A Visual Analysis of Hidden Fees for Uber Eats Orders Across America

Sometimes, there's nothing better than treating yourself to your favorite food without having to leave the house. Nowadays, smartphone apps galore are on hand to deliver your dinner, and while it's all fun and games loading up your digital cart with mouth-watering meals, often the hidden fees and taxes tacked on at the checkout can be enough to make a hungry user lose their appetite.

In particular, an experiment by The New York Times found that the combined cost of Uber Eats' various surcharges was equivalent to a 91% markup on the restaurant cost of a meal, the highest of any of the leading food delivery apps. And since we're all about saving money at CouponBirds, this got us thinking: where in the U.S. are Uber Eats users spending the most on hidden fees for their takeout?

In order to answer this question, we calculated the average cost of hidden fees for fast food deliveries in every state and the most populated U.S. cities to find out.

What We Did

For each U.S. state and 164 of the most populated U.S. cities, we manually collected online prices and additional 'taxes and other fees' for three popular fast food dishes on Uber Eats: a 6" Garlic Roast Beef Sub from Subway, a 3x Chick-n-Strips Meal from Chick-fil-A and a Double Quarter Pounder® with Cheese Meal from McDonald's. With all this data in hand, we calculated the average price paid in 'taxes and other fees' for Uber Eats orders in each state and city. Alaska was excluded from our analysis due to insufficient data, as were cities in Wyoming.

Key Findings

• On average, Seattle has the highest hidden fees ($12.16) when ordering Uber Eats takeout of any major U.S. city.

• In contrast, Toledo, Ohio, has the lowest average hidden Uber Eats fees ($2.13) of any city.

• On average, Washington ($7.80) and California ($6.42) are the states with the highest hidden fees on Uber Eats.

• Delaware ($2.31) has the lowest average hidden Uber Eats fees of any U.S. state.

Seattle Locals Pay the Most for Hidden Fees on Uber Eats

If you're in Seattle and you're craving takeout, it might be kinder on your wallet to go out to eat instead: the average cost of the hidden fees on an Uber Eats order here is $12.16, more than in any other U.S. city. Locals may grumble, but there's a good reason at the core: a new Seattle law implemented in January 2024 requires gig workers like delivery drivers to receive a minimum wage, which Uber has responded to by adding a "Local Operating Fee" of five dollars and upping its service fees.

Four Californian cities round out the top five spots, with the average hidden fees of ordering through Uber Eats in San Francisco totaling $7.35. Pricey fees don't seem to bother Golden Gate locals, though: one Uber Eats report noted that San Francisco is one of the most polite cities when it comes to the customer instructions box, with users writing "please" and "thank you" the most. It's also likely less of an issue, considering San Francisco boasts the country's highest median household income.

On the other hand, locals of Toledo, Ohio, pay the smallest average cost ($2.13) for hidden fees when ordering through Uber Eats. None of the top ten cities with the lowest fees have an average hidden cost exceeding three dollars. Lucky for them!

Washington Has the Highest Hidden Fees on Uber Eats of Any State

Looking at states as a whole, Washington ($7.80) has the priciest average hidden fees on Uber Eats, no doubt skewed by Seattle's aforementioned minimum wage law. California has the second highest with an average of $6.42. In 2020, Uber and its peers successfully pushed for the passing of Proposition 22, a Californian law that exempts gig workers from being classified as proper employees. Uber increased its rates in the Golden State to offset the cost of the new benefits it promised workers.

The rights of rideshare workers like Uber Eats drivers are a concern for many across the country. In Connecticut, the state with the third highest hidden fees (an average of $4.99), drivers have lobbied for better pay, triggering Uber to respond that the resulting increased fares (and, presumably, food delivery fees) would put Connecticut riders and users off of Uber entirely.

In contrast, the average cost of hidden fees on an Uber Eats order in Delaware is just $2.31 — that's cheaper than in any other state. Delaware is one of three states that don't allow alcohol to be delivered directly to a consumer, but lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow alcohol to be bought with at least $10 worth of food on apps like Uber Eats.

Our map above highlights the city within each state with the highest average cost of hidden fees for a popular dish. Seattle is the city with the highest hidden fees in the U.S. with an average of $12.16 being added on to each order. This is almost double the cost that the second-highest city, San Francisco ($7.35), has to pay.

Among the highest is New York City ($6.24), where Uber Eats tacks a New York Courier Fee (an additional $2 per $30 spent) onto orders to offset a higher minimum wage requirement. Minneapolis ($5.54) comes top in Minnesota; here, Uber is threatening to leave the city entirely thanks to new laws that require the company to pay its drivers minimum wage.

A Visual Breakdown of Hidden Fees Charged for Uber Eats Orders in Each State

We considered three popular dishes from McDonald's, Subway and Chick-fil-A when calculating the average cost of Uber Eats' hidden fees across the country. Our visualization below reveals the states that have the highest hidden fees to have each of these meals delivered when considering the total cost of hidden fees and the equivalent percentage cost versus the price of the food.

The priciest dish to order of the three meals is the 6" Garlic Roast Beef Sub from Subway, for which the average Uber Eats user in the U.S. must shell out hidden fees equivalent to 37% of the cost of the sandwich. Across the board, Washington and California have the highest hidden fees.

These Are the States with the Highest Hidden Fees Across Different Orders

Our next graphic reveals the breakdown of hidden fees for Uber Eats orders in every state. Hidden fees are split between service fees and taxes in most states, but in six others, an additional fee makes up part of the cost. One of these states is Maryland, where (as of March 2024) lawmakers are considering imposing a 50-cent "road impact" fee on rideshare trips and food deliveries. In Oregon, no sales tax means that service fees make up 96% of the hidden cost of ordering from Uber Eats.

A study by YouGov found that 21% of people in the U.S. order takeout several times a month. We're not the world's biggest fans of ordering in (looking at you, Taiwan and Thailand), but when the average cost of an Uber Eats delivery in America is $33.94, you can see how our taste for takeout affects our wallets.

Unfortunately, hidden fees are part and parcel of getting your dinner delivered. On Uber Eats, your delivery fee will be calculated based on how far away you are from the restaurant. The service fee, meanwhile, is typically 10% of the cost of your basket before any promotions or discounts are applied. Other local taxes and surcharges may also pop up when you get to the checkout.

With this in mind, if you want to save money on your next takeout order, try picking a closer restaurant to your house and seeing how the delivery fare compares. It's also a good idea to check out any discounts and promotions on offer. Don't forget to tip your hard-working driver, too!

Methodology & Sources

From a seed list of 164 of the most populated U.S. cities, we manually collected the online prices and the additional 'taxes and other fees' for three popular fast food dishes on Uber Eats:

• 6" Garlic Roast Beef Sub (Subway)

• 3 ct Chick-n-Strips Meal (Chick-fil-A)

• Double Quarter Pounder® with Cheese Meal (McDonald's)

We then calculated the average price paid (USD) in 'taxes and other fees' that appear at the checkout stage of the order for each city and state. Next, we calculated the average price paid for these fees per dish in each state.

Taxes and other fees usually consist of a service fee and taxes. Sometimes, a city and state include a third legislative tax (for example, the 'Driver Benefits Fee' in California). These types of charges were also included in our calculations towards a hidden fee.

This study was completed in April 2024.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.