The Real Cost of UberEats & DoorDash in Australia (2026)

Delivery apps are the easiest line item to ignore and the hardest to escape. They quietly take a quarter to a third of every order they touch, and in 2026, with one major player gone, that grip got tighter. Here's what Uber Eats and DoorDash really cost an independent Australian venue, what it does to your margin, and how to keep more of every dollar.

Headline rates published on Uber Eats and DoorDash's Australian merchant pricing pages, as at June 2026. They exclude GST and exclude error adjustments, ads and promos you fund. Always confirm the current figures in your own merchant agreement.

The 2026 landscape: a two-horse race

For years, Australian venues had three big aggregators to play off against each other: Uber Eats, DoorDash and Menulog. That changed on 26 November 2025, when Menulog ceased Australian operations and exited the market. What was a three-way contest is now a duopoly.

That matters for one reason: use. When a third platform existed, owners could threaten to delist, shift volume, or negotiate. With two players left, both running similar tiered pricing in a similar band, there's less competitive pressure to keep merchant fees down. We're not predicting price gouging, but the structural reality is plain: fewer competitors means more pricing power for the ones who remain, and less room for you to negotiate from.

The practical takeaway for an independent venue is to stop treating the apps as a neutral utility and start treating them as a channel with a real, measurable cost of acquisition, one you actively manage rather than passively accept.

What the apps actually charge

The headline number everyone quotes ("the apps take 30%") is roughly right for the most expensive plan, but it hides a lot. Both Uber Eats and DoorDash run tiered plans, and the fee depends on which one you're on and who does the delivering.

• Full marketplace / app-delivered: the platform's couriers deliver and your listing gets the most visibility. This is the priciest tier, typically ~25-35% of order value.
• Self-delivery: the order comes through the app but your own driver delivers it. Lower than full marketplace, often in the ~12-18% region.
• Pickup / collection: the customer collects from your venue. Usually the cheapest tier, frequently around ~6-10%.

One myth worth killing first: most articles quote US-style plan names, "Lite, Plus, Premium" at 15/25/30%. Those are the American tiers. In Australia, both platforms price by fulfilment model, not by a named subscription. Here's what each one actually publishes on its AU merchant pricing page (as at June 2026):

Two things jump out. First, on pickup the gap is huge: Uber's 6% versus DoorDash's 15%, so the cheaper platform genuinely depends on your order mix. Second, every figure above excludes GST, a 30% headline is closer to 33% once GST applies to the platform's fee. Confirm your own numbers in Uber Eats Manager and the DoorDash Merchant Portal; rates change and deals vary.

And commission isn't the whole bill. Layered on top you'll typically see:

• GST applied to the platform's service fees.
• Card / payment processing fees on each transaction.
• Optional advertising or sponsored-listing spend: pay-to-play visibility that's easy to switch on and easy to let creep.
• Promotions and discounts ("$10 off", "free delivery") that you fund, partly or wholly, on top of commission.

EEAT caveat: the percentages above are indicative ranges, not quotes. Exact rates vary by plan, location, venue size and any deal you've struck, and the platforms change their merchant pricing periodically. Treat these as a planning band, and always confirm the current figures in your own Uber Eats and DoorDash merchant agreements before you make decisions on them.

A $30 order, worked out

Percentages are abstract. Margins are not. Here's the same $30 order taken three ways. The figures are illustrative. They use mid-range assumptions to show the shape of the problem, not your exact P&L.

The gap is the whole story. On the marketplace tier, the platform takes more off this order than your food cost does. Move the same customer to your own ordering and you keep close to twice the gross margin, before you've spent a cent more on rent, wages or gas. Run a hundred of these a week and the difference between channels is the difference between a viable delivery operation and one that's quietly subsidising someone else's app.

Every venue is different. Drop your own figures in below to see what the apps are quietly costing you, and what even a modest shift to direct ordering would put back in your pocket.

How to read your weekly payout statement

The number that lands in your bank account is never order value minus commission. Between the two sits a column most owners never read: adjustments. Learn to read the statement and you'll find money that's quietly leaking every week.

