OOHGuide

Taxi and Rideshare Advertising: Costs, Options and How to Buy It (2026)

Updated 2026-11-10

Short answer: taxi and rideshare advertising costs about $200 to $600 per taxi top and $450 to $750 per digital rideshare car top for 4 weeks, and about $800 to $1,500 per in-car screen. Most sellers set a minimum of around $5,000 per market (Blue Line Media rate card). Bought by impression, in-car screens run roughly $10 to $25 CPM and car tops $4 to $6 CPM (Highfloor).

The formats are very different, though. A taxi top is a moving billboard that thousands of people pass. A back-seat screen reaches one or two passengers who sit 2 feet from it for the whole ride. This guide covers every option, what it costs, and how to pick.

Taxi and rideshare advertising formats compared

Format Who sees it Typical cost Best for
Taxi top, static Drivers and pedestrians $200 to $500 per taxi per 4 weeks City-wide awareness
Taxi top, digital Drivers and pedestrians $400 to $600 per taxi per 4 weeks Awareness with daypart or location targeting
Rideshare car top, digital Drivers and pedestrians $450 to $750 per car per 4 weeks, about $4 to $6 CPM Awareness outside NYC
In-car screen (back seat) The passenger, for the whole ride $800 to $1,500 per screen per 4 weeks, about $10 to $25 CPM Reaching a seated, targeted audience; clicks and sign-ups
Taxi interior screen, fleet-wide Every passenger in the fleet $5,000 to $30,000 per 4 weeks for a :15 spot Big-city reach in one buy
In-app ads (Uber, Curb) Riders in the app while they wait About $15 to $30 CPM Digital targeting by trip
Car wrap Drivers and pedestrians $800 to $1,950 per car per 4 weeks Local brands, long runs

Sources: per-display prices from the Blue Line Media rate card, which notes ranges depend on market and timing. CPMs from Highfloor's 2026 rideshare guide. These are seller estimates, not market averages, so use them to budget and get quotes for real prices.

Taxi tops

The classic format: a lit sign on the roof of a yellow cab. Static tops hold a printed ad. Digital tops are small LED screens that rotate several advertisers and can switch ads by neighborhood or time of day.

In New York, Curb Taxi Media opened programmatic buying on 1,200 digital taxi tops in 2020, sold through Vistar Media's exchange (AdExchanger). Taxi tops cover a lot of ground cheaply, but each person sees them for a second or two, so treat them like a billboard: short message, big logo.

Rideshare car tops

Rideshare car tops are the same idea on Uber and Lyft cars. Firefly is the best-known network. In 2021, the average Uber out-of-home campaign in New York cost about $6 CPM (Morning Brew via Adomni).

New York City is the exception. The Taxi and Limousine Commission does not approve rooftop ads on for-hire vehicles like Uber and Lyft cars, only on yellow cabs and street-hail liveries (NYC TLC rules). In NYC, rideshare advertising means in-car screens.

In-car screens: taxi TV and back-seat tablets

A screen in the back seat, usually a 10-inch tablet on the headrest or partition. The passenger is seated, 2 feet away, for a ride that typically lasts 8 to 22 minutes (Highfloor). Most screens are interactive, so a rider can tap for an offer or scan a QR code.

That makes in-car screens closer to digital video than to a billboard. They cost more per impression than car tops, but each impression is a real, long view, and you can target by:

  • Pickup and drop-off area, for example rides ending near your store
  • Destination type, such as airports, stadiums or convention centers
  • Time of day, such as Friday and Saturday nights
  • Retargeting, showing the same people your ad on their phone after the ride, on some networks

The main networks:

  • Ivee puts back-seat screens in Uber, Lyft and taxi rides, including about 10,000 taxis on Creative Mobile Technologies' network in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles (Ivee). More below.
  • Curb runs Taxi TV in yellow cabs and sells in-app and post-ride ads through Curb Journey Connect, in more than 40 markets (PR Newswire).
  • Octopus runs back-seat tablets in rideshare cars and has been owned by T-Mobile since 2022 (T-Mobile).

NYC rules for in-car screens: tablets in Uber and Lyft cars must come from a TLC-licensed interior advertising provider, which has to pay each driver at least 25% of the gross revenue the tablet earns (NYC Council, Int. 172-2024). Ask any seller whether they are licensed before you buy NYC inventory.

Ivee: back-seat screens in 15 US cities

Ivee runs full-screen, interactive ads on back-seat screens in rideshare cars and taxis, then retargets the same passengers on their phones after the ride. It lists 15 US cities: New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and Fort Worth, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Houston, Charlotte, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Austin, Atlanta and Nashville.

