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How much should I charge for online tutoring?

The right hourly rate for an online tutor is the one that clears your floor (what makes the hour worth it after fees, taxes, and unpaid prep time), matches what your target families actually pay for similar tutoring, and reflects what makes you different from the next tutor they could book. As a rough starting band that holds across most subjects: new independent tutors price at $20-$35/hr, established generalist tutors at $35-$60/hr, and experienced specialists (exam prep, special-needs, advanced subjects) at $60-$120+/hr. Subject changes the band — math, exam prep, and special-needs tutoring carry premiums over conversation-only subjects; music and coding sit roughly with generalist tutoring. Whatever rate you land on, the lever that drives indie tutoring economics isn't the rate itself — it's keeping each student for twelve months. A student who renews monthly is worth roughly ten times a one-off trial. The framework below walks through how to set the number, how to raise it, and how to actually bill it.

The four inputs that set your rate

Don't pick a rate from a single reference point. Triangulate from these four:

  • Your floor. What price makes the hour worth it after platform fees, payment processor fees, taxes, and the unpaid time around the lesson — prep, parent messages, scheduling. New tutors spend 0.5x-1x the teaching time on prep; experienced tutors with reusable materials drop close to zero. If your published rate divided by your real total-time-per-lesson lands under your local minimum wage, the floor is too low.
  • The market your target families anchor on. Parents anchor on local tutoring prices, not on a global average. A working US suburban family will calibrate against $40-$80 local in-person tutoring; a working family in many Asian or European markets calibrates against a different band. Spend an hour reading the rates of independent tutors on Wyzant, Preply, italki, your local Facebook groups, and a couple of competitor tutoring sites in your target region. Don't price against the agency floor on Preply or Cambly — those agencies subsidise a low rate by taking a cut and bringing the student. Price against other indie tutors of your subject and age group.
  • Your differentiator. Credentials (a relevant degree, a specialist certification like Orton-Gillingham, TEFL, IELTS examiner training), years of experience, an unusual subject (less competition), a track record with a specific student population (test scores, university acceptances, parents who'll say so), and the language(s) you can communicate with parents in. Every credible differentiator is worth a step up the band.
  • Your retention model. A tutor who runs monthly packages with a clear cancellation policy can hold a slightly higher per-lesson rate than a pay-per-lesson tutor at the same level of experience, because the package is structurally less risky for the parent. See how to structure and price lesson packages for the packaging mechanics — this page is about the per-lesson number underneath them.

Triangulating from all four beats picking a number that "feels right". The rate that feels right to a new tutor is almost always too low — the floor and the market both point higher than imposter syndrome wants to let you charge.

Rough rate bands by experience tier

The numbers below are directional ranges, not gospel; they drift with the market and shift with the subject (the next section). Treat them as starting brackets to triangulate inside, not as a price list to copy.

  • Agency / marketplace platforms (Preply, italki, Cambly, Outschool, Wyzant before fees): roughly $10-$22/hr after the platform's cut, depending on credentials and the platform's rate floor. Useful for getting first reps and reviews; weak as a long-term income base because the platform owns the relationship and takes 20-40%.
  • New independent tutor (0-2 years, no specialist credential): $20-$35/hr. Strong enough to be taken seriously, low enough to convert your first paying families before you have testimonials. Don't price below this — discount-heavy entry pricing attracts rate-sensitive families who churn at the first full-price renewal.
  • Established independent tutor (2+ years, full or near-full calendar, repeat-renewing families): $35-$60/hr for generalist tutoring (general ESL, primary-school subjects, conversational lessons).
  • Specialist tutor (exam prep, special-needs, technical subjects, university admissions, high-end test prep): $60-$120/hr and up. Specialists who routinely produce specific outcomes — a particular IELTS band, a SAT delta, a place at a specific university — can sustain rates well above this band.

If your calendar is full and your trial-to-paid conversion is staying above 50%, you're under-priced. The signal of a correctly priced rate is that you turn away the occasional family — usually about 1 in 10.

How subject and specialty change the rate

Same level of experience, very different rates. Some directional differences that hold up across markets:

  • Conversational / generalist ESL, primary-school subjects, homework help: the base band above. Lots of supply, lots of competition. Where rate compression is most visible.
  • Math and science tutoring: typically a 15-30% premium over the generalist band, because demand is high and effective tutors are visibly fewer. The premium scales with student level — primary math sits near the base; AP/A-level/IB math and physics sit well above it.
  • Exam preparation (SAT, ACT, IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, Cambridge YLE/CAE/CPE, AP, A-level, IB, university admissions): commonly a 50-100% premium over the generalist band — exam prep is outcome-driven and parents will pay for a tutor who reliably hits targets. The premium grows with the stakes of the exam (a $200/hr tutor for SAT prep at a competitive US high school is normal; a $40/hr tutor for the same is the suspicious one).
  • Special-needs tutoring (Orton-Gillingham for dyslexia, structured literacy intervention, math intervention, ADHD coaching, autism-specific support): usually a 25-75% premium. Families who need this tutoring know what they're looking for, the qualified tutors are visibly scarce, and the work is harder. Pricing too low here can signal under-qualification, not value.
  • Music tutoring (piano, violin, guitar, voice): roughly the generalist band for beginners and the specialist band for advanced students preparing for ABRSM, RCM, or conservatory entry. Local in-person rates are a strong anchor for music — many families compare directly to their child's last in-person teacher.
  • Coding / programming for kids: roughly the generalist-to-specialist band. The market is younger and rates are still calibrating; expect more spread than a mature subject.
  • Business English, professional communication, accent coaching for adults: the specialist band, billed to the learner (or their employer). Hourly rates of $80-$150 are normal for credentialed coaches working with mid-career professionals.
  • Foreign-language tutoring (non-English target): wide spread depending on the language. Common Western European languages sit near the generalist band; less-commonly-taught languages can sit higher because supply is thin.