Both platforms settle weekly, and the deposit is built like this:

• Gross order value, what customers paid for the food.
• − Commission, the marketplace/self-delivery/pickup rate from the table above.
• − Error adjustments / refunds, the big one. When a customer reports a missing or wrong item, the refund is taken out of your payout. On Uber Eats this shows as "Order error adjustments" on the weekly pay statement; on DoorDash it's billed as "Error Charges", tucked under Insights → Operations Quality rather than shown as a headline line.
• − Promotions you funded, the "$10 off" or "free delivery" you opted into, charged back to you in part or full.
• − Ad spend, sponsored-listing costs. Uber Eats Ads is a bid-based, cost-per-click auction with no fixed rate, which is exactly why it's so easy to overspend.
• = Net deposit.

Three lines to check every week: error adjustments, promo contributions and ad spend. Disputable error charges can be challenged, on Uber Eats you generally have a 30-day window to contest an adjustment in the Manager dashboard, case by case. If your "missing item" refunds are creeping up, it's usually a packing or labelling problem in the kitchen, and it's costing you real margin, not the platform's.

The hidden cost: they own your customer

The commission is the cost you can see. The expensive one is invisible: the apps own the customer relationship.

When someone orders your food through Uber Eats or DoorDash, you cook it, you bag it, you put your name on it, and you never get their name, email, phone number or address. The platform does. So the next time that diner is hungry, they open the app, not your website. To reach them again, you pay commission again. And again.

That's the trap. The apps don't sell you customers; they rent you access to them, per order, forever. A regular who orders weekly might cost you a few hundred dollars a year in commission you'd never pay if you owned their details and could text them a Friday special for free.

This is why "delivery is fine, we're busy" can be a dangerous read. You can be busy and still be handing the most valuable asset in your business, your customer list, to a platform that will happily rent it back to you indefinitely.

When delivery apps DO make sense

It would be dishonest to tell you to bin the apps. For most venues, used deliberately, they earn their place. They make sense when:

• The covers are genuinely incremental. If a delivery order is one you'd never have got otherwise (a customer outside your area, a night they'd never have come in), then even a thin margin is margin you wouldn't have had. The test is whether app orders add to your trade or just shift dine-in customers onto a more expensive channel.
• You're filling dead kitchen capacity. A slow Tuesday with staff already on the clock is exactly when a stream of app orders helps. The marginal cost of cooking is low; the fixed costs are already paid.
• You're new and need discovery. For a venue nobody knows yet, the apps are a vast, ready-made audience. Using them to get found, then converting those diners to direct, is a legitimate growth play.

The mistake isn't using the apps. It's using them passively: letting them become your default ordering system, funding promos without tracking return, and never building the direct channel that should eventually carry your regulars.

How to reduce the bleed

You don't have to choose between "all app" and "no app". The goal is to use the apps for what they're good at, reach, while steadily moving margin and customer relationships back to channels you control.

1. Price and build your menu for the app

If a third of an order disappears to commission, your app menu can't run on dine-in pricing. Many venues set app prices a little higher to protect margin (within the platforms' rules), lead with high-margin items, and drop low-margin or fiddly dishes that don't travel. Just keep it honest and check each platform's pricing-parity terms.

2. Push pickup over delivery

Pickup is the cheapest app tier by a wide margin. Where it suits your venue, nudge customers toward collection. It can cut the platform's cut by two-thirds or more on those orders.

3. Add your own commission-free online ordering

The single highest-use move is running direct ordering off your own site at a small flat fee instead of a percentage. It's the right-hand column in the table above. We've broken down the options in our guide to commission-free online ordering in Australia.

4. Capture customers onto a list you own

Every order, app or direct, is a chance to start a relationship you control. Put a small card or QR code in every bag offering a reason to order direct next time (a discount, a freebie, a members' menu) and collect an email or mobile. Once they're on a list you own, marketing to them is free.

