Uber doesn't make it easy to know. Over the weekend I took an NYC taxi one way in my journey, it cost $26. I tried to get a fare estimate for an UberX for the way back and it said "$23 - $37". That's a huge window - and they're not telling me what affects it.

And we haven't even started on surge pricing. Uber sells itself as cheaper than a taxi, but in many ways (in NYC) it is not.

From all the replies it appears to me that - in SF, either UberX is very cheap or normal taxis are ridiculous. - At least in NYC, the pricing is still much higher. And the huge variance in the price adds another degree of uncertainty, where you could still end up paying huge amounts.

It would be nice for Uber to publish some comparative data in this regard. But I think that's not their main pitch.

They now have a fare calculator for NYC athttps://www.uber.com/cities/new-york. It is pretty broken as all my addresses end up getting mapped to Brooklyn or Queens for some reason.

But for the prices I saw, UberX is 30-50% higher than yellow cab. So my 2x-3x estimate is certainly out of date.

I beg to disagree on this atleast in NYC. UberX is 2x-3x more expensive here.