If your subject sits in two of these (e.g. you tutor exam prep and the test-takers have learning differences), the premium compounds — you're now in the smaller pool of tutors who can do both, and rates reflect that.

How geography and market positioning change the rate

Online tutoring is global, but pricing isn't.

  • Charge in the currency the parent thinks in. A US family expects USD; a UK family expects GBP; a European family expects EUR. Charging in USD to a parent in Vietnam loses some of the value to the parent's currency conversion and bank fees. Pick the currency the parent will compare against local tutors in — most invoicing tools (Koala Go's included) let you bill in different currencies per client.
  • The market your target families anchor on, not the market you live in. A US-based tutor of US students charges US rates. A US-based tutor of mainland-China-based students charges what working Chinese urban families pay independent foreign tutors — which is its own band, usually lower than US in-person and higher than a Preply listing. Decide who your students are before you set the price.
  • Premium vs accessible positioning. A tutor at the top of the local band tends to sell on outcome (visible progress, specific results) to fewer, longer-staying families. A tutor at the middle of the band tends to sell on engagement and consistency to more families. Both work; pick a position and price to it. The unsustainable shape is "middle band but treats the practice like premium" — too many slots to spend the time premium service requires, but priced as though you can.

Hourly vs package — what should be in the price

For ongoing students after a trial, default to packages — usually a monthly subscription of 4 or 8 lessons. Packages don't change your per-hour rate; they change the parent's commitment unit. Two specifics this page won't repeat (the packages answer covers them in full):

  • How to size and discount packages — see how to structure and price lesson packages for the size / cadence / discount-tier shape.
  • Trial-to-paid pricing. Don't deep-discount the trial. A free or token-priced trial slot followed by a "starter 4-pack at your standard rate" converts more durably than a 50%-off intro promo — the discount-priced intro attracts families who churn at the first full-price renewal.

For the per-lesson rate you set on top of those packages, the inputs are the same as the hourly question: floor, market, differentiator, retention model.

When (and how) to raise rates

Most indie tutors raise rates too late, not too soon. The signal-to-raise is visible:

  • Your calendar is 70%+ full at your current rate for two months running.
  • Your trial-to-paid conversion stays above 50%.
  • Renewals on your current families are running 90%+ month-over-month.
  • You have testimonials, before/after evidence, and a clear differentiator to point at.

If three of those four are true, raise. A working shape:

  • Raise by 10-20% at a time. Less than 10% isn't worth the awkwardness; more than 20% provokes churn even from happy families.
  • Grandfather existing families at the current rate for 6-12 months when announcing the increase. The new rate applies to new students immediately. Tell existing families when they'll move to the new rate, well before they get there.
  • Announce in a single message per family, not a generic broadcast. Two sentences: "starting [month], my rate goes from X to Y for new students; you're locked in at X until [date]". Don't apologise for raising rates — it primes families to negotiate.
  • Some families will leave. Expect 5-15% churn on a rate raise. The tutors who never lose anyone never raised enough.

How to actually bill the rate

The tooling matters less than the discipline. Whatever stack you use, an independent online tutor's billing needs to handle five jobs:

  1. Generate an invoice the parent can pay. Multi-line-item invoices ("June 1st class, 20 minutes"; "June 3rd class, 20 minutes"; etc.) read more professionally than a single "tutoring services" line and travel better through a parent's bookkeeping.
  2. Accept payment in the parent's local currency on the rail they actually use. Cards via Stripe or PayPal in most of the world; WeChat Pay or Alipay for families in mainland China; occasional Wise transfers for parents your Stripe doesn't reach.
  3. Send automated reminders for unpaid invoices. Late renewals are the biggest source of unintentional churn — a parent meant to renew and just didn't get to it. One reminder a few days after an invoice goes unpaid recovers a meaningful share.
  4. Track what's paid against what's taught. Who's on a current package, how many lessons remain, what's outstanding. A spreadsheet is enough; an invoicing tool that surfaces a package view is better.
  5. Hold a clear cancellation and no-show policy. Tools matter less than rules. See how to handle student no-shows and last-minute cancellations for the operational defaults.

