Next time you order Uber, check Lyft.
A new study revealed that toggling between the two apps can save you serious cash.
According to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, there’s an average price difference of 14% for the same route between the two ride-sharing apps.
While that might mean there’s only a price difference of a couple of dollars per ride, it can all add up.
The researchers of the study, which compared the fares of Uber and Lyft in New York City in February 2025, estimated that the price gap could lead NYC customers to pay an extra $300 million every year by not comparing prices.
It may seem like a simple and obvious solution, but researchers said that few passengers check more than one app when hailing a ride.
In fact, using separate data from Comscore, the study found that only about 16% of customers across the U.S. check both apps.
“Competition should be a click away, but people are acting like it isn’t,” Michael Luca, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and one of the paper’s authors, told Business Insider.
Opening another app to get a second quote should take just seconds, Luca said, but some people might go out of their way to use a specific one of their choice, or they will opt for whatever app is the default on their device.
The research found that “neither rideshare app is consistently more expensive than the other” — but rather, 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 compare prices, which Luca said helps these companies.
“Together, these findings show that small barriers to comparison can weaken effective competition and shift surplus toward platforms,” the paper said.
For example, Uber’s terms of service don’t allow third parties to use its Application Programming Interface (API) for price comparisons.
However, Harry Hartfield, head of product policy at Uber, said the study doesn’t take into account all the factors that can impact pricing, such as driver availability, customer demand or distance between driver and customer.
“The idea that two companies would display different prices isn’t surprising — that’s how a competitive marketplace works,” Harfield said.
Sid Patil, Lyft’s executive vice president of marketplace, agreed that different factors can determine pricing on Lyft.
“Riders have a lot to gain, and little to lose by checking Lyft,” he said. “Price differences reflect real marketplace dynamics.”
