How to Work Out Your Real Cost Per Mile for Rideshare and Delivery Driving

If you drive for a rideshare or delivery app, the payout on the screen is not what you earn. It is what you are paid before your car takes its share. Fuel is the cost everyone thinks about. It is also only part of the bill.

Knowing your cost per mile turns "this feels like a good ride" into a number you can check in a few seconds.

Start with the costs that go up as you drive

These are called variable costs, because they grow with every mile:

  • Fuel. Divide the price of a gallon by your car's miles per gallon. At $3.20 a gallon and 25 miles per gallon, fuel is about 13 cents a mile.
  • Oil changes and routine service. Add up what you spent over the last year and divide by the miles you drove.
  • Tires and brakes. These wear out faster with heavy driving. Estimate how much a set costs and how many miles it lasts.

Every number in this article is an example. Use your own receipts and your own car.

Add the costs that hit you no matter what

Fixed costs are the bills you pay even if the car sits in the driveway. Spread across your miles, they still count:

  • Insurance (ask your insurer whether your app driving needs different coverage)
  • Registration and inspection fees
  • Loan or lease payment, if you have one
  • Depreciation, which is the value your car loses as the odometer climbs

For example, if you pay $150 a month for insurance and drive 1,500 miles a month, insurance adds 10 cents to every mile. The more you drive, the less each mile carries of your fixed costs, so this number moves with your schedule.

Put it together

Add your variable cost per mile to your fixed cost per mile. Suppose fuel is 13 cents, maintenance and tires are 9 cents, and insurance and other fixed costs come to 18 cents. That is 40 cents a mile. A rough total like this is enough to work with. You can refine it later.

Count the miles nobody pays for

Here is where many drivers get surprised. You drive to pick up the passenger. You drive back from a drop-off with nobody in the car. Those miles cost the same as paid ones, and the app does not pay for them.

A $9 trip with 6 paid miles sounds like $1.50 a mile. But if you drove 4 more miles to get there and 3 more to get back to a busy area, that is 13 miles. At 40 cents a mile, you spent $5.20 on the car, and $3.80 is what is left before you count your time.

Compare it to the IRS rate, carefully

The IRS publishes a standard mileage rate that many self-employed drivers use as a benchmark. For 2026 it is 72.5 cents per business mile through June 30 and 76 cents from July 1. That figure is built for tax deductions, not to tell you what your own car costs, and the rules for which method you can use in a given year are specific. Read the IRS pages on business car expenses or talk to a tax preparer. This is general information and not tax advice.

Keep track as you go

The best numbers come from a simple log of miles, hours, and earnings for each shift. After a few weeks you will see which times of day, which kinds of trips, and which offers actually pay.

Where FareMax fits

FareMax is a free cost-per-mile planner for rideshare and delivery drivers. You enter your vehicle details, and it helps you check an offer against your own cost per mile, track a live shift, and keep a shift log with a dashboard of your history. You can export your data as a file. There are no accounts: your numbers stay on your phone.

Try it at FareMax. It is free and supported by ads.