My 3-month experience doing Rapido as a side hustle in Bangalore — ₹1.2k/day, algorithm, restaurants & what I learned
I’m a BBA 2nd-year student from Bangalore. After finishing my 1st-year exams, I had around 3 months of vacation, so I decided to try something completely different — doing Rapido.
I’d usually go online around 8 AM and come back by 4:30 PM, so roughly 8.5 hours a day.
On a decent day, I could make around ₹1,200.
Initially, I had absolutely no idea how the platform worked. But after spending some time on it, I started understanding where/when the demand was and how to make the most out of the algorithm.
Once I figured that out, earning decently became surprisingly straightforward.
For me, it was actually a pretty good side hustle.
But it also made me think a lot about people who depend on gig work as their entire livelihood.
I didn’t really take breaks during those hours.
If I was online, I was basically working or waiting for the next order. And since this was just vacation money for me, I always had the option of going home. Someone doing this full-time doesn't necessarily have that option.
One thing that genuinely pissed me off was how little control captains seem to have.
For example, if a customer cancels, your rating can apparently take a hit, even though the cancellation isn't your fault. And whenever something goes wrong, getting proper support can be a nightmare.
I also did food orders during the slow period around 12–3 PM, because rides were comparatively low.
And holy shit, some restaurants are a completely different experience.
Sometimes the food is ready immediately. Other times you're standing there for 20–25 minutes waiting for them to prepare it.
There was one incident I'll never forget.
I accepted a Swiggy food order through Rapido because the drop location was close to my house. I reached the ice cream shop and found out there was no electricity. Their machines and computer were shut down, so they couldn't prepare the order.
The staff told me I had to call Swiggy and cancel it.
I called Swiggy → they told me they couldn't cancel it and that I had to contact Rapido.
Called Rapido → they told me to contact Swiggy because it was a Swiggy order.
Basically, I was stuck in a Swiggy ↔ Rapido infinite loop.
I spent around 45 minutes trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do.
Then I noticed the drop location was a tuition centre. I searched it on Google Maps, found their number and called them directly. Someone picked up, I explained the situation, they asked me to hand the phone to the restaurant staff, spoke to them and eventually got the order cancelled.
The craziest part?
Rapido doesn't show you the customer's contact details until you've picked up the food, which itself requires an OTP from the restaurant.
So if the destination had just been some random house instead of a business I could find on Google Maps, I genuinely don't know what I would've done.
The restaurant staff even told me this had happened before and that another rider had apparently been stuck waiting for 2 hours.
And then there's the whole Bangalore auto-driver situation.
For three months I regularly logged in around places like Majestic, railway stations and other busy areas. Auto drivers would sometimes stare at me like they were trying to see through my soul 💀.
But honestly, I never had a single auto driver threaten or confront me during those three months.
I also surprisingly had a lot of conversations with random passengers. I never really had a negative interaction with a customer. Most people were completely normal and some conversations were actually pretty interesting.
I finished my Rapido journey before all the recent ban/RTO-seizing drama, so I didn't personally experience that side of things.
Overall, I'm glad I did it.
It wasn't just about the ₹1,200/day. I got to see what gig work actually feels like from the worker's side — the waiting, fuel costs, uncertainty, platform rules, customer issues, restaurant problems and the constant pressure to keep moving.
The biggest thing I took away from it is this:
Doing gig work for 3 months as a student is very different from doing it because your family depends on it.
For me, it was a side hustle.
For someone else, those same ₹1,200 might be the difference between paying their bills or not.
Curious to hear from people who have been doing Rapido/Swiggy/Zomato full-time — what has your experience been like, especially with support, ratings, cancellations and earnings?