Every contribution is derived from the IRS standard mileage rate for the miles you share with your driver, and adjusted for the number of riders on the trip. Once a driver is found, you see the amount you'll be charged, and you are never charged more than it; booking a one-time trip, you also see an estimated range up front. The receipt shows what was charged.
The amount changes from trip to trip. These do not.
Once a driver is found, the app shows you the amount you'll be charged for the trip, and you are never charged more than it. Booking a one-time trip, you also see an estimated range up front. The receipt shows what was charged.
The contribution is the driver's reimbursement. Nothing is taken out of it. Fees covering payment processing and platform operation are charged to the rider on top of it, never deducted from it. Fees covering payment processing and platform operation are waived in full by the Founding Member Program, so today they are charged to neither of you.
A driver's reimbursement can never exceed the cost of the miles actually driven, at the IRS rate. That is not a promise kept by hand: it is a ceiling computed and tested in the software on every trip.
The amount is adjusted for how many riders join, and it changes if someone cancels. That is the point of it: the driver is recovering the cost of a commute they were already making, and how much comes back depends on how many people end up sharing it.
For the second half of 2026, the IRS sets the standard business mileage rate at 76¢ per mile (effective July 1, 2026). This rate is the IRS's calculation of the true cost of operating a car — gas, wear, maintenance, insurance, depreciation. It's updated when the IRS publishes a new rate, usually twice a year, based on actual nationwide data.
We use it because it's honest, neutral, and stands up to any audit.
Bridge tolls and toll-road charges are detected by the app and reimbursed dollar for dollar. A rider's share reflects the tolls crossed while they were aboard — a rider dropped off before a bridge does not pay for it.
Carrying three or more people also makes the crossing itself cheaper: during weekday commute hours the seven state-owned Bay Area bridges charge half the usual toll, and the Golden Gate charges less than its usual toll.
Carpool toll rates are set by each bridge authority, apply Monday to Friday during their own commute windows, and require a FasTrak Flex tag set to 3+. When three or more of you are in the car during those hours, Nubly splits the carpool rate. If the driver has no Flex tag and the crossing is charged in full, the difference sits with the driver — the same toll they would have paid driving alone, with the riders' share of it now covered.
A toll the driver crosses with nobody aboard is the driver's own.
Payment processing and the cost of operating the Nubly platform are charged to riders as a single Fees amount, added on top of the contribution — never taken out of it. This is what lets the driver receive the whole contribution as reimbursement.
The Fees — payment processing and platform, charged as one amount — are waived in full by the Founding Member Program for the duration of the program, so a rider’s net fee is $0.00 and the driver still receives the whole contribution as reimbursement.
Fees are never carried by the driver.
For the driver — the person whose car this is — the comparison that matters is to what they would be paying to drive alone. Every mile driven with a rider aboard is a mile of that cost coming back. The miles driven alone stay the driver's own: the leg out to the first pickup, the tail after the last drop-off, and any other miles driven with nobody aboard.
That is also why the amount moves. A driver recovering the cost of a commute they were already making recovers more of it when more people share it, and less when someone cancels. What never moves is the ceiling: a reimbursement can never exceed the cost of the miles actually driven.
Oh, and you'll probably get to work faster.
Not an algorithm. Not a dynamic price. The IRS standard mileage rate for the miles you share, adjusted for the riders on the trip, plus your share of any tolls. Any Fees are shown separately, on top. Once a driver is found, you see the amount you'll be charged, and you are never charged more than it; booking a one-time trip, you also see an estimated range up front. The receipt shows what was charged.