5. Drive direct demand with free channels

Your Google Business Profile can carry an order-direct link that bypasses the apps entirely, and it's one of the first things a hungry local sees. Pair it with consistent social posting and you build a flow of customers who come to you first. This is the spine of our wider restaurant marketing guide for Australian venues.

What you can (and can't) negotiate in 2026

You almost certainly can't phone Uber and talk 30% down to 20% on the marketplace tier. But "the rate is the rate" is only half true, and the ground shifted in your favour recently.

The genuine levers:

• Change the fulfilment model, not the rate. Moving suitable orders from marketplace delivery (30%) to self-delivery (~15-16%) or nudging customers to pickup is a far bigger swing than any rate you'd negotiate. White-label delivery (Uber Direct / DoorDash Drive) lets you take orders on your own site and pay a flat delivery fee with no marketplace commission at all.
• Volume and ratings. Higher-volume venues with strong ratings have more to offer and more room to ask, especially around onboarding credits, ad matching for new locations, or fee relief during a launch period.
• The contract terms, not just the price. Since 9 November 2023, Australia's strengthened unfair contract terms regime made it illegal for a business to propose or rely on unfair terms in a standard-form contract, with penalties now in the tens of millions. Standard-form merchant agreements with small businesses (under 100 staff or under $10m turnover, which is most venues) sit squarely within scope. That doesn't void your whole contract or any specific clause automatically, but it gives a small venue far firmer footing to push back on one-sided terms than it had a couple of years ago.

Plain-English caveat: we're not lawyers and no specific Uber Eats or DoorDash term has been declared unfair in court that we're aware of. If a clause genuinely worries you, get advice or raise it with the ACCC, rather than assuming it's unenforceable.

FAQ

What commission does Uber Eats charge in Australia?

Uber Eats' full marketplace plan, where Uber's couriers deliver and the listing gets maximum visibility, typically sits in the ~25-35% range of order value before GST and other fees. Lower-cost plans exist: pickup/collection is usually far cheaper, and self-delivery (your own driver) sits in between. Exact rates vary by plan, location and negotiation, and they change, so always check Uber Eats' current merchant terms for your venue.

Is DoorDash cheaper than Uber Eats?

Not reliably. Both run tiered plans in a similar band: roughly 25-35% for full marketplace delivery, with cheaper pickup and self-delivery options. Headline percentages move with promotions and plan changes, so the only honest answer is to price both for your menu and order mix rather than assuming one is structurally cheaper. Confirm current rates in each platform's merchant agreement.

Now that Menulog has closed, what are my options?

Menulog ceased Australian operations on 26 November 2025, leaving Uber Eats and DoorDash as the two main marketplaces. Your realistic options are: list on one or both apps, run your own commission-free online ordering for direct delivery and pickup, or a mix that uses the apps for discovery while pushing repeat customers to order direct. Most independent venues are best served by the mix.

How do I get customers to order direct instead of through the apps?

Add your own online ordering link to your website and Google Business Profile, drop a flyer or QR code in every delivery bag with a reason to order direct next time, capture diners onto an email or SMS list you own, and keep your direct prices at or below the app price. Over time the direct channel compounds, because you can market to those customers for free.

Do refunds for missing or wrong items come out of my pocket?

Usually, yes. When a customer reports a missing or incorrect item, the platform refunds them and deducts it from your payout, it appears as "Order error adjustments" on Uber Eats and as "Error Charges" on DoorDash. You can dispute charges you believe are wrong (Uber Eats generally allows around a 30-day window in the Manager dashboard), but the faster fix is tightening packing and labelling so the refunds stop happening. Persistent error charges are usually a kitchen process problem, not bad luck.

Are delivery-app commissions charged before or after GST?

The headline rates the platforms publish (e.g. 30% for marketplace delivery) are quoted excluding GST, so the effective cost is higher once GST is applied to the platform's fee. You also still account for GST on the food you sell through the apps. The interaction can get fiddly, so treat the headline percentage as a floor, not the full cost, and check the GST treatment with your accountant.