DoorDash decides whether your referral offer is real at the checkout screen.
So the number on your screen is yours alone. We take that question apart on its own page, how much is the DoorDash referral. The mechanics, though, are written down, in a second document covering promotional offers and credits. Credit expires six months from the date of issue. It is “applied toward order subtotals (excluding gratuity and alcohol purchases)”, meaning the food price before taxes, fees and tip, and never the tip itself. And it will not stack: “Credits may not be applied with any other Offer.” One caution: these credit rules bind your side only if the offer in your link arrives as credit.
What pays what
| You, as a genuinely new user, via a link sent to you directly | The offer stated in the link |
|---|---|
| Any prior account under your name, email, phone or card | Disqualified |
| A link that was posted publicly | Not eligible |
| Tips and alcohol | Credit does not apply |
| Credit left unspent for six months | Expired |
| An order you already placed | No retroactive use |
There is a minimum, but no published figure. The terms say a qualifying referral “typically includes placing an order on the DoorDash platform with a certain minimum subtotal (excluding taxes and fees)” and stop there. The only minimum-subtotal figure on either DoorDash terms page, $10, belongs to an unrelated free-delivery offer for new users, and it has nothing to do with the referral.
Do this, in this order
- Audit your own history before anyone builds a cart. Customers are disqualified if DoorDash “has a record of their name, email, phone number, or credit card having being used for a prior DoorDash order or being linked to an existing active or inactive DoorDash account”. Inactive counts: a university-era account, a replaced card still on file, or a phone number you kept is enough.
- Get the link sent to you privately, not posted anywhere public. The terms require it to arrive “through email, text, or the Share Your Link option”, and your own offer depends on that condition being met. A link posted on a publicly accessible website such as Google, Craigslist, Twitter or RetailMeNot fails it. When you register you must be in the same country as the friend who sent it.
- Expect the verdict at the final screen. DoorDash writes that “Final eligibility for the New User's offer will be determined at checkout.” Check that the discount is applied before you place the order. If it never appeared, we work through the documented causes in DoorDash referral credit not received.
- Do not plan the credit around a tip. Credit applies to subtotals only and explicitly excludes gratuity and alcohol. Promo codes are stricter still: they “cannot be applied towards taxes or fees other than delivery fees”, which leaves service fees, small-order fees and surge fees on your bill.
- Use it inside six months, and do not try to stack it. Credit cannot be combined with another offer, applied retroactively to a past order, or transferred, traded or sold. Where a promo code carries no stated expiry, DoorDash defaults it to 30 days from when it was sent or last displayed. Both clocks are set out in how long DoorDash credit lasts.
Is it worth your time?
For a household that has genuinely never ordered from DoorDash, this is one of the gentler programs on the site: DoorDash credit runs six months, and the qualifying act is an order you were placing anyway. The risk is all at the front. The eligibility test is a fingerprint check across name, email, phone and card, it reaches into accounts you forgot you opened, and it is settled at checkout, which is exactly the moment when abandoning the order feels most expensive. Decide before the cart, and remember that the credit will not touch the tip.
If you refer people yourself, the live terms cap you at 10 qualified referrals in the US or Canada and 5 in Australia or New Zealand, not the 25 found in search snippets for Australia and New Zealand, and DoorDash can revoke credit or remove you from the program on suspicion of fraud.
