After an uproar from delivery workers and customers, Instacart, the Silicon Valley delivery start-up, is reversing a pay practice that drew accusations of tip theft.

[Read more about the outrage over tipping policies at Instacart and DoorDash.]

In a blog post on Wednesday, Apoorva Mehta, Instacart’s chief executive, admitted that the company had “fallen short” with a policy put in place last year that applied workers’ tips toward guaranteed minimum payments of $10 per order, rather than paying them out on top of the guarantees.

“We heard loud and clear the frustration when your compensation didn’t match the effort you put forth,” Mr. Mehta wrote in an open letter to Instacart’s shoppers.

From now on, Mr. Mehta said, tips will always be calculated separately from Instacart’s contribution to worker pay. He said the company would pay a minimum of $5 for orders that required only delivering an item, and $7 to $10 for orders that involved picking items off shelves. Instacart will also retroactively compensate workers whose tips were included in the guaranteed minimums under the old system.

“While our intention was to increase the guaranteed payment for small orders, we understand that the inclusion of tips as a part of this guarantee was misguided,” Mr. Mehta said. “We apologize for taking this approach.”

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