The gap between app earnings and real earnings
Every driver knows the number their app shows. Almost nobody knows their real hourly rate: gross pay minus fuel, maintenance, depreciation, extra insurance, and self-employment taxes — divided by all hours on the road, including the unpaid waiting time between rides.
Studies consistently find real gig-driver earnings run 30–50% below the headline figure once vehicle costs are counted, because the IRS mileage rate (around $0.76/mile) bundles depreciation, fuel, and maintenance into one number your app never shows you.
Quick sanity check with the mileage rate
Don't know your depreciation? Use the IRS standard mileage rate as an all-in vehicle cost: multiply your weekly miles by ~$0.76, then set fuel and maintenance inputs to 0 so you're not double counting.
The tax angle
Gig income is self-employment income: no withholding, 15.3% self-employment tax in the US on top of income tax, and quarterly estimated payments usually required. The good news — mileage and expenses are deductible. The calculator estimates tax on your net earnings, not gross.
How the real-hourly-rate math works
The calculator runs the net-per-hour method in four steps. First it totals your weekly vehicle costs: fuel plus maintenance plus miles times your depreciation figure plus the phone, insurance, and supplies line. Second, it subtracts platform fees and tolls from gross pay to reach operating profit — the figure the tax system actually taxes. Third, it applies your combined tax rate to that profit, not to gross, as the set-aside. Fourth, it divides the after-tax remainder by every hour the job owned, including waiting between rides.
Formula: real hourly rate = (gross pay − vehicle costs − platform fees − tax set-aside) ÷ (online hours + waiting hours). Vehicle costs = miles × $0.76 per mile under the 2026 IRS shortcut, or fuel + maintenance + (miles × your depreciation figure) + other weekly costs when you itemize. Use one costing method per run, never both — mixing them counts the car twice.
Worked example: a $1,050 week
Take a delivery week with different figures from the guide's walkthrough: $1,050 gross across 38 hours on the road, 520 miles driven, $105 fuel, $30 maintenance, depreciation at $0.25 a mile, $25 phone and insurance share, and a 22% combined tax rate. Vehicle and other costs come to $105 + $30 + (520 × $0.25 = $130) + $25 = $290. Net before tax is $1,050 − $290 = $760; the 22% set-aside takes $167.20, leaving $592.80 — which over 38 hours is $15.60 an hour against an app-screen $27.63 ($1,050 ÷ 38). The mileage shortcut cross-checks it: 520 × $0.76 = $395.20 all-in with fuel and maintenance set to zero, landing a little lower per hour because it prices depreciation in full. Run your own week above and see which side of $15 you land on.
What the calculator cannot see
Three forces move the answer week to week. Surge and peak pricing concentrate earnings into a few golden hours, so identical miles and hours can pay very differently depending on when you drove — average four weeks before judging the trend. Vehicles differ more than platforms do: a paid-off economy car and a financed SUV can sit several dollars an hour apart on the same routes, because fuel burn, tire wear, and depreciation per mile are vehicle properties, not app properties. And deadhead miles — unpaid runs to pickups and back from drop-offs — belong in the miles field even though no fare covers them; leaving them out is the most common way drivers flatter their own number. Log odometer readings at shift start and end rather than trusting the app's trip total.
Sources
The per-mile shortcut uses the IRS standard mileage rates (76 cents a mile for 2026), which bundle fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, and depreciation. Tax treatment here is general information, not tax advice — confirm your deduction method with a tax professional. The full net-versus-gross breakdown and the four numbers worth logging weekly are in the gig driver real earnings guide.
Every figure above is hand-checked: the worked example was recomputed independently of the calculator code, and tax figures track 2026 IRS limits. How we check every page.
Related calculators
Run the vehicle side and the tax side through their own calculators: the mileage deduction calculator prices the business miles your app never counts, the side hustle profit calculator nets any gig against its real cost per hour, and the tax set-aside calculator sets the share of each payout that belongs to the tax office. Deductions and write-offs step by step are in the gig driver tax deductions guide.