What Ivee reports:

  • Reach: up to 25 million taxi passengers a year through its partnership with Creative Mobile Technologies (Ivee)
  • Targeting: location, trip destination, time of day and content type (invidis)
  • A combined campaign: a 2025 New York campaign with Nickelytics and Branded Cities paired a Times Square billboard with Ivee taxi screens for six direct-to-consumer brands. It delivered 3 million+ impressions and 820,000 minutes of in-car time (Ivee)
  • A brand case: Adore Me ran Ivee ads in Uber, Lyft and taxi rides over Black Friday and reported a 22% rise in social media acquisition over the year before (Ivee, from MediaPost)

Ivee also says its ads get 6 times higher click-through rates than YouTube and Facebook. That is the company's own comparison, so ask for the campaign data behind it.

Request a quote from Ivee and other taxi and rideshare sellers

Disclosure: Ivee is an OOHGuide partner. We pass taxi and rideshare quote requests to Ivee. OOHGuide is not paid for these leads.

In-app ads

Uber and Curb sell ads inside their apps: while the rider waits for a car, during the trip and on the receipt. Uber's ad business passed a $1.5 billion annual run rate in early 2025, and its Journey Ads can be bought programmatically through Google Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk (Uber, PPC Land). These are mobile ads, not out-of-home, but they pair well with in-car screens on the same trip.

Car wraps

A vinyl wrap on a driver's own car, arranged through companies like Carvertise and Wrapify, which pay drivers a monthly fee. A wrap runs $800 to $1,950 per car per 4 weeks on Blue Line's card. In 2021, Carvertise quoted about $40,000 for 20 cars wrapped for three months, or $2.50 to $3.50 CPM (Morning Brew via Adomni). Wraps also need design and installation, so they suit runs of three months or longer. For trucks that drive a set route instead, see mobile billboard costs.

How much should you budget?

A few worked examples, using the ranges above:

  • Test in one city: most sellers' $5,000 market minimum buys about 3 to 6 back-seat screens for 4 weeks at per-screen rates, or roughly 200,000 to 500,000 in-car impressions at $10 to $25 CPM.
  • Taxi tops across a fleet: 25 digital taxi tops at $500 each is $12,500 for 4 weeks.
  • Pair with a billboard: many brands run in-car screens around a billboard or event, as in the Times Square campaign above, so the same people see the brand twice.

Compare quotes on cost per thousand impressions, not price per car. Our CPM calculator does the math.

Is taxi and rideshare advertising worth it?

It works best when:

  • Your customers ride. Business travelers, tourists, nightlife and event audiences, and dense city neighborhoods.
  • You want an action. In-car screens are interactive and seen up close, so they suit offers, app downloads and sign-ups better than most outdoor formats.
  • Place matters. Rides to airports, convention centers and stadiums let you reach a specific crowd. B2B companies use rides to and from trade shows for this.

It is a weaker fit for brands selling to suburban or rural customers who drive themselves. For them, billboards or bus advertising reach more of the right people.

How to buy taxi and rideshare ads

  1. Pick the format from the table above: tops and wraps for awareness, in-car screens for attention and action.
  2. Pick cities and targeting: neighborhoods, destinations and times of day.
  3. Ask each seller for screen or vehicle counts in your area, impressions, CPM, minimum spend, targeting options, and proof of play reports.
  4. Plan measurement: a QR code or short URL, a promo code, or a site-traffic comparison between cities with and without the campaign.
  5. Book 2 to 4 weeks ahead so the seller can review your creative. In-car spots usually run 15 to 30 seconds and can include sound.

Frequently asked questions

How much does taxi advertising cost?

About $200 to $500 per static taxi top and $400 to $600 per digital taxi top for 4 weeks, and $5,000 to $30,000 for a 15-second spot on a whole fleet's interior screens. Most sellers require at least $5,000 per market.

How much does it cost to advertise on Uber or Lyft?

About $450 to $750 per digital car top and $800 to $1,500 per in-car screen for 4 weeks. By impression, car tops run about $4 to $6 CPM, in-car screens about $10 to $25 and Uber's in-app Journey Ads about $15 to $30.

Can you put ads on Uber and Lyft cars in New York City?

Not on the roof. NYC's Taxi and Limousine Commission doesn't approve rooftop ads on for-hire vehicles. Back-seat tablets are allowed through TLC-licensed providers, which must pay drivers at least 25% of the ad revenue.

What is in-car or back-seat screen advertising?

Video ads on a tablet in the back seat of a taxi or rideshare car. Passengers watch from about 2 feet away for the whole ride, and can often tap or scan to act on the ad. Ivee, Curb and Octopus run the main networks.

Is rideshare advertising effective?

It reaches a seated audience with time to look, which is rare for outdoor ads. Sellers report strong click-through rates and brand lift, but those are their own figures, so ask for campaign data and set up your own tracking with a QR code or promo code.

What is the minimum budget for taxi or rideshare ads?

Often around $5,000 per market for a 4-week run. In-app ads bought programmatically can start lower, depending on the platform.

Get quotes for taxi and rideshare ads

Tell us your cities, dates and budget, and we'll pass your request to taxi and rideshare sellers, including Ivee. Request quotes. For other formats, see transit advertising or browse outdoor advertising companies.

Sources

More guides