Instacart batches and Amazon Flex blocks pay by the job, and the car quietly eats a big share of every one. Both platforms treat you as an independent contractor, which means the miles are deductible on Schedule C — 72.5¢ per business mile at the 2026 IRS rate. A shopper's 9,600 miles are worth $6,960; a Flex driver's 11,200 route miles are worth $8,120. The two jobs have different shapes, and different commute traps, so this guide takes them one at a time.
First check: are you a contractor? Instacart full-service shoppers (shop and deliver) and Amazon Flex drivers are 1099 contractors and can deduct mileage. Instacart in-store shoppers are W-2 employees who don't drive for the job — and W-2 employees can't deduct unreimbursed work mileage on the federal return at all. If you get a W-2, this guide isn't for you (see the employee vs. contractor rules in the home health guide).
Instacart: which batch miles count
- Store to customer — the delivery leg, including every stop on a multi-order batch. Business.
- Customer to the next store — repositioning to the next batch while you're active in the app. Business.
- Between stores on one batch — a batch that sends you to two retailers is business driving the whole way.
- Waiting near a busy store — driving to the area where batches appear, while genuinely available for orders. Business.
Time spent inside the store is not mileage — it's labor — so a two-hour batch with a three-mile delivery is three business miles, not two hours of driving. Shoppers with very local stores often find their deduction is smaller than a delivery driver's; the trade is fewer miles per dollar earned.
Amazon Flex: blocks, stations, and the commute trap
Flex blocks start at a delivery station, and that's where the commuting rule bites. Under the IRS's general rule, driving from home to your regular place of work — and home again — is personal commuting, even for a contractor. Applied conservatively:
- Home to the station — commuting. Not deductible.
- Station to every stop on the route — business. This is the bulk of a block.
- Last stop back to the station (to return undelivered packages) — business.
- Last stop straight home — the conservative reading is commuting, since it's the trip that ends the workday at home.
The exception for both jobs: if your home is your principal place of business — a space used regularly and exclusively to run the delivery business — then trips from home to any work location, including the station or the first store, are business miles. Many gig workers don't meet the exclusive-use test; some do. It's worth a conversation with a tax professional, because it can move 1,500–3,000 miles a year from "personal" to "business."
Which miles never count
- Personal errands woven into a batch or block — your own groceries, the school run.
- Warehouse-store "personal shopping" trips with no active batch.
- Miles the app was open for but you weren't working — the purpose of the trip decides, not whether the app was running.
Worked example — Instacart shopper, 2026
Priya shops five days a week around three suburban stores: 9,600 business miles for the year (store-to-customer legs plus repositioning between batches), and no parking costs.
9,600 × 72.5¢ = $6,960 off her Schedule C profit. At a combined ~30% income + self-employment tax rate, about $2,100 kept.
Worked example — Amazon Flex, 2026
Marcus runs four 4-hour blocks a week. Station-to-route-to-station driving: 11,200 miles for the year; his 14-mile home-to-station commute (about 5,800 miles) is excluded. He also paid $60 in parking on downtown routes.
11,200 × 72.5¢ = $8,120, plus $60 = $8,180 total vehicle deduction — roughly $2,450 kept at a ~30% combined rate. If a qualifying home office let him treat the station legs as business, the deduction would grow by another $4,205.
Standard mileage vs. actual expenses
The standard rate (72.5¢) covers fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and registration; parking and tolls add on top. Actual expenses deducts real costs times a business-use percentage you prove with — a mileage log. For most delivery setups the standard rate wins and is the safe first-year choice (using it in year one keeps both methods available later). The gig-driver guide covers the switching rules.
The paperwork: 1099-NEC from both platforms
Instacart and Amazon Flex report contractor pay on Form 1099-NEC; the federal filing threshold is $2,000 for payments made in 2026, and everything is reportable whether or not a form arrives. The form shows gross pay — tips included where they run through the platform — and your mileage comes off on Schedule C before income tax and ~15.3% self-employment tax. Working both platforms? Two 1099s, one Schedule C, and a business mile counts once no matter which app generated it.
The IRS substantiation checklist
- ☐ Every batch or block logged with date, miles, destinations, and purpose ("Instacart deliveries", "Amazon Flex block")
- ☐ Records created at or near the time — that day or that week; a log rebuilt in April from app history "generally has less value"
- ☐ January 1 odometer for each car, every year
- ☐ Commuting miles tracked too — Schedule C Part IV asks for total / business / commuting / other, and a credible commute figure supports the business one
- ☐ Platform earnings statements kept as corroboration of the days and hours worked
- ☐ Parking and toll receipts kept separately
How Mile handles batches and blocks
The shape of this work — many short drives, a store or station as the hub, a commute to separate out — is what Mile is built around. Drives are captured automatically as they happen; name your home and the station (or your regular stores) as places and Mile labels every drive between them, so classifying a whole shift is one swipe. A commute adjustment subtracts your home-to-station legs so the business total stays honest, and a work session keeps recording across every stop of a block. The export lists each trip with the four fields the IRS wants, the rate applied, per-vehicle business-use percentage, and the January 1 odometer block. Free for 40 automatic drives a month, ad-free on every plan.
Sources
- IRS, Gig Economy Tax Center
- IRS, Publication 463 — Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses (commuting, home as principal place of business, recordkeeping)
- IRS, Publication 587 — Business Use of Your Home
- IRS, Notice 2026-10 — 2026 Standard Mileage Rates
- IRS, Schedule C instructions — Part IV, Information on Your Vehicle
Instacart and Amazon Flex are trademarks of their owners, used for identification only; this guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by either company.