It is the first question every driver asks, and the one most apps answer with a big number and a small asterisk. We are not going to give you a number, because on Intra the number is genuinely yours: you set the price on every trip, and how many trips come through depends on riders near you at that hour. What we can do is show you the arithmetic honestly, so you can work it out for your own car, your own part of the metro and your own hours.
Start with what you keep: all of it
On most ride apps the fare on the screen is not what you get. A commission comes off first — on the big platforms, around a fifth of every fare is the figure most often quoted. On Intra there is no commission, no plan and no fee — the fare you quote is the cash in your hand at the end of the trip. If you want the detail on how the models compare, it is in Grab vs Intra Cab for drivers in the Philippines.
That changes the arithmetic from the start, because the only things you have to subtract are your own real costs: fuel, and on some routes, tolls.
The formula
What you make in an hour is:
(trips you win in that hour) × (what you quote per trip) − (fuel and tolls for those trips)
Three levers. You control the second one completely. You influence the first with your price, your speed to respond and your rating. The third you already know better than we do.
A worked example, Metro Manila
The numbers below are illustrative. Put your own in.
Say you take short in-metro runs — Cubao to Ortigas, Makati to BGC, España to Quiapo, that sort of distance — and you'd normally charge ₱250 for one. In a busy hour you win three of them. That's ₱750 gross, with perhaps 15 kilometres of driving. Take off what 15 kilometres costs you in fuel this week and the rest is yours.
Now the same hour on an app with a 20% commission: ₱750 becomes ₱600 before you've bought a litre. To take home the same ₱750 you'd have to quote around ₱313 per trip — the rider pays a quarter more, and you end up where you started.
For context, ₱750 is about US$12 at the rate the app is using for the Philippines today (₱63 to the dollar). You never need to think in dollars — you quote in pesos and get paid in pesos — but it is a useful sanity check against what drivers elsewhere clear in an hour.
The same example, longer runs
Same logic, bigger numbers. An airport run from Quezon City to NAIA that you'd do for ₱600 with the Skyway toll built into your quote; a trip out to Alabang or Antipolo priced properly for the distance and the time of day. Quote what you already charge, and put the toll in the price rather than eating it. The point is that nothing disappears between the quote and your pocket.
What moves the "trips per hour" lever
- Where and when you are. Makati, BGC and Ortigas at the start and end of the working day; the malls — Megamall, Trinoma, Mall of Asia — in the evening and at weekends; the airport terminals around flight times.
- How fast you answer. Riders often take the first solid offer. You get a push notification for each new trip near you, and a WhatsApp message if you haven't reacted within a minute, so you can respond from wherever you're parked.
- Your price next to the others. The rider sees offers side by side. You don't have to be the cheapest — a fair price from a well-rated driver beats a slightly lower one from an unknown — but you do have to be in the conversation.
- Your rating. It builds over trips and it is the main reason a rider picks you over someone a little cheaper.
What we won't tell you
We won't tell you a daily, weekly or monthly figure, because we don't have an honest one. Intra has only just opened in the Philippines, the number of riders is growing from almost nothing, and for now most hours nothing will come through at all.
We also won't tell you it replaces what you earn from Grab, Angkas or your regulars today. It doesn't. It adds to it. Keeping 100% of a trip you didn't get is worth nothing, which is exactly why the right way to run Intra right now is alongside what you already do.
How to find out for yourself in a week
- Sign up — it takes about ten minutes. Here is exactly what you need.
- Keep the app open while you're already out driving. Don't change your routine.
- Quote on everything near you for seven days, at prices you're happy with.
- Count the trips and the cash at the end of the week and set it against the hours you were already working anyway.
That is your number. Not ours, not an estimate — yours, from your own car.
Download Intra Cab and sign up as a driver · How driving on Intra works in Metro Manila · Drive with Intra Cab in the Philippines