How Shipt Pays You: Direct Deposit, Instant Pay, and More

Shipt gives its Shoppers and Drivers (read about the differences) a few options when it comes to getting paid: you can either get paid weekly via direct deposit, or you can cash out instantly on a daily basis via the Shipt Shopper app. 

Overall, Shipt offers a streamlined and easy-to-navigate payment process, but there are a few points that can cause confusion for new Shoppers and Drivers. Here, we’ll go over all the nuances so you can make sure you get paid properly for all your hard work. 

Shipt pays Shoppers and Drivers for orders and delivery routes completed instead of an hourly wage or a salary. 

As a Shopper, you’ll receive offers for grocery deliveries that you can accept or decline. Each offer is accompanied by an estimate of how much you’ll be paid upon completion. If you accept the offer, you’ll drive to the grocery store, shop for the groceries, and deliver them to the customer. The base pay for the order will then be credited to your account along with any active bonuses and tips that the customer gives you (if the tip is in cash, you’ll receive it immediately instead of having it credited). 

As a Driver, your job description is a bit different. Instead of accepting individual offers, you claim routes, which include a larger quantity of individual deliveries. You won’t have to shop for any items yourself — your job is akin to a UPS delivery driver. Each route will be accompanied by its estimated pay. Your pay, including tips and bonuses, will be credited to your account upon completion of the route (once again, cash tips are received immediately, not credited).

Base pay, tips, and bonuses — how do they fit together?

Your payment from Shipt is broken down into three components: base pay, tips, and bonuses. 

Base pay is the amount Shipt pays you for completing the delivery or route. The base pay for an order is shown as an estimate (e.g., $14-16), and you’re guaranteed to receive payment within that range. This amount is always credited to your account for payout at a later time. 

Tips are given to you by customers at their discretion. As a Shopper or Driver, you’ll receive 100% of your tips — Shipt doesn’t take anything off the top. Tips can be paid either via the app or in cash. If the customer adds a tip via the app, that amount will be credited to your account, and you’ll receive it whenever you cash out. If the customer pays you the tip in cash, you’ll just keep the cash. 

Tips can also show up later than you might expect: the customer has until their next login to tip you. That means that you can have a customer tip months later if they don’t open the app again for a while after placing their order. It’s entirely up to how the customer and how they use the app. 

Bonuses are extra payouts that you receive for completing a specific type of order within a specified time frame. For example, you might receive an extra $15 for completing an order in a particular part of the metro area. Bonuses are always immediately credited to your account.

Promos are promotions that Shipt runs intermittently during periods of high demand that boost your base pay. For example, you might earn an extra $2 bonus for completing a delivery late at night during an active promotion. Promos are always credited to your account, like base pay. 

The formula for your overall earnings is:

Earnings = Base pay + Tips + Bonuses + Promos

You can choose between weekly direct deposit and instant payouts

Shipt Shoppers and Drivers have the option of being paid on a weekly basis via direct deposit or via instant payouts.

Shipt’s direct deposits function just like they do for traditional jobs: your earnings will be deposited directly into your bank account on a regular basis.

Instant payouts are a bit different: you’ll need to request a payout through the app, which will be sent to you via Stripe, Shipt’s payment processor. If you want to receive the payment immediately, you’ll need to have a debit card attached to your account. Otherwise, you can have the payments sent to your bank, but it will take 2-3 business days to arrive in your account. 

A few more things you should know about instant payouts:

• There’s a $0.49 fee per payout
• You can only cash out once every 24-hour cycle (the cycle resets at 8 p.m. EST)
• There’s a $500 limit per payment 
• You must have had at least one successful direct deposit payment before using this feature

When does Shipt pay? Whenever you want (almost)

If you follow the standard Shipt pay schedule, you’ll get paid every Friday via direct deposit for the work you completed the past Monday through Sunday. The specific time on Friday that your direct deposit will hit your account depends on a variety of factors, including your bank. 

