The smart co-pilot for gig drivers opens its full app to every U.S. rideshare and delivery driver through the end of 2026, as new gig driver unions press for first contract with Uber and Lyft
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- GigU, the smart co-pilot that gives gig drivers the tools and knowledge to decide which trips are worth accepting in seconds, has made its full app free to every rideshare and delivery driver in the United States through the end of 2026, and launched on iPhone for the first time, broadening access to more transparency for nearly eight million workers.
The app is now available on both iOS and Android at no cost, removing the subscription that's stood between U.S. drivers and GigU's Cherry Picker and NetProfit tools that score every incoming trip offer against a driver's real operating costs and show, before the driver taps accept, whether the trip is worth it.
U.S. drivers who were paying GigU app subscribers before September 1 will receive one additional year of free access for being loyal customers.
"You Don't Have to Accept What You're Handed"
GigU built its business on a single idea: a driver who can see what a trip actually pays makes different decisions than a driver who cannot. The company is now betting that removing the subscription price for this set of tools is the fastest way to change how American gig workers earn a living for the better.
"This is a culture shift in how drivers work with these platforms in terms of GigU providing them with transparency. Until now the platforms had all the power, controlling all aspects of a gig worker's profits. As if they were on the battlefield with tanks, and drivers are out there with sticks and stones," said Luiz Neves, GigU CEO and co-founder. "Everything changes once a driver learns to work with strategy and real numbers instead of accepting every offer that comes in. We are making the technology free for the rest of 2026 because we do not want cost to be the reason a driver never finds that out."
Drivers who use GigU report earnings improvements of up to 30 percent after they begin screening offers ("cherry picking") against their own costs, according to feedback the company collects directly from its users. GigU serves more than 185,000 subscribers globally today.
Why Now
Labor Day 2026 arrived at a turning point for American gig drivers as California became home to the world's largest union of gig workers, thanks to historic legislation. Championed by Governor Gavin Newsom and the state's legislature last year, it provided a pathway to unionization for roughly 800,000 rideshare workers.
However, the negotiations over California drivers' pay and benefits will take time. GigU is a tech antidote that is available to drivers now, giving them the information to screen incoming offers against their real operating costs — a practice its users report improves their profits significantly.
In May, the App Drivers Union was certified by the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations as the exclusive bargaining representative for roughly 70,000 rideshare drivers, the first union of its kind in the country. Under the state law that created it, if the union and the platforms have not reached agreement within 180 days of certification, either side may request a mediator. That clock runs out in November.
Nationwide, gig drivers have found their earnings and take rates have declined over the past four years since Uber switched to opaque pricing algorithms on both sides of its marketplace, per Columbia Business School.
Research published in June 2026 by Len Sherman, Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, examined the distribution of hundreds of thousands of Uber trip offers across seventeen U.S. cities using anonymized ride-offer data from GigU users. In Dallas and Tampa, for example, where no minimum pay standards apply, half of all trip offers paid below 90 cents per mile. In Boston, where a 2024 settlement with the Massachusetts Attorney General set an hourly pay floor, ride offers averaged more than 2.5 times higher, with very few trips falling below the median rates seen in the unregulated cities.
"Left to its own devices, Uber has been able to exploit an asymmetric information advantage over drivers in a race to the bottom in pay rates," said Sherman. "Uber initially recruited millions of drivers on a public promise that they would keep 80% of every fare. A decade and billions of trips later, in city after city, drivers are keeping less than half. No other major marketplace platform comes close to that spread."
The same Columbia research tracked the trip histories of three veteran Uber drivers across a decade in Texas and Florida, roughly 50,000 rides in total. Uber's share of the fare rose from 15% to 20% in the platform's early years to more than 50% today.
The full report is available here, and GigU's summary of the findings for drivers is available here.
What Comes Next for Drivers
GigU is building a loyalty program that connects drivers to services they use every day, including fuel, car washes and vehicle maintenance. The company is developing new tools that will let drivers compare their own results against what other drivers are earning in the same city, at the same hours, in the same conditions, closing an information gap that has favored the platforms since the rideshare industry began.
With these new features, drivers will be more connected to each other and be able to access and share valuable information to operate even better and boost their profits.
"I've always considered myself a fast runner, but I can only see how fast I really am if I can see how fast other people are," said Thiago Vieira, Head of Global Expansion, GigU. "One of the biggest problems in the gig economy is that you have no feedback on how well you are performing. That is the gap we are closing for gig drivers — to give them better information to make more informed business decisions."
Availability:
GigU is available now on the App Store and Google Play. The app is free for U.S. gig drivers through December 31, 2026. The new iOS app works with iPhones that are running iOS 17 or higher.
About GigU:
GigU gives gig-workers the tools, community and knowledge to take control of their earnings and their safety. Built from face-to-face work with drivers in Brazil, Europe and in the United States, GigU is a smart co-pilot that shows rideshare and delivery workers what a trip actually pays after their real costs, so they can choose the work worth taking. The company serves more than 185,000 subscribers across Brazil, Portugal and the United States and has raised nearly four million dollars in seed funding.
For more information, visit https://gigu.app/us and the GigU Blog: https://gigu.app/us/blog.
U.S. Media Contact:
Chris Knight
U.S. Communications & Editorial Director for GigU
@ Divino Group / MOUSA.I., on behalf of GigU
(415) 786-9226 m (on WhatsApp)
U.S. Company Contact:
Thiago Vieira
Head of Global Expansion for GigU
+55 21 99664-4020 (on WhatsApp)
Editorial Notes & Resources:
GigU digital press kit: https://app.air.inc/a/b98V56oYR
Columbia Business School research, June 10, 2026: Uber's Long and Winding Road to 50% Take Rates, by Len Sherman — len-sherman.medium.com
GigU Blog: The Number You Always Felt, Now on the Record - June 9, 2026
GigU Blog: California's Uber and Lyft Drivers Just Won a Union. The Hard Part Starts Now. - August 12, 2026
GigU Blog: California certified a gig driver union. Uber already got paid. – August 25, 2026
GigU Blog: Enshittification has a name now. Drivers have lived it for years. – September 4, 2026.
GigU Blog: A seat at the table in California and a GigU celebratory table at El Cholo. – September 23, 2026
Massachusetts App Drivers Union certification: MA Department of Labor Relations, May 22, 2026 — mass.gov
Media Contact
Chris Knight, Divino Group, 1 4157869226, [email protected], https://gigu.app/us
SOURCE GigU
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