You can stitch this together — Stripe or PayPal for invoicing, Calendly or Google Calendar for scheduling, a spreadsheet for the package balance — or use a virtual classroom that bundles invoicing and scheduling into the same product. Both work. The stitched path is cheaper at face value; the bundled path saves real time at month-end and removes the "where did that payment go?" reconciliation step.

How Koala Go handles the billing side

Koala Go is the virtual classroom we build; we ship the invoicing and scheduling pieces inside the same product so the per-lesson rate you set on this page actually gets billed and paid without a second tool. Honest about what's included on which plan:

  • Built-in worldwide invoicing. You generate an invoice from inside the classroom with as many line items as you want (the input prompts for things like "June 1st class, 20 minutes" — the shape a package invoice needs for the parent's records and your own tax return). The parent receives a link and pays in their own currency. Payouts go to your Stripe, PayPal, or Wise account depending on which payment method you have set up.
  • WeChat Pay end-to-end for parents in mainland China. If you teach families in China, the invoice link works on WeChat without the parent installing anything else. There's a small QR gotcha — the same WeChat app can't both display and scan the QR — and the parent-facing workaround is at /wechat-pay-instructions. Same payment plumbing as the existing answer on teaching students in mainland China.
  • One-click payment reminders. If an invoice goes unpaid, you send a reminder from inside the classroom rather than drafting a follow-up email.
  • Scheduling on the Pro plan; Scheduling Plus on Platinum. Koala Pro ($25.99/month, or $21.99/month billed annually) includes the scheduling tool. Koala Platinum ($49.99/month, or $39.99/month billed annually) adds recurring classes (so a monthly package books all four Wednesdays at once), booking policy controls (so the 24-hour cancellation rule is enforced by the platform rather than your inbox), and 30/45/60-minute class lengths.
  • Koala invoicing fee tiered to your plan. Koala Free carries a 4.5% Koala fee on each invoice; Koala Pro is 3.5%; Koala Platinum is 0%. Card-network fees from Stripe, PayPal, or Wise are separate and unavoidable on any platform. If you're invoicing a few thousand a month, the difference between the Pro and Platinum fees usually covers the Platinum plan on its own.
  • Auto-generated class notes on Platinum. If part of what justifies your rate is the progress report you send parents after each lesson (see how to keep parents renewing month after month), Platinum drafts that summary automatically — you edit and send in a minute or two instead of skipping it on a busy week.

Two things Koala Go doesn't do that some tutors assume any billing tool does: it doesn't auto-charge a parent's saved card on a monthly cycle (a monthly package on Koala Go means you invoice the parent each month — one click, they pay one link — and the recurring scheduling books the lessons; this is the same honest framing used in the packages page), and it isn't a tax tool (your accountant or your local tax filing service still handles the year-end side). For unusual billing shapes — corporate language tutoring billed to an employer, a tutoring company on a white-label Koala for Business setup, a sibling-discount multi-month package — write to koala@teachwithkoala.com before you build the rate around it.

Common pricing mistakes new tutors make

  • Pricing on imposter syndrome instead of the floor. "I haven't been doing this long enough to charge X" is rarely an accurate read of what your hour is worth — and a too-low rate signals "low value" to the families you most want.
  • Heavy intro discounts. 50%-off first month, "free first three lessons" stacked with discounts. These attract families who will churn at the first full-price renewal, and they train every future negotiation.
  • Quoting in USD to families who think in another currency. Sticker-price friction at a point of sale costs you conversions you'll never see.
  • Forgetting to count the unpaid time. Prep, parent messages, scheduling friction, and admin take real hours. If your real total-time-per-lesson is 1.5x the teaching hour, your rate has to reflect that.
  • Refusing to raise rates. Holding the same rate for three years while the calendar fills is the single most common indie-tutor income mistake. Raise on schedule; grandfather existing families.
  • Negotiating the rate after publishing it. Publishing a rate then quietly cutting it for an asking family teaches every future parent that the rate is a starting position. Hold the published price; offer a structural alternative if a family genuinely can't reach (a shorter lesson, a smaller package, a less-frequent cadence).

A short worked example

An indie tutor with two years of experience, a TEFL certificate, no specialist exam-prep credential, teaching primary-school ESL to families in a high-income market. They run 22 paid hours a week, all on monthly 8-lesson packages.

  • Floor. Local effective minimum wage post-tax plus 30 minutes of unpaid time per lesson ≈ $20/hr published rate. Don't go below this.
  • Market. Local indie tutors of the same subject and age group publish $30-$45/hr.
  • Differentiator. Two years of repeat-renewing families, a small library of testimonials, TEFL but no specialty. Modest differentiator — one step up the local band, not two.
  • Retention model. Monthly packages with a clear cancellation policy. A modest premium over a comparable pay-per-lesson tutor is defensible.

Landing rate: $38-$42/hr. Published as $40/hr standard; $38/hr inside the 8-lesson monthly package (a small package discount, per the packages page). Six months later, calendar 75% full and renewals at 90%+ — they raise to $45 for new students and grandfather existing families at the old rate until the new calendar year.

The numbers are illustrative; the framework — floor, market, differentiator, retention — is the part to copy.

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