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DoorDash tracks four Dasher metrics in your app: Customer Rating, Acceptance Rate, Completion Rate, and On-Time Rate. New Dashers tend to stress about all four equally — but they don't matter equally. One can get you deactivated; one is mostly your choice; one is gated by hard math; one is influenced by factors outside your control. This guide breaks down what each metric actually measures, the thresholds that matter, what to ignore, and what to optimize.

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What's in this guide

The four Dasher metrics at a glance

Metric Window Hard Floor Top Dasher Threshold Your Control
Customer Rating Last 100 orders 4.2 (deactivation risk) 4.7+ Mostly yours
Acceptance Rate Last 100 offers None (no deactivation) 70%+ Fully yours
Completion Rate Last 100 deliveries 80% (deactivation) 95%+ Mostly yours
On-Time Rate Tracked, less prominent None (no deactivation) N/A Mixed

The headline: - Customer Rating and Completion Rate are the safety-critical ones (drop too low and you're deactivated). - Acceptance Rate matters only for Top Dasher — and that's a strategic choice you make. - On-Time Rate is informational but worth tracking for general performance.

Customer Rating: how it works and what to optimize

Customer Rating is the rolling average of star ratings (1–5) from your last 100 customer-rated deliveries. Customers can rate any delivery they want; many don't bother. Here's the practical reality:

The math. A handful of bad ratings hurt disproportionately because the average is calculated over rated deliveries (not all deliveries). If only 30% of customers rate you, then 5 one-star ratings can drag your average significantly.

The deactivation floor: 4.2. Drop below this rolling average and DoorDash can deactivate your account. This is the most common deactivation trigger after Completion Rate.

The Top Dasher threshold: 4.7+. Required for Top Dasher status (alongside other metrics). See DoorDash Top Dasher Program.

What raises your rating: - Speed: pickup quickly, drive efficiently, deliver promptly - Communication: send a quick "On my way!" message during long deliveries - Care: insulated bags, items upright, beverages secured - Following customer instructions: leave at door = leave at door (with photo proof) - Politeness on hand-off

What hurts your rating: - Late arrivals - Cold food (real or perceived) — customers blame the Dasher even if the restaurant was slow - Wrong items (usually the restaurant's fault, but customers rate the Dasher) - Missing items (same) - Rude or curt interactions - Not following delivery instructions

An important reality check: You can do everything right and still get a low rating from a customer who's having a bad day, who's annoyed at the restaurant for missing items, or who hates the price they paid. Don't take individual low ratings personally — track the trend over time.

If your Customer Rating drops dangerously low, your best move is to dash a high volume of careful, well-executed deliveries. The rolling-100 window means new positive ratings push out older bad ones.

Acceptance Rate: it's your choice (mostly)

Acceptance Rate is the percentage of offers you've accepted out of the last 100 offers you've received. Decline an offer = denominator goes up, numerator stays. Accept = both go up.

The deactivation floor: none. This is the most misunderstood thing about Acceptance Rate. There is no acceptance-rate floor that triggers deactivation. You can decline 95% of offers and you won't be deactivated for it.

The Top Dasher threshold: 70%+. This is where Acceptance Rate matters strategically. To qualify for Top Dasher, you need at least 70% acceptance rate (along with other criteria). For Dashers who specifically want Top Dasher status (priority access to orders, scheduling perks), this floor matters.

The strategic decision:

  • High Acceptance Rate (~70%+): You're optimizing for Top Dasher status. You'll take more orders that aren't great economically but maintain access to the program's priority benefits.
  • Low Acceptance Rate (under 50%): You're "cherry-picking." You only take orders that meet your minimum dollar-per-mile threshold. You'll do fewer orders but each one is more profitable. You won't be Top Dasher, but Top Dasher's benefits aren't always worth the trade-off.

Most experienced Dashers settle into a personal threshold: "I take orders that pay at least $X per mile, ignoring everything else." That keeps their hourly throughput high without chasing Top Dasher status.

