DOORDASH · 7 HOURS
You keep$32.00
Per hour$4.57
Pay: median per work hour, tips included, before car costs.
Gridwise's average is $12.43 gross per active hour, which leaves out waiting between orders. 11
Every number links to its source · checked October 2026
Same seven hours.
Very different math.
A weekly trivia night takes about seven hours, prep included. Here is what those same seven hours pay on the delivery and rideshare apps once the miles are counted, and what a night behind the mic pays. Pick your app.
One evening, two receipts
Count the car as
The IRS business rate from July 1, 2026, set from a yearly study of what it costs to run a car.
TRIVIA NIGHT · 7 HOURS
- Venue fee 12
- $150.00
- Tips 12
- $20.00
- The drive, 10 miles round trip
- -$7.60
- Brainflood Starter, per night
- -$4.39
You keep$158.01
Per hour$22.57
Seven hours = 3.5 of prep, 2 to 2.5 running the game, the rest setup and the drive. A $150 night with $20 in tips is the pay guide's own example; most independent hosts report $100 to $200.
The trivia night keeps $18.00 more an hour: $126 more for the same 7 hours.
Seattle 2024-25: 101.5 miles over 11.48 hours online a week (our division). The city says miles between offers are undercounted, so real miles are likely higher.
The clock
An app pays for the minutes on a job
Cities and states that regulate the apps measured how much of a logged-in hour is actually a job. It is a bit over half. The rest is waiting for an offer or driving to the next one, and the car is running for much of it.
The odometer
The miles nobody pays you for
AAA puts the average cost of owning and running a new car at $12,863 a year 28. Every app mile wears that car down. A trivia night is one short drive.
7 hours is one trivia night with prep. As a host, that is 1 night a week.
DoorDash, a year
$2,434 of car, at the IRS rate
Trivia nights, a year
$395 of car
AAA's cost figures assume 15,000 miles a year in total; the app miles alone are 21% of that. Miles per hour: rideshare from the Minnesota study 16, delivery from Seattle's report, which says it undercounts 17. Host: 10 miles round trip; change it in the tool below.
The whole field
Every side job on one ruler
Measured pay per hour after costs, from studies that counted every logged-in minute, next to the apps' own reported figures. Switch views to see both.
Your numbers
Put in last week
Your app's weekly summary has what it paid you and how long you were online; your odometer or a mileage app has the miles. We start you at the typical DoorDash driver. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Per hour, after the car
Your app$4.61
Trivia night$22.57
The trivia night keeps $17.96 more an hour.
Your DoorDash hour
A trivia night hour
The fair part
Where each one wins
Money is not the whole story, and the apps do some things hosting never will.
The apps win on
- Starting this week. Sign up, pass a check, drive. A trivia night takes a venue that says yes and about six weeks to build three to five regular teams 12.
- Any hour you like. 78% of app-based workers say it lets them work flexible hours 32. A trivia night is 7 pm Wednesday, every Wednesday.
- No stage. Nobody watches you work. Hosting is two hours in front of a room.
- Most think it is fair. 64% of gig workers told Pew the companies are fair on pay 31.
Hosting wins on
- Your car. One short drive a night instead of 60 to 180 miles.
- Steady pay. A flat fee per night, set with the venue. 61% of app workers wish their pay were more consistent 32.
- No algorithm boss. In a survey of 810 California Uber and Lyft drivers, 66% had been deactivated at some point, and 30% of those were given no reason 30.
- A room that knows you. 35% of gig workers have at least sometimes felt unsafe on the job, and 37% have been treated rudely 31. A host plays to regulars who come back for them.
- It grows. A weekly night is a calling card for private parties and office events, which hosts report at $350 to $700 and up 12. The events guide covers pricing.
Your city matters
Where the law sets a floor
Some cities now make the apps pay a minimum. If you drive there, the app math is better than the national picture, and a slow trivia night can lose.
$22.13
New York City delivery: the minimum per hour of active time from April 2026, with tips on top 26. Waiting for an offer is not active time.
$19.98
Seattle delivery: average pay per hour online, after IRS-rate mileage, with tips, in the first 18 months of its pay floor 17.
$9.87
Delivery in Boston, Chicago and Seattle before Seattle's floor: median per hour after expenses, with tips, January 2022 18. Without tips it was 48 cents.
You can do both
Keep the app. Add a night.
Most hosts do this part-time, and the apps fit around a trivia night easily: it is one evening, the same one every week. You could drive weekends and host a Tuesday. Try one free night for friends before you pitch a venue. The earnings calculator prices more nights, parties and office events, and the side income guide compares tutoring and bar work too.
Fair questions
Common questions
Where do the app numbers come from?
