is the part of your pay you control. AlphaBeta’s Sydney analysis found that drivers who worked peak times, high-demand areas, and the busy months of November and December earned more than the average [3].
Public data with real numbers covers only Sydney and Brisbane, both from 2019. The two studies measure different things, so they don’t tell you which city pays more, and there are no verified averages for Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, or any state.
What the sources do show are the levers that move an hour’s pay:
Surge and promotions: the heat map in the app shows where rider demand is high, and promotions pay for reaching a set number of trips or driving at busy times, though not every driver is eligible [5]. Here’s more on how to use surge to your advantage.
Weekend nights: drivers in the Brisbane study said Friday and Saturday nights paid more but were riskier.
Time spent waiting: drivers in the TWU survey spent about 10 hours a week waiting for work. If that sounds like your shifts, here’s what to do when the requests dry up.
How much you drive: in the Brisbane study, 67% drove full time, meaning 35 or more hours a week.
Keep the hours in mind when you compare. AlphaBeta divides pay by all your online time, so its hourly number already counts the waiting.
Let’s say you have five hours to drive this week. Putting them on a Friday and Saturday evening instead of a quiet weekday afternoon is the move the Sydney data backs, as long as you’re comfortable with the late crowd.
Download Mystro to optimize your driving earnings.
Is Uber driving worth it compared with the minimum wage in Australia?
The minimum wage gives you a clear yardstick for what an hour of your time is worth. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists the National Minimum Wage at $26.44 an hour from 1 July 2026 [8]. Add the standard 25% casual loading and a casual employee covered by it earns $33.05 an hour. Casual loading makes up for paid leave, which you don’t get as a contractor either, so the casual rate is the closer comparison.
Rideshare drivers work as independent contractors, so minimum-wage rules don’t automatically apply to them. That’s starting to change. In August 2026, the Fair Work Commission’s first minimum standards order set a $31.30 floor per engaged hour for food delivery workers on apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash [9]. A separate application covering rideshare drivers is still before the Commission as of November 2026, so there’s no rideshare floor yet.
The rate still works as a point of comparison. Here’s how each measure compares with $26.44 and the $33.05 casual rate:
Finder’s $22 to $35 after the fee: this is before car costs, so it isn’t a like-for-like comparison until you take your costs out.
TWU’s roughly $15 after costs: below both, and calculated from the survey’s weekly figures.
AlphaBeta’s $21.00 after costs (Sydney, 2019): below both.
University of Queensland’s $10 to $17.50 after expenses (Brisbane, 2019): below both.
The University of Queensland authors made the same check in 2019. They compared their figures with the minimum wage at the time, $18.93 an hour, and found them below it.
What that comparison leaves out is something a wage job can’t give you: choosing your own hours. Whether that’s worth a lower hourly rate is your call, and many drivers already track their numbers closely enough to make it.
How can you raise your hourly earnings as an Uber driver in Australia?
Small things drag your hourly rate down: guessing each offer’s dollars per hour in your head, adding up two apps’ totals by hand at the end of the night, and taking short, low-paying trips when it’s quiet. Experienced drivers keep their rate up with a few habits:
Know what each km costs you to run, so you know what a trip has to cover.
Set your own minimum dollars per hour and dollars per km, and decline the offers that miss it.
Drive the busy windows that the heat map and promotions point to.
Track your hours and trips, so you know your real number instead of a guess.
Before you set strict minimums, check how Uber counts declined and expired offers toward your acceptance rate in the Driver app, since that rate can matter for Uber Pro.
Mystro handles the per-offer part of that list. It calculates and displays the dollars per hour and dollars per km on each offer, you set the filters, and auto-reject declines the offers that miss your minimums. Mystro supports Uber and DiDi, so if you drive both, your earnings history arrives combined instead of split by app, with mileage logged alongside each trip.
Running more than one app is normal. In the University of Queensland study, 75% of the 24 drivers interviewed also used other rideshare apps [2]. The AlphaBeta report noted that its Sydney hourly figures likely understate pay for drivers who use more than one rideshare app, because time spent on the other app isn’t in Uber’s data.
If you want more ways to raise your rate, this guide on how to increase earnings as a rideshare driver goes further. And once you’re on two apps, it helps to track your earnings across multiple gig apps in one place.
Frequently asked questions about Uber driver pay in Australia
How much do Uber drivers make per week in Australia?
