Started off years ago it was excellent, not anymore. - Anonymous employee Instacart Employee Review

2.0
3 Jun 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You make your own schedule.

Cons

$12 to drive across town, park your car legally, shop, stand in a line, pack your bags in your car, drive to the customers house, possibly take the bags up 4 or flight steps of stairs to the customer. There was a time when the orders would pay $30-$50 for large orders. Now large orders will pay you $20-$30 if you’re lucky. And after doing an order which takes a little over an hour, you may be exhausted.

Explore other reviews about Instacart

5.0
29 Mar 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
21 Jun 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.

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