Skip to main content

Frequently asked questions

What is the DoorDash Developer Portal?​

The Developer Portal is a tool designed to empower developers to explore and build to DoorDash’s Drive fulfillment API seamlessly. In just a few seconds, you can create a developer account and start testing in our sandbox environment. Once you’ve completed development and a demo + review with the DoorDash team, you’ll be able to generate production credentials within the Portal and start requesting drivers to fulfill deliveries for your business.

What is DoorDash Drive?​

Drive is DoorDash’s white label fulfillment service, allowing merchants to access a professional delivery fleet, without dealing with the logistics. With DoorDash Drive, you can request a driver any time, track your orders, streamline your delivery costs, and drive incremental sales. Whether you need flexible fulfillment for overflow or a consistent, on-demand delivery service, the Drive platform is designed to work with your business.

What are the differences between DoorDash Drive and DoorDash Marketplace?​

DoorDash Marketplace (i.e. the DoorDash App) allows customers to find a business and place orders. DoorDash Drive allows you to offer delivery on your own platform, such as your own app or website. The order details are communicated to DoorDash Drive via API, and a Dasher will handle pickup and delivery for you.

What countries does DoorDash Drive operate in?​

DoorDash Drive operates in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Additional configuration is required to set up sandbox testing for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. If you need to test deliveries outside of the US, please reach out via the Support page so the DoorDash team can update your account.

Who can create a developer account?​

Anyone with an email address can sign up as a DoorDash Developer! Our Developer Portal is designed to streamline the integration process for anyone looking to leverage DoorDash fulfillment in their business, from single retail brands to enterprise-level merchant services platforms.

Does every member of my development team need to create their own account?​

No, only 1 Developer Portal account per company is necessary. The Developer Portal supports multi-user login so each member of your team can sign into the same Developer account with their own email and password.

What do I need to get started?​

Only your name, phone number, and email address are required to sign up and test in our sandbox environment.

How do I know if I'm building to Drive vs. Drive Classic? What's the difference?​

Drive is our standard API offering and is the default for all developers. Drive Classic is our legacy/1.0 API, and has a separate API reference and endpoints. Classic should only be used by legacy partners who integrated with DoorDash Drive before 2023, or those who were allowlisted by DoorDash to build to Classic. If the URL to your Developer portal dashboard includes '/Classic', you have been allowlisted for Classic. Otherwise, you are developing to Drive.

How long does it take to build an integration to DoorDash?​

The Developer Portal is designed to give developers tools and resources to build an integration based on their own timeline. Depending on your own roadmap and business needs, this could mean 1-2 days of development or multiple sprints. Once you’ve completed development, our team will schedule a demo to review your finished product and provide an update on production access within 5-10 days.

Are there items that cannot be delivered through DoorDash?​

Yes. The below list provides examples of restricted items, but is not exhaustive.

  • People, wildlife, animals, or remains/parts;
  • Illegal items; stolen goods;
  • Fireworks, explosives, firearms, weaponry, ammunition, and their parts; information on how to make such devices;
  • Items encouraging violent or illegal activity;
  • Sexually explicit or obscene adult items or materials;
  • Any of the following without a signed addendum with DoorDash:
    • Alcohol
    • Tobacco/vape products
    • Cold medicine, pharmaceutical products, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, medical devices, or supplements
    • Recreational drugs or drug paraphernalia, including but not limited to cannabis or CBD products, Kratom, or inhalants including nitrous oxide;
  • Toxic substances and poisons
  • Any single item exceeding 50 lbs;
  • Any other item that is prohibited for delivery without a permit or license under applicable local laws;
  • Hazardous materials, including medical waste, or poisonous or flammable items, except for materials that are:
    • (i) ORM-D or
    • (ii) limited quantity shipment AND a Consumer Commodity, AND
    • In quantities that do not require placarding
  • Money, gift cards, lottery tickets, or transferable securities;
  • Counterfeit Products;
  • Raw meats or shellfish;
  • Endangered animal or wildlife products; items made of endangered animal or wildlife products (including but not limited to ivory, rhino horn, eurasian caviar, bushmeat);
  • Items that promote hate or terrorist groups;
  • Products that claim or promote specific medical outcomes;
  • Any items that are likely to be perceived as threatening, obscene, harassing, inappropriate, or otherwise violate any applicable terms and conditions that govern your relationship with DoorDash.

Will I have to sign a contract to integrate with Drive?​

In order to request production access, you will need to read and acknowledge our terms. Terms for the standard Drive API can be found here, and terms for Drive Classic can be found here.

Is delivery tracking available?​

Yes, DoorDash supplies a tracking link for each delivery that you can expose within your UI.

What is UTC vs. Local Time Zones?​

UTC is 8 hours ahead of PST, 7 MST, 6 CST and 5 EST

How will I be notified of service disruption?​

All system-wide incidents are reported here, along with post mortems. Feel free to subscribe to email updates as needed. To report an incident/issue that is not listed on StatusPage, you can contact the DoorDash team through the Support page in the Developer Portal.

Do you have rate limits?​

The limit is set to approx 300 requests in a 60 second period. If you are planning to conduct any load/resiliency tests, please reach out to the DoorDash team via the Support page at least 3 days in advance. Failure to notify DoorDash of load testing may result in the disabling of your API credentials.

Will DoorDash refund me if the delivery is late?​

DoorDash’s merchant support team reviews all requests for refunds related to Drive deliveries on a case-by-case basis. Whether and how much DoorDash can refund depends on the issue type. You can view our Refunds Matrix here. Please note that all requests for refunds must be submitted within 14 days of the delivery. Refunds will be issued to you (the developer) through the original payment method.

Who delivers items via DoorDash?​

You can read about Dasher requirements here.