Glitch causes Grab fares to surge to over $1000 for rides typically costing less than $20

SINGAPORE: Users of private-hire car operator Grab were shocked on Wednesday afternoon (Aug 20) when fares on the app surged to over a thousand dollars, far exceeding the usual rates of under $20.

According to data from Downdetector, a network status monitoring site, 67 outage complaints about Grab were lodged within just 30 minutes between 11:45 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. By 12:22 p.m., reports of problems had dropped to two.

Channel 8 reported that the app showed the fare for a standard four-seater private car or taxi ride from MediaCorp’s headquarters at one-north to Beauty World, a distance of 9 km, had jumped to $1,011.80 at around noon. By 12:25 p.m., the fare had fallen back to $16.40.

Another check showed that the price for the same vehicle type from MediaCorp’s headquarters to the Singapore Sports Hub briefly skyrocketed to $1,516.80 before normalising at $17.50.

It is not yet clear whether the abnormal fares were caused by a system failure, pricing mechanism issues, or other technical factors.

Reports of similar sky-high fares were also shared by Grab users in Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries, with many posting screenshots on social media. Some netizens joked that the prices were higher than air tickets.

A Grab spokesperson confirmed that a temporary system glitch had caused the abnormal pricing to appear on the app. The issue, which lasted about 17 minutes, has since been resolved.

“Grab sincerely apologises for the inconvenience caused to passengers,” the spokesperson said.

Grab clarified that its system is designed to prevent bookings at such inflated prices, which should be automatically blocked. In the rare case that an exception occurs, the company said it would compensate affected orders.