Grubhub v2026.40 sees ratings drop amid delivery delays and driver app changes in October 2026

The public release notes for version 2026.40 are characteristically vague, stating only, "We upgraded the app.^[2] Now upgrade your mealtime with something delicious." This provides no official explanation for the sudden shift in user-reported experience.

However, community signals point to a concurrent, unannounced change on the driver side. A discussion among drivers suggests an update to their app removed the ability to zoom in on map details before accepting an order, a critical function for assessing a delivery's feasibility.^[3]

After the v2026.40 update, App Store reviews show a new pattern of critical service failures. Users report extreme delays and a lack of accountability. One 1-star reviewer on v2026.40 wrote, "Drivers take the job and sit on it only to cancel it and then you have to wait for a new driver while your food sits there ready in the restaurant...2 and 3 hours to get my last two orders and cold, spoiled food."

Another emergent theme is trouble with the Grubhub+ premium subscriptionGlossarySubscriptionA recurring in-app purchase that charges the user on a fixed cadence (weekly, monthly, annual) until they cancel.. A user on v2026.40 reported, "I signed up for their new Grubhub plus premium in which I’m supposed to get $10 in food delivery credits and $10 in grocery store credits every month my first month I didn’t receive the grocery store credit."

The sudden drop in service quality strongly suggests a connection to the unconfirmed changes in the driver app. By removing drivers' ability to vet an order's location, Grubhub may have inadvertently increased order cancellations and delays. Drivers may accept a job, discover it is undesirable or impractical, and then cancel, leading to the long waits and cold food described by users.

This hypothesis is reinforced by driver sentiment. A thread on the r/grubhubdrivers subreddit about the change drew angry comments, with one driver stating, "Hiding info like this is scummy." This frustration could lead drivers to disengage or prioritize competing platforms. Archived.

Grubhub's operational stumbles occur as its main rivals are making aggressive strategic moves. On September 30, 2026, DoorDash announced AI-powered ordering and drone delivery trials. Days later, on October 6, Uber announced its $2.3 billion acquisition of ezCater to enter the corporate catering market. These innovations stand in stark contrast to the service degradation reported by Grubhub users, placing the company at a competitive disadvantage.

The service issues appear to be damaging the Grubhub brand at a critical time. The app, which saw over 302,000 downloads in the last 30 days on US iOS alone, now faces the risk of significant user churnGlossaryChurnThe rate at which users stop using an app (general churn) or cancel a subscription (subscription churn) over a time window — retention's mathematical complement.. The apparent attempt to increase order acceptance by limiting driver information seems to have backfired, degrading network reliability. Unless Grubhub quickly addresses both the driver-side issues and the problems with its Grubhub+ subscription, it risks losing customers and drivers to more stable platforms. These figures compare the 98 US App Store reviews tagged with v2026.39 against the 70 tagged with v2026.40, measured on October 14, 2026.