Important compliance note: Even when an acceptance rate signal appears in the offer-acceptance UI ("Decline lowers your rating"), there's no deactivation tied to acceptance rate. The signal is informational.

Completion Rate: the only metric with a hard floor

Completion Rate is the percentage of orders you've completed out of orders you've accepted (counting unassigned/cancelled orders against you).

The deactivation floor: 80%. Drop below 80% completion rate and DoorDash can deactivate your account. This is the most consequential metric.

Why this matters: Once you accept an offer, completing it (or unassigning it through the proper flow) matters. Just abandoning an order — leaving the restaurant, ditching the food, going offline — destroys your completion rate.

What lowers Completion Rate:

  • Unassigning an order after accepting it (counts against you, even when DoorDash explicitly allows you to unassign)
  • Restaurant cancellations sometimes count (depends on the reason)
  • Customer cancellations sometimes count (varies)
  • You going offline mid-delivery without completing the handoff

What doesn't lower Completion Rate:

  • Restaurant being closed when you arrive (this is supposed to be a "no penalty" unassignment, though Dashers sometimes report it counting; if it happens, contact support immediately)
  • DoorDash-initiated reassignment to another Dasher

Practical advice:

  • Be honest about whether you can complete an offer before accepting. If the pickup is at a restaurant you know is currently swamped and you have other plans in 30 minutes, don't accept.
  • Communicate with restaurants and customers. If you're delayed, message — usually keeps the order intact rather than triggering a cancellation.
  • Use the support flow if something goes wrong. Contacting support before unassigning often gets the order recategorized as a no-fault situation.
  • Keep an eye on the metric. If you're trending down toward 90%, slow down and complete every accepted order carefully for a stretch.

On-Time Rate: tracked but flexible

On-Time Rate is the percentage of orders delivered within the estimated delivery window. Tracked over your last 100 orders.

The deactivation floor: none. No hard floor; you won't be deactivated for being late.

Why it's there anyway: It's a soft signal. Persistently late deliveries correlate with lower customer ratings, which DOES affect your account. So On-Time Rate is essentially a leading indicator for Customer Rating problems.

What you control: - Driving efficiency - Restaurant selection (some restaurants are predictably slow) - Time-of-day choices

What you don't: - Restaurant prep time (the biggest factor in late arrivals) - Traffic and weather - DoorDash's estimate accuracy (the algorithm sometimes promises customers timelines that aren't realistic)

For most Dashers, On-Time Rate is a passive metric. Don't optimize specifically for it; focus on customer rating and the others, and on-time will follow.

New Dasher worried about ratings? First 100 deliveries are noisy. Focus on customer rating and completion rate. Acceptance rate is your strategic call. The metrics stabilize after a few weeks.

Get Started →

Which metrics affect Top Dasher status

DoorDash's Top Dasher program (and the new tiered rewards system) requires:

  • Customer Rating: 4.7+
  • Acceptance Rate: 70%+
  • Completion Rate: 95%+
  • 100 deliveries in the last calendar month
  • 200 deliveries lifetime

Top Dasher is evaluated monthly. If you meet all criteria at month-end, you're Top Dasher for the next month. See DoorDash Top Dasher Program for the full program detail.

The strategic question for serious Dashers: is Top Dasher worth maintaining? The answer depends on your market. In high-demand markets, Top Dasher's "Dash Anytime" benefit is significant — you skip schedule reservations and dash whenever there's demand. In low-demand markets, you can usually get a schedule slot anyway, making Top Dasher's benefits less valuable.