Rideshare figures come from a Minnesota state study that used 18 million trips of company data and counted every logged-in minute and every mile. Delivery figures are 2025 medians from Gridwise, an app that tracks hundreds of thousands of drivers' real earnings, plus Seattle's and New York's official reports. Every number on this page links to its source.
Why is the car so expensive here?
Because it is. There are three honest ways to count it, and you can switch between them at the top. Gas and wear alone is about 29 cents a mile (AAA). The IRS rate, 76 cents, also counts depreciation, insurance and the rest, and it is what the Minnesota and Seattle studies used, so it is our default. AAA's full cost for a new car is 86 cents. With only gas and wear counted, rideshare comes out ahead of a typical trivia night, and we show that too.
Is the trivia night number cherry-picked?
No. $150 plus $20 in tips is the worked example in our pay guide, and most independent hosts report $100 to $200 a night. We divide by the whole night, prep included: about 7 hours. A host for a trivia company makes $50 to $75 a show, which is closer to the apps. Put your own numbers in the tool.
What happened to Postmates?
Uber bought Postmates in 2020. Postmates still takes orders, but couriers sign up and deliver through the Uber app, so this page uses the Uber Eats figures for it.
What about taxes?
App drivers and independent hosts are both self-employed, so both owe the same 15.3% self-employment tax on top of income tax. That is why we leave tax out of both sides. Drivers can deduct their miles at the IRS rate, which lowers the tax bill, but the miles still cost real money.
Can I keep driving and host too?
Yes, and many people do. A trivia night is one fixed evening a week, and the apps fit around it. Building a night takes about six weeks, so keep your other income while it grows.
Is this a promise of what I will make?
No. These are typical and measured figures, and your city, your venue and your hours will move every one of them. Brainflood is software for hosts. We do not employ hosts or take a share of what they earn.
Receipts for the receipts
Sources
Numbers match the site-wide reference list. Every source was checked on October 14, 2026. "Our arithmetic" means we divided or added published figures ourselves; the sources did not publish that exact number.
- Gridwise. How much do Uber drivers make. 2025 data.
- Lyft. Driver earnings and net pay. February 2024 (second half of 2023).
- KapDec. Private tutoring rates in the U.S. 2025.
- Gridwise. How much do DoorDash drivers make. 2025 data.
- r/triviahosts. Host-reported pay, prep time and night formats. October 2025 to October 2026.
- Minnesota Dept. of Labor and Industry (Parrott and Reich). Minnesota TNC Driver Earnings Study. March 2024 (2022 data).
- Seattle Office of Labor Standards. App-Based Worker Minimum Payment Ordinance, first data report. 2026 (Jan 2024 to Jun 2025 data).
- UC Berkeley Labor Center. Gig passenger and delivery driver pay in five metro areas. May 2024 (January 2022 data).
- Gridwise. How much do Uber Eats drivers make (with DoorDash comparison). 2025 data.
- Gridwise. How much do Grubhub drivers make. 2025 data.
- Gridwise. How much do Instacart shoppers make. 2025 data.
- Gridwise. How much do Shipt shoppers make. 2025 data.
- Gridwise. How much do Spark drivers make. 2025 data.
- Gridwise. How much do Amazon Flex drivers make. 2025 data.
- NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission. Driver pay rules (utilization rate). June 2025 (May 2023 to April 2024 data).
- NYC Dept. of Consumer and Worker Protection. Delivery worker minimum pay rate. April 2026.
- NYC Dept. of Consumer and Worker Protection. Notice of adoption, minimum pay for food delivery workers. June 2023.
- AAA. Your Driving Costs 2026 (fact sheet). September 2026.
- IRS. Standard mileage rates. 2026 (76 cents from July 1, 2026).
- Rideshare Drivers United and Asian Law Caucus. Fired by an App. February 2023 (survey of 810 California drivers).
- Pew Research Center. How gig platform workers view their jobs. December 2021 (August 2021 survey).
- Federal Reserve Board. Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: employment and gig work. May 2025.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025 (Table 1). May 2025 data.
- U.S. Department of Labor. Federal minimum wage. Since July 24, 2009.
- IRS. Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes). 2026.
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, Grubhub, Instacart, Shipt, Walmart Spark and Amazon Flex are trademarks of their owners. Brainflood is not affiliated with any of them, and none of them reviewed this page. Brainflood is software for hosts; it does not employ hosts, set rates or take a share of what they earn. Nothing here is a promise of income.
Try one night before you decide.
The Free plan runs three games a month with the full question library, phone or paper scoring and the TV screen. Run one for friends this week.
Free to join · no card · keep driving while you build a night.