Comparing Uber and Lyft Fare Rates in Feb 2016
Earlier this month, Uber cut prices in 80 cities and Lyft reduced prices in about 30 markets after that. Uber continued to cut prices in 20 more markets, including New York City, which has avoid much of the fare cuts over the last 18 months. Uber gave price cuts to 107 of their cities (the total count in 2015 is 52 in total) and Lyft gave cuts to 32 of their own markets in the past month:
- Uber List of Fare Cuts in 80 Cities in 2016
- Lyft Responds by Cutting Fares in 30 Cities in 2016
- Uber Cuts Fares in New York and 27 Cities in Jan 2016
- Lyft also cut fares in Austin and New York City After Uber’s Fare Cut
Which Service has Higher Fares, Uber or Lyft?
Well according to the data below, Uber has lower fares than many of Lyft’s cities. On average, Uber fares are 3% lower than Lyft’s nationwide. These values were calculated using the base cost, per mile and per minute rates. The base cost was calculated relative to an average fare of $10 since I was seeing large percentage decreases in base cost, but it amounted to a few percent difference in an average fare.
Lyft Regular vs UberX
From looking at the fares alone, Lyft would be the better service to drive for because the fares are about 3% higher compared to UberX. Uber fares higher than Lyft in 16 of the 54 cities, so Lyft would be the better choice.
Lyft Plus vs UberXL
From the fare data, UberXL fares is slightly higher than Lyft Plus fares on average nationwide and you will earn more with UberXL if you primarily get XL requests. UberXL is on average 1% higher than Lyft Plus, mainly because base fares on UberXL is very high in some markets. Uber had higher fares in 21 out of the 51 Lyft Plus markets, but look at the table below to find out which fares are higher.
Would I Make More Money?
My reasoning is that I rather drive less for more money, but note that I do not guarantee that I will be making more money with this tactic. I would be increasing my profitability, which I can summarize as fare dollars per mile driven. However, earnings per hour may drop if you switch to Lyft, but with rates much higher on Lyft, it’s hard to believe that you would be making less than on Uber.
However, this doesn’t take into account trips per hour and the difference in trip distance and time between the two services in any given market. I have seen some differences in my own data between trip length and time on Uber and Lyft. It also doesn’t account for amount of Surge on Uber or PT on Lyft.
Price Comparisons
Here is the price comparison for Uber and Lyft in the major markets (UberXL/Lyft Plus is further down):
- The below chart is for UberX vs Lyft Regular
- Fare difference is positive if Lyft is better or negative if Uber is higher. It is an average calculation comparing base fares, minute and mile separately.
| Base | Mile | Minute | Average | Lyft or Uber | |
| ‘ann-arbor’ | 4% | 25% | 38% | 22% | Lyft |
| ‘atlanta’ | 2% | 20% | 6% | 9% | Lyft |
| ‘austin’ | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘bakersfield’ | -2% | 6% | 1% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘baltimore’ | -2% | 9% | 0% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘boston’ | 0% | -11% | -2% | -4% | Uber |
| ‘charlotte’ | -1% | 6% | 0% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘chicago’ | 0% | 9% | 0% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘cincinnati’ | 0% | 6% | 0% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘cleveland’ | 0% | 0% | 5% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘corpus-christi’ | 0% | -7% | 5% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘dallas-fort-worth’ | 0% | 33% | 6% | 13% | Lyft |
| ‘denver’ | -3% | -8% | 1% | -3% | Uber |
| ‘detroit’ | 0% | -76% | 57% | -6% | Uber |
| ‘fresno’ | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘honolulu’ | 0% | 9% | 0% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘indianapolis’ | 0% | -7% | -7% | -5% | Uber |
| ‘inland-empire’ | 0% | 0% | 12% | 4% | Lyft |
| ‘lexington’ | 0% | 0% | 24% | 8% | Lyft |
| ‘lincoln’ | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘los-angeles’ | 0% | 6% | -2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘louisville’ | 0% | 22% | 24% | 15% | Lyft |
| ‘madison’ | 0% | -11% | 2% | -3% | Uber |
| ‘memphis’ | 0% | 8% | 0% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘miami’ | 1% | 13% | 6% | 6% | Lyft |
| ‘milwaukee’ | 1% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘minneapolis-st-paul’ | 0% | 6% | 2% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘modesto’ | 0% | 0% | 3% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘nashville’ | 0% | 14% | -3% | 4% | Lyft |
| ‘new-jersey’ | 1% | 17% | 23% | 13% | Lyft |
| ‘new-york-city’ | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘oklahoma-city’ | -1% | 0% | 3% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘omaha’ | -2% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘orange-county’ | 0% | -7% | 3% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘orlando’ | 0% | -10% | 3% | -2% | Uber |
| ‘Philadelphia’ | -1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘phoenix’ | 5% | 6% | 5% | 5% | Lyft |
| ‘pittsburgh’ | 0% | 6% | 1% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘portland’ | 3% | 33% | 26% | 21% | Lyft |
| ‘providence’ | 0% | 0% | 4% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘raleigh-durham’ | 0% | -56% | 0% | -19% | Uber |
| ‘sacramento’ | -1% | -9% | 4% | -2% | Uber |
| ‘salt-lake-city’ | 0% | 6% | 4% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘san-antonio’ | 0% | 44% | 25% | 23% | Lyft |
| ‘san-diego’ | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘san-francisco’ | -3% | 4% | 1% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘santa-barbara’ | -5% | 5% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘seattle’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘spokane’ | -1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘tampa-bay’ | 0% | -10% | 7% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘toledo’ | -1% | -9% | 7% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘tucson’ | 5% | 19% | 24% | 16% | Lyft |
| ‘tulsa’ | 0% | -10% | 6% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘washington-dc’ | -4% | 6% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
Here is the comparison for UberXL and Lyft Plus:
- The below chart is for UberXL vs Lyft Plus
- Fare difference is positive if Lyft is better or negative if Uber is higher. It is an average calculation comparing base fares, minute and mile separately.
