All offers / Everyday services / Grubhub
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Terms unchanged since 2018 Grubhub's referral terms are live, and they have not been touched since 2018.
The reward arrives as a discount code or unique link, not as a balance sitting in your account, and the referrer's copy is emailed "up to four (4) days after" the friend's qualifying first order. Hold that against the other number in the document: codes "expire two (2) weeks after delivery".
- How long a Grubhub code lives, from delivery2 weeks
- How long the referrer waits for their code after the friend's first orderUp to 4 days
Both periods are stated in Grubhub's referral terms.
What pays what
| You, as a first-time diner using the referrer's code or link | A discount, amount unstated |
|---|---|
| The referrer, emailed up to four days after your first order | A discount code, amount unstated |
| A first order below the unpublished minimum subtotal | Neither side is paid |
| A code left unused for two weeks after delivery | Expired |
| Anyone with a prior account at Grubhub or an affiliated brand | $0 |
| Grubhub for Work, corporate accounts, other affiliated services | Not valid |
| Combining it with another discount, or with cash | Not allowed |
Grubhub's minimum applies to the referred friend's first order and gates both sides: if the friend's basket falls short, the referrer loses their reward too. The figure is not published. Neither is the referral cap, which the terms describe only as "The maximum number of Referred Friends per Referrer may vary."
Do this, in this order
- Find a live refer-a-friend flow before anything else. The URL Grubhub's terms name now lands on the homepage, so the only place worth looking is inside a signed-in account. If you cannot find it there, treat the program as unavailable to you rather than hunting for a code on a coupon site, which the terms prohibit anyway.
- Check every brand, not just Grubhub. The rule is that referred friends "must be new to Grubhub (including all affiliated brands)". Seamless and the other names in the family count against you. Both people also have to be at least 18, and the program only runs where Grubhub delivers.
- Treat the two-week clock as the whole story. Codes and unique links "expire two (2) weeks after delivery, or such other date provided by Grubhub". That is the shortest window of any delivery program we have examined, and the escape hatch at the end of the sentence means Grubhub can shorten it further on a given offer.
- If you are the referrer, expect to wait, then hurry. Your code arrives by email up to four days after your friend's qualifying first order. Watch for it, including in spam, because the clock does not pause while it sits unread.
- Accept that you are opting into marketing. The terms are explicit: by taking part "you agree to receive emails from Grubhub related to this Referral Program (even if you may have opted out of marketing emails from Grubhub previously)." An earlier unsubscribe does not protect you.
- Do not assume the code covers fees, taxes or the tip. The referral terms say nothing about them and point to a separate promo-code page for the details. That page loads its terms only inside a browser, so the fee and tax treatment is genuinely unresolved from the public documents. Read the small print attached to your specific code at checkout and check the total before you confirm.
Is it worth your time?
These terms are still served as current legal text, eight years without an edit, while the product page they name quietly stopped working. If a first Grubhub order is happening regardless and a friend can produce a working code, use it, check the discount lands at checkout, and order inside two weeks. What you should not do is choose Grubhub over another app to chase a reward the company declines to describe.
