Disgustingly low pay and TIP THEFT rampant - Anonymous employee Instacart Employee Review

1.0
Nov 4, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexibility, freedom and same day cash out

Cons

- this company is so sleazy and disgusting with their pay it should be a crime. They steal tips from the customer and allocate it to your pay for the batch and then throw you $ 1 or 2 or $ 3 as the tip lol from the same customer ....so in reality they aren't paying you the customers are with their tips. Whereas you should be making $180 to $250 a day for driving 12 hours all over the city shopping, with instacart expect to make $120 MAX if ur lucky ...tips Incljded! By the end of each day u have used a half a tank of gas, so in reality in ur driving for 12 hours to make $50 or $60.

Explore other reviews about Instacart

5.0
Mar 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great gig that can be done on flexible hours.

Cons

Gas prices having been go up.

2.0
Jun 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun going out and talking to people. You will interact with people everyday. You control how much you get paid. Lots of flexibility in the time between accepting an order and traveling to the store and beginning to shop. It isn't pedal to the metal to get to the store like DoorDash is. You can also cancel batches after accepting as long as you keep your rate under 15%. This is different from DoorDash where your rankings will suffer if g.t. 2% cancellation rate.

Cons

There's a learning curve and it takes a while to learn each chain of stores' items. Once you become proficient at one store, the algorithm will lowball your offers relative to other less-experienced Instacart shoppers. Overall, Instacart shoppers likely get paid similar or less than the store's regular employees.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All