Yes, Amazon Flex drivers do get tips, but only on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market deliveries. Standard package blocks from Amazon.com fulfillment or sorting centers have no in-app tipping option for customers. Base pay of $18 to $25 per hour comes from Amazon, and any customer tips on eligible grocery orders are paid to you on top of that rate. Since a 2021 FTC settlement, Amazon is required to pass 100% of those tips through to the driver.1Federal Trade Commission. Amazon To Pay $61.7 Million to Settle FTC Charges It Withheld Some Customer Tips From Amazon Flex Drivers
Which Blocks Earn Tips
Eligibility depends entirely on where the block originates. Grocery blocks out of Amazon Fresh warehouses and Whole Foods stores include a tipping prompt at customer checkout, and the app shows an earnings range that reflects potential tips.2Amazon Flex. Your Guide to Amazon Flex Offers Logistics blocks (the cardboard-package runs from sorting centers) do not.
Nothing about your performance changes this. A perfect standard delivery still cannot produce a digital tip, because the customer was never given the option. Drivers who want tip income prioritize grocery blocks when they appear.
How Much Customers Tip and When They Can Change It
On eligible orders, the checkout screen adds a suggested tip automatically, often around five dollars. Customers can raise it, lower it, or remove it before paying. After the delivery, they have a 24-hour window to adjust the amount up or down.3Amazon Flex. How Delivering Packages With Amazon Flex Works
Because the tip is pre-filled by default, many customers leave it alone. Once the 24-hour window closes, the amount is locked and can’t be changed by either side.
When Tips Show Up in Your Account
Tips finalize 27 hours after your block ends. That covers the customer’s 24-hour modification window plus processing time.4Amazon Flex. Get Paid Automatically After Each Block With Amazon Flex Instant Pay The Earnings tab breaks out base pay and tips as separate line items, so you can see where each dollar came from.
You can pick a specific weekly deposit day or take daily deposits to your bank.5Amazon Flex. New Feature Lets You Choose When and How You Get Paid Drivers who sign up for the Amazon Flex Debit Card can use Instant Pay, which releases non-tip earnings shortly after a block ends and tip earnings after the 27-hour finalization.4Amazon Flex. Get Paid Automatically After Each Block With Amazon Flex Instant Pay The card also earns up to 6% cash back on fuel.
Why You Now Keep 100% of Tips
The current tip rule exists because Amazon was caught taking a cut. Between 2016 and 2019, the FTC found the company was quietly reducing its own share of driver pay by the amount customers tipped, so tips effectively covered base pay instead of adding to it. Amazon paid $61.7 million to settle, and the FTC distributed that money to affected drivers.1Federal Trade Commission. Amazon To Pay $61.7 Million to Settle FTC Charges It Withheld Some Customer Tips From Amazon Flex Drivers
The settlement bars Amazon from changing how tips factor into pay without each driver’s informed consent. The company must pass 100% of customer tips to the driver and cannot use those tips to subsidize the promised base rate.1Federal Trade Commission. Amazon To Pay $61.7 Million to Settle FTC Charges It Withheld Some Customer Tips From Amazon Flex Drivers Your $18 to $25 per hour comes from Amazon; tips are separate.
Thank My Driver Bonuses
Amazon runs a “Thank My Driver” feature year-round. A customer types “thank my driver” into the Amazon app or website, or says “Alexa, thank my driver,” and the driver gets a notification.6Amazon. Amazon’s Thank My Driver Feature: How It Works and How You Can Thank Your Driver
During the holiday season, the program turns into a real bonus. Each thank-you comes with a $5 payment to the driver at no cost to the customer. One thank-you per delivery, and the promotion runs until two million thank-yous have been sent nationwide, at which point the $5 bonuses stop while the feature itself keeps working.6Amazon. Amazon’s Thank My Driver Feature: How It Works and How You Can Thank Your Driver In past years, once the cap was hit, Amazon awarded daily $100 prizes to the most-thanked drivers through the end of December. There is no cap on how many bonuses one driver can collect during the promotion.
What About Cash Tips
Some customers still hand cash to the driver, though it has become uncommon with no-contact delivery. Amazon’s app has historically told customers that “cash is not accepted upon delivery,” but there is no way for the company to stop someone from offering cash at the door.
Cash never appears in the Flex app or on your year-end tax forms. If you take it, you’re responsible for tracking and reporting it as self-employment income.
Tips Are Taxable Income
Flex drivers are independent contractors, not employees, so no taxes are withheld from your pay. All of your earnings, tips included, are subject to self-employment tax. Amazon reports the compensation it tracks (base pay and digital tips) on Form 1099-NEC at year-end.7Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-NEC, Nonemployee Compensation Digital tips are already inside that number. Cash tips are not, and it’s on you to add them to what you report. Income below the 1099 threshold is still taxable and still has to be reported.