Uber vs DiDi vs Ola in Australia: What Changed and Which Pays Best Now
If you are choosing between rideshare platforms in Australia in 2026, the honest answer is that there are two worth your time: Uber and DiDi.
Ola is the reason this article needs a date on it. It ran in Australia from 2018, reached most capital cities, and then shut the whole market down on 12 April 2024 with about two days' notice to the drivers and riders using it. Bolt had already gone, in 2020. Plenty of advice written before that still lists three or four apps, and following it now means signing up for services that do not exist.
So: what is actually here, how the two compare, and what to check before you commit to any platform.
What happened to Ola
Ola Cabs entered Australia in 2018 as the main challenger to Uber, undercutting it on driver commission to build a driver base. It operated in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth.
In April 2024 it exited Australia, the UK and New Zealand at the same time, to concentrate on its home market in India. Drivers were given days, not months.
Two things are worth taking from that, and they matter more than any commission table.
A low commission is a customer acquisition cost, not a promise. A challenger platform buying market share with a better driver deal can stop buying at any time. That is not dishonesty, it is how the strategy works.
Money sitting inside a platform is exposed. Drivers with pending balances and unpaid incentives at an exit have very little leverage. Withdraw earnings on the normal cycle rather than letting them build up in an app, particularly on a smaller platform.
Uber and DiDi, compared properly
Commission
The service fee is the number every comparison leads with. Uber's standard service fee in Australia is commonly quoted at 27.5% including GST. DiDi has consistently marketed a materially lower rate, and lower commission is its main pitch to drivers.
Treat any specific figure, including those, as a starting point. Rates differ by city and by trip type, promotional rates expire, and the only number that describes your driving is the one on your own weekly statement. Read the fee line on a few real trips before believing any article, this one included.
Why commission decides less than it appears to
Here is the trap. A lower cut of a fare that never arrives is nothing.
Take a 10-hour shift. On the busier platform you complete 22 trips at an average $28 fare and hand over 27.5%. That is $616 in fares and about $447 kept.
On the cheaper platform, the same 10 hours produce 15 trips because the requests are thinner, at the same average fare, with a 15% cut. That is $420 in fares and $357 kept.
The platform with the worse commission paid $90 more, because it filled the hours. Reverse the trip counts and the answer reverses with them. This is why the only comparison worth making is dollars per hour online, never percentage taken or dollars per trip.
Demand
Uber is the dominant platform in Australia by a wide margin and has the shortest gaps between requests almost everywhere. DiDi is the substantial alternative, strongest in inner Sydney and Melbourne and thinner as you move out.
That geography is the practical difference. In the inner city, DiDi's rate can genuinely win. In an outer suburb at 10am, a lower commission on an empty app is a worse hour.
Surge and incentives
Uber uses a live multiplier or flat surge amount that moves with the shortage. DiDi leans on flat peak-hour bonuses and promotional targets instead.
Multiplier surge has the higher ceiling on a genuinely busy night. Flat bonuses are more predictable and easier to plan a week around. Which suits you depends on whether you drive the peaks or drive steadily.
New-driver incentives are worth taking and worth discounting. They are designed to move you across, they expire, and the rate afterwards is the rate that matters.
Running both
Most full-time Australian drivers run Uber and DiDi together, which is legal and neither platform forbids it. The rules of the road:
- Accept one trip at a time, and go offline on the other app the moment you accept.
- Never cancel an accepted trip because something better appeared on the other app. It is the fastest route to deactivation on the platform you abandoned.
- Let requests time out rather than declining constantly, and watch what that does to your standing.
Our multi-apping guide covers the practical setup.
What to check before joining any platform
Ola's exit is a template for how to assess whatever launches next.
- How do you get paid, and how fast? Daily or weekly withdrawal beats a balance that accumulates inside the app.
- Is the driver rate promotional? Ask what it reverts to and when.
- What are the vehicle requirements and do they differ from the platform you already drive for? Age limits vary by state and change; check the current rules with the platform rather than an article.
- Does it cost you anything to try? Where sign-up is free and the app can sit alongside your existing one, a new platform is a low-risk experiment. Where it needs a different car, it is an investment, and it deserves the scrutiny of one.
- What happens to your standing if you barely use it? An app you run occasionally can still penalise a low acceptance rate.
The verdict
For most Australian drivers, the answer in 2026 is Uber as the base and DiDi alongside it, with the mix decided by where you drive rather than by the headline commission.
And measure it yourself. Four weeks of logged shifts with the hours, the kilometres and what you actually kept will tell you which platform pays you more, which no comparison article can. The real earnings calculator does that arithmetic with your own fuel, running costs and GST in it.