DoorDash Active Time measures time spent completing accepted offers. Dash Time covers the full dash, including time spent waiting for offers. To judge what a dash earned for the time you committed, start with earnings per Dash Time hour. Use Active Time to understand the delivery work within that session.
What counts and which number to use for hourly earnings
What counts as Active Time
According to DoorDash’s time definitions, Active Time begins when you accept an offer. It includes traveling to the merchant, waiting for the order, and completing the delivery. It ends at the final drop-off for the offer, or cancellation.
That means a restaurant wait after acceptance is active time, even while you are standing still. Waiting for your next offer is different: no accepted offer is underway.
What counts as Dash Time
DoorDash defines Dash Time as the period between starting and ending a dash. Active Time is part of that total, so adding the two together would count the active portion twice.
The gap helps explain how much of a session was outside accepted offers. Use the recorded totals for the same dash when making the comparison.
Follow one dash from start to finish
Imagine a continuous dash from 10 AM to noon, with no personal breaks. This fictional timeline shows how the two clocks differ.
| Time | Activity | Active minutes | Dash minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–10:15 AM | Waiting for an offer | 0 | 15 |
| 10:15–10:45 AM | Completing an accepted offer | 30 | 30 |
| 10:45–11:00 AM | Waiting for an offer | 0 | 15 |
| 11:00–11:45 AM | Completing an accepted offer | 45 | 45 |
| 11:45 AM–noon | Waiting for an offer | 0 | 15 |
| Total | One continuous dash | 75 | 120 |
The session contains 1 hour 15 minutes of Active Time and 2 hours of Dash Time. The remaining 45 minutes were spent waiting for offers. Those minutes still occupied part of the work session.
Calculate both hourly rates from the same earnings
Suppose this dash earned $40 in USD, including tips and promotions. These are illustrative figures, not typical DoorDash earnings or a forecast.
Using Dash Time, $40 divided by 2 hours gives $20 per hour. Using Active Time, $40 divided by 1.25 hours gives $32 per active hour. Convert minutes correctly: 1 hour 15 minutes is 1.25 hours, not 1.15.
Both rates describe the same $40. The $32 figure describes earnings relative to accepted-offer time; the $20 figure includes the entire two-hour dash. If you are deciding whether that work period was worth repeating, the whole-dash result gives you the fuller time comparison.
Both figures are gross earnings before costs. To compare earnings after vehicle costs, subtract a consistently defined cost amount before dividing. For example, $6 in estimated distance costs would leave $34: $17 per Dash Time hour or $27.20 per active hour. That does not make either figure after-tax take-home pay.
For the general formulas across delivery platforms, see active time vs. total time: calculating delivery earnings per hour.
Use the gap to investigate your shifts
In the example, 75 of 120 minutes were active, giving 62.5% utilization. This tells you how much of the dash was spent on accepted offers. It does not explain why the remaining time occurred or whether the deliveries were profitable.
Compare similar weekdays, work windows, and areas, then check notes about long waits or unusual delays. A busier dash can still produce less money per hour if its offers pay less or require more driving. Read utilization alongside earnings and distance rather than treating a higher percentage as the goal.
What this means for Earn by Time
DoorDash’s Earn by Time pay model bases its guaranteed hourly rate on active delivery time. Tips and applicable promotions are additional. The displayed active hourly rate therefore does not apply to every Dash Time hour.
For example, an invented $16 active hourly base rate applied to 1.25 active hours produces $20 in base pay. Across two dash hours, that base component averages $10 per hour before tips, promotions, and costs. Keep this separate illustration from the earlier $40 earnings example.
Check the rate and terms in your app. To evaluate the two pay modes using complete shifts, read Earn by Time vs Earn per Offer.
Keep the time boundaries clear in your records
Match earnings, Active Time, and Dash Time to the same session. Do not pair a full day’s earnings with one delivery’s duration. If you complete separate dashes, preserve the gaps between them instead of treating the first start and final finish as one uninterrupted work period.
If your app session includes a personal break, record that context and keep the original app totals available. Any adjustment you make for your own work log should be explicit and applied consistently across comparisons.
For a DoorDash session that matches the work you are logging, enter its verified Dash Time as Time worked in Drovm and its Active Time separately. Review both fields after a screenshot import. Record final earnings once; tips already included in the total should not be added again.
If another delivery app was online at the same time, use the multi-app earnings guide to avoid counting shared work hours twice. Keep DoorDash’s own hours attached to its platform results.