What gets a Dasher deactivated

Beyond just metrics, here's what triggers DoorDash deactivation:

Hard metric thresholds: - Customer Rating below 4.2 (over rolling 100) - Completion Rate below 80% (over rolling 100)

Behavioral / contract violations: - Failure to follow delivery procedures (especially for alcohol orders — see Catering & Alcohol Delivery Guide) - Account-fraud signals (e.g., evidence of someone else doing your dashing) - Multiple customer complaints about specific issues - Reports of unsafe driving or customer mistreatment - Failure of background check rerun - Severe contract-violation events (theft of food, severe altercations)

If you're deactivated, see DoorDash Deactivation: Why It Happens & How to Appeal for the appeal process.

Common mistakes new Dashers make about metrics

Mistake 1: Stressing about Acceptance Rate. It doesn't deactivate you. Optimize for hourly throughput, not for acceptance rate.

Mistake 2: Chasing Top Dasher when it's not worth it in your market. Top Dasher requires accepting low-paying orders. If your market doesn't reward Top Dasher with meaningful benefits, you're trading dollars for nothing.

Mistake 3: Panicking at one bad rating. The window is rolling 100. One bad rating barely moves the average if you're consistently delivering well.

Mistake 4: Unassigning orders without using support. Always contact support before unassigning. Often they'll mark the unassignment as no-fault.

Mistake 5: Optimizing for On-Time Rate at the expense of safety. Driving aggressively to hit the window isn't worth a ticket or accident. The on-time pressure is real but secondary.

Mistake 6: Not understanding the rolling window. All four metrics are rolling — usually last 100 deliveries/offers. Old bad performance ages out.

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FAQ

What if my customer rating is below 4.7 — am I in trouble? Below 4.2 = deactivation risk. Between 4.2 and 4.7 = no deactivation, but no Top Dasher. 4.7+ = eligible for Top Dasher (if other criteria met).

Can a single bad rating sink my entire average? Only if your sample size is small (your first few deliveries). After 100+ deliveries, individual ratings move the needle by ~0.05 stars at most.

Does my acceptance rate affect what orders I see? DoorDash sometimes shows priority offers to higher-acceptance Dashers. The effect is real but not as large as some forums claim. Cherry-picking Dashers consistently report seeing similar quality offers as Top Dashers in the same markets.

Is my completion rate at risk if a restaurant is closed? It shouldn't be — that's a no-fault unassignment. But some Dashers report it counting against them. Always contact support before unassigning a closed-restaurant situation.

Why am I not getting orders even though my metrics are fine? Could be many things: market saturation, time of day, your zone choice, schedule reservations vs Dash Now availability. See DoorDash Hotspots Explained for the strategic side.

Can I see my historical metrics? Yes, in the Dasher app's Performance tab. Trends over time are visible.

What if I think a low rating was unfair? You can't dispute individual ratings, but you can flag specific delivery issues to support. If the issue was the restaurant's fault (missing items, wrong items), document it via support — it sometimes results in customer-rating adjustments.

Will my metrics reset over time? Rolling 100 windows mean old ratings age out. Persistent good performance moves the average upward over a few weeks of consistent dashing.

Related reading:

Important Disclaimers — DoorDash Driver/Dasher Affiliate Disclosure:

Dashers are independent contractors (1099), not DoorDash employees. Becoming a Dasher is subject to background check and availability in your market. Dash availability and the ability to dash anytime are subject to local market demand and any waitlists. DasherDirect is subject to approval. Fast Pay availability and fees apply. Sign-up incentives, earnings boosts (including alcohol-delivery and other Peak Pay opportunities), and any cited dollar amounts vary by market and are not guaranteed: earn more per order as compared to restaurant orders is provider language; actual earnings may differ and depend on factors like number of deliveries you accept and complete, time of day, location, and any costs. Hourly pay is calculated using average Dasher payouts while on a delivery (from the time you accept an order until the time you drop it off) over a 90-day period and includes compensation from tips, peak pay, and other incentives. We may earn an affiliate commission if you sign up to Dash through a link on this page; the application process and pricing are the same. Not financial, legal, or tax advice — consult your own CPA or fiduciary advisor for your specific situation.