Next time you order Uber, check Lyft.
A brand new study revealed that toggling between the 2 apps can prevent serious money.
Based on a brand new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, there’s a mean price difference of 14% for a similar route between the 2 ride-sharing apps.
While that may mean there’s only a price difference of a few dollars per ride, it may all add up.
The researchers of the study, which compared the fares of Uber and Lyft in Latest York City in February 2025, estimated that the worth gap may lead NYC customers to pay an additional $300 million yearly by not comparing prices.
It could seem to be an easy and obvious solution, but researchers said that few passengers check a couple of app when hailing a ride.
Actually, using separate data from Comscore, the study found that only about 16% of shoppers across the U.S. check each apps.
“Competition must be a click away, but individuals are acting prefer it isn’t,” Michael Luca, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and certainly one of the paper’s authors, told Business Insider.
Opening one other app to get a second quote should take just seconds, Luca said, but some people might exit of their strategy to use a particular certainly one of their alternative, or they are going to go for whatever app is the default on their device.
The research found that “neither rideshare app is consistently dearer than the opposite” — but slightly, it differed from fare to fare.
The study found that the design and terms of the applications themselves might make it harder for people to match prices, which Luca said helps these firms.
“Together, these findings show that small barriers to comparison can weaken effective competition and shift surplus toward platforms,” the paper said.
For instance, Uber’s terms of service don’t allow third parties to make use of its Application Programming Interface (API) for price comparisons.
Nevertheless, Harry Hartfield, head of product policy at Uber, said the study doesn’t take note of all of the aspects that may impact pricing, comparable to driver availability, customer demand or distance between driver and customer.
“The concept two firms would display different prices isn’t surprising — that’s how a competitive marketplace works,” Harfield said.
Sid Patil, Lyft’s executive vp of marketplace, agreed that various factors can determine pricing on Lyft.
“Riders have quite a bit to realize, and little to lose by checking Lyft,” he said. “Price differences reflect real marketplace dynamics.”