If you want to get paid more frequently than weekly, you can opt to use Shipt’s instant payout feature. This allows you to get paid practically whenever you want, with just a few restrictions. 

As the name implies, instant payouts arrive the same day. You can withdraw instant payouts up to once a day, which means you can get paid daily if you so choose. 

But there are drawbacks to Shipt instant pay: there’s a $0.49 fee, so it’s not free, and there’s also a $500 withdrawal limit. 

When do tips show up on Shipt?

If a customer tips you via the app before making the order, the amount will appear in your account two hours after you complete the order, but if they tip after the order is complete, it will show up instantly. If you received a tip in cash, the amount won’t show up in the app — you’ll just receive the cash. 

If you’re not seeing any tips show up in the app, it may simply mean that your customers aren’t leaving you tips. Often, customers don’t leave tips even if you did everything right and provided great service, but sometimes it can also be a sign that you need to improve your customer service skills. If you’re concerned about not receiving enough tips, think about whether there are any areas that you can improve, but if you’re confident you’re doing everything right, just chalk it up to bad luck. 

However, it could also mean that there’s a technical error, so if your Shipt tips aren’t coming through on a consistent basis, you may want to reach out to payments@shipt.com to make sure that everything is working properly. 

How to instant cash out on Shipt

Using Shipt’s instant pay feature is simple. To do so, open the Shipt app on your phone and press the hamburger icon in the top left corner. Then, select “Withdraw” at the top right of the screen:

Sensitive financial information blacked out to protect the privacy of our Gig Pros.

If this is your first time requesting an instant payment, you’ll be prompted to follow the on-screen instructions to set up your instant payments and cash out. If you’re already set up, you can enter the amount you want to withdraw and press “Transfer” to initiate the payment:

Sensitive financial information blacked out to protect the privacy of our Gig Pros.

How many times can you cash out on Shipt?

You can receive instant payouts once every 24 hours (the cycle resets at 8 p.m. ET). There’s a $500 withdrawal limit, and you must have received at least one non-instant payout from Shipt (regular, direct deposit payment). Beyond that, there are no restrictions.

If you want to connect multiple cards to your account for instant pay, you can do that too. Then, you’ll select which one you want to use for each payment. 

What to do if Shipt instant pay isn’t working

If instant pay isn’t working, you can do some troubleshooting by answering these questions:

• Have you requested another instant payout in the last 24-hour cycle? If yes, you won’t be able to receive another instant payout until the cycle resets at 8 p.m. ET. 
• Are you attempting to cash out more than $500? Shipt doesn’t allow instant payouts of more than $500. Try changing the amount of your instant payment request so that it is less than or equal to $500. 
• Have you received at least one regular payment from Shipt? If not, you won’t be able to receive instant payouts yet. Try again after you’ve received your first direct deposit payment. 

If your instant payments still aren’t working, you can contact payments@shipt.com for help. Joshua Merritt, who has over three years of experience working with Shipt, says that Shoppers and Drivers “may need to contact their banks too - I had to contact mine when receiving my first instant payment but had no issues after.”

Does Shipt provide pay stubs?

When you work for Shipt, you’re working as a self-employed independent contractor, which means that payment is a bit different than it would be if you were working a traditional job.  

That said, Shipt does provide weekly pay statements, which are similar to pay stubs. Catherine Meyers, who has been working for Shipt for two years, says that the weekly statements detail “our earnings, engaged time, and active miles. They aren't accessible until Friday of the following working week. This helps with keeping taxes clear and honest too because they clearly define your amount of tax-deductible miles.”

However, Shipt doesn’t withhold any taxes, so despite the similarity between Shipt’s weekly statements and pay stubs, they aren’t the same (pay stubs note how much tax has been withheld). Instead, you have to factor those in yourself when attempting to figure out your take-home pay. Taxes for self-employed people are quite different, so check out our post on handling taxes while working for Shipt for more information on how they work. 

Get started

Can you see yourself as a Shipt Shopper or Driver? Read about the differences or apply now to be a Shopper or Driver.