A Transport Workers Union survey of more than 1,600 rideshare drivers, published in December 2025, found the average driver worked 47 hours a week. They reported $1,161 in earnings and $458 in costs, leaving $703 after costs [4]. That’s a union survey, and it doesn’t state its methodology.
Does Uber pay for fuel?
Uber’s Australian earnings page lists trip fares, surge, other earnings, and promotions as your pay, and says fuel, insurance, and maintenance might be tax-deductible. Fuel comes out of your own pocket. The ATO also says fuel used in light vehicles, including for ride-sourcing, isn’t eligible for fuel tax credits.
Is driving for Uber profitable in Australia?
It depends on your hours, your city, and your costs. In the 2019 studies, pay after costs came to about $10 to $17.50 an hour in Brisbane and $21.00 in Sydney. The TWU’s 2025 weekly figures work out to roughly $15 an hour, calculated from $703 over 47 hours. Your own pay and costs are the only way to know where you land.
Do Uber drivers pay GST if they earn under $75,000?
Yes. The $75,000 GST threshold doesn’t apply to ride-sourcing, so you need an ABN and GST registration before your first trip, however much you earn. The ATO treats ride-sourcing as taxi travel for GST purposes.
What are the requirements to become an Uber driver?
According to Uber, you need to be at least 20 years old (21 in NSW and Victoria), have the right to work in Australia, and hold a valid full driver’s licence for your state or territory [10]. You’ll also need to have held a full licence for a set period, from six to 12 months depending on your state. Check Uber’s sign-up steps for your city for anything extra where you live.
How do you find your own hourly number?
The published averages give you a range. Your own number takes about a week to find:
Pick the measure you’ll compare: pay once Uber’s fee is out, or pay after costs.
Work out your running cost for each mile with the Cost Per Mile Calculator.
Register for an ABN and GST with the ATO before your first trip, if you haven’t already.
Set your minimum dollars per hour and dollars per km.
Track a week of hours and pay, then compare it with the table at the top of this guide.
Put the per-offer math on autopilot: download Mystro from the App Store or Google Play.
References
[1] Elizabeth Barry and Bria Horne. “How much can you really make as an Uber driver?” Finder, October 1, 2026. https://www.finder.com.au/car-loans/uber-driver-income-calculator
[2] Holtum and Marston. “Flexibility and Insecurity: An Insight into the Experiences of Uber Drivers in Brisbane.” University of Queensland, April 2019. https://social-science.uq.edu.au/files/9015/Flexibility%20%20Insecurity_An%20Insight%20into%20the%20Experiences%20of%20Uber%20Drivers%20in%20Brisbane%20%28April%202019%29%20The%20University%20of%20Queensland.pdf
[3] AlphaBeta. “Flexibility and fairness: What matters to workers in the new economy.” AlphaBeta for Uber, hosted by the Parliament of Victoria, March 2019. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/4a49bd/contentassets/4dc13cfcb38d446db5bfe8fbba94d4a4/enclosure_alphabeta_australia_uber.pdf
[4] Transport Workers Union. “Rideshare survey results infographic.” Transport Workers Union, December 2025. https://www.twu.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TWU-Rideshare-Application-Survey.pdf
[5] Uber. “How much can driver partners earn with the Uber app?” Uber Australia, accessed October 21, 2026. https://www.uber.com/au/en/drive/how-much-drivers-make/
[6] Australian Taxation Office. “Registrations (ride-sourcing).” Australian Taxation Office, August 20, 2025. https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/income-deductions-and-concessions/sharing-economy-and-tax/ride-sourcing/registrations
[7] Australian Taxation Office. “Ride-sourcing.” Australian Taxation Office, October 9, 2025. https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/income-deductions-and-concessions/sharing-economy-and-tax/ride-sourcing
[8] Fair Work Ombudsman. “Minimum wages.” Fair Work Ombudsman, accessed October 21, 2026. https://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay-and-wages/minimum-wages
[9] Ahmed Yussuf and Bronwyn Herbert. “Food delivery workers to receive better pay under new minimum standards.” ABC News, August 17, 2026. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-17/what-is-changing-about-how-food-delivery-workers-are-paid/107036602
[10] Uber. “Driver-partner requirements.” Uber Australia, accessed November 2, 2026. https://www.uber.com/en-AU/drive/sydney/get-started
This post first appeared in The Mystro Newsletter — driver tips, earnings strategies, and Mystro updates, in your inbox every week.
