Users may want to be proactive when using ride-hailing applications like Uber or Lyft, as price discrepancies between the apps themselves and the times and places where you use them can be hefty, according to a new study.
A Consumer Reports investigation released Tuesday claims that prices can vary widely for the exact same ride between Uber and Lyft. The report, titled “Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber & Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You,” was combatted by both companies, with Uber calling it “flawed.”
A CBS California Investigates found similar results, with one of those apps leading the way with better prices.
In a CBS LA conference room, eight people loaded ride-hailing apps at the same time with their phones side-by-side. They called five rides from Studio City: to the nearby Sportsman’s Lodge, The Grove, the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles, LAX Terminal 3 and the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach.
The discrepancies, while small, were there. Often by just a couple of cents, fares differed for some of the participants, even though all factors in the rides were the same.
The price difference between Uber and Lyft can itself be dramatic. A ride from Studio City to the Balboa Pier would have been nearly $60 cheaper on Lyft for one CBS investigator. When asked to comment on the difference, an Uber spokesperson said, “That’s how a competitive marketplace works.”
Myung J. Chun
On Lyft, another discrepancy appeared. An individual used a promotion for a 5% discount off their fare, but the price to get to The Grove was actually about 50 cents higher than that of those who didn’t receive a discount.
“[Lyft] gives you the discount, making you feel like, yeah I am getting a deal, but as we saw, the base price for the person who thought they were getting a good deal was higher starting point was higher than those without a discount,” said Sergio Avedian, a longtime Uber and Lyft driver who runs the popular YouTube channel, The Rideshare Guy. “It’s a feel-good thing, I guess.”
Tuesday’s Consumer Reports investigation concluded that the apps use “fake discounts on what appear to be already inflated prices” on as many as 11% of listed discounts.
“It was inflated to a certain dollar amount, say $80, and then brought down to $60, whereas everyone else had already seen the $60 fare,” said Consumer Reports Deputy Editor Derek Kravitz.
The Consumer Reports investigation found even wider price discrepancies than CBS LA’s investigation, with the median difference between the lowest and highest price groupings landing at about 50%.
Uber and Lyft blame the discrepancies on market forces, but Kravitz says it’s likely due to AI-based algorithms setting the fares.
“Uber’s profits have quadrupled in just 6 years. They’ve gone from $2 billion, $2.1 billion in 2019, to nearly $7.9 billion. In 2025. Lyft, same thing,” Kravitz said. “They’ve gone from a loss of $679 million in 2019 to a profit of $529 million. This model is working for them. This model has dramatically changed the fortunes of these two companies.”
In a statement, Uber said Consumer Reports used a “flawed methodology” and said CBS California Investigates’ findings seem to confirm that trips requested at about the same time will have about the same price.
“Uber does not personalize prices, period,” the statement reads. “Consumer Reports based its findings on a flawed methodology: what they describe as the ‘same’ trips are actually different trips that were priced differently due to changing real-time marketplace conditions, not personalization. Different trips requested at approximately the same time will have prices that are approximately the same — which is exactly what their data shows. Consumer Reports’ methodology was built to produce the findings they sought, regardless of how Uber’s pricing actually works.”
Sid Patil, executive vice president of Rideshare at Lyft, issued the following statement on Tuesday morning:
“We do not engage in surveillance pricing. Period. But we recognize our pricing model can be opaque, and I want to add transparency to our process. Our pricing model reflects marketplace dynamics, which includes driver availability, demand, and time of day. This is not an effort to charge individuals differently. Our base marketplace price is consistent across accounts, and our applied discounts are real. What riders see is driven by trip characteristics, real-time supply and demand, and any promotions clearly disclosed in the app.
Our average fee is approximately 14% of what passengers pay. We aim to be fully transparent about this breakdown, and drivers see it on every single ride, and in weekly and monthly summaries. We cap our fee at 30%, and if we ever exceed that in a given month, drivers automatically receive the difference back. You can find more information about our pricing approach in our blog. Customer obsession is at the core of everything we do, and we take that trust seriously.”