| Base | Mile | Minute | Average | Lyft or Uber | |
| ‘ann-arbor’ | 0% | 0% | 3% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘atlanta’ | -10% | -20% | 2% | -9% | Uber |
| ‘austin’ | 0% | 9% | 0% | 3% | Lyft |
| ‘baltimore’ | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘boston’ | -5% | 8% | -21% | -6% | Uber |
| ‘charlotte’ | -13% | -11% | 9% | -5% | Uber |
| ‘chicago’ | -4% | -6% | -30% | -13% | Uber |
| ‘cincinnati’ | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘cleveland’ | 0% | 3% | 2% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘dallas-fort-worth’ | -12% | 20% | 18% | 9% | Lyft |
| ‘denver’ | 0% | 3% | 0% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘detroit’ | 0% | 10% | 4% | 5% | Lyft |
| ‘fresno’ | 0% | -4% | 5% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘honolulu’ | -6% | 26% | -30% | -3% | Uber |
| ‘indianapolis’ | 2% | -12% | -7% | -6% | Uber |
| ‘inland-empire’ | 0% | -6% | 5% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘lexington’ | 2% | 7% | 24% | 11% | Lyft |
| ‘los-angeles’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘louisville’ | 2% | 7% | 24% | 11% | Lyft |
| ‘madison’ | -8% | 13% | -7% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘memphis’ | 0% | 5% | 1% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘miami’ | -5% | -30% | -44% | -27% | Uber |
| ‘milwaukee’ | -2% | -3% | -15% | -7% | Uber |
| ‘minneapolis-st-paul’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘modesto’ | 1% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘nashville’ | -23% | -11% | -9% | -14% | Uber |
| ‘new-jersey’ | 2% | 33% | 6% | 14% | Lyft |
| ‘new-york-city’ | -4% | 0% | 4% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘oklahoma-city’ | 0% | 4% | 1% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘omaha’ | 0% | -13% | 1% | -4% | Uber |
| ‘orange-county’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘orlando’ | 0% | 0% | 3% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘Philadelphia’ | -13% | 7% | -21% | -9% | Uber |
| ‘phoenix’ | -13% | 4% | -40% | -16% | Uber |
| ‘pittsburgh’ | 0% | 0% | 3% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘portland’ | 3% | 44% | 16% | 21% | Lyft |
| ‘providence’ | -13% | 7% | 9% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘raleigh-durham’ | 0% | -33% | -4% | -13% | Uber |
| ‘sacramento’ | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘salt-lake-city’ | -3% | -11% | -14% | -9% | Uber |
| ‘san-antonio’ | 0% | 7% | 8% | 5% | Lyft |
| ‘san-diego’ | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | Lyft |
| ‘san-francisco’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
| ‘santa-barbara’ | -5% | 0% | 0% | -2% | Uber |
| ‘seattle’ | -10% | 17% | -36% | -10% | Uber |
| ‘spokane’ | -1% | 0% | 1% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘tampa-bay’ | 0% | 5% | 3% | 2% | Lyft |
| ‘toledo’ | 0% | -5% | 3% | -1% | Uber |
| ‘tucson’ | 2% | 7% | 39% | 16% | Lyft |
| ‘tulsa’ | 0% | -4% | 3% | 0% | Uber |
| ‘washington-dc’ | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | Lyft |
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- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.
