T TutoringPlatforms

Free tool · For tutors

Tutor earnings calculator

Enter your hourly rate and weekly hours, pick a platform, and see your real earnings after commission — weekly, monthly and yearly — plus a side-by-side comparison of what every major platform would leave you with.

You keep per hour

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Per month

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Per year

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Every platform at your rate & hours (monthly take-home)

PlatformFeeYou keep / month

Fees from each platform’s published schedule (see our platform pages for details). Figures are pre-tax and exclude payout-method fees. Fixed-pay platforms ignore your rate.

The fee models, decoded

Tutoring platforms take their cut in three different ways, and the difference compounds into thousands per year. Commission platforms take a percentage of every lesson — flat on some (Wyzant's 25%, Verbling's 15%), tiered by hours taught on others (Preply starts at 33% and falls to 18% as you teach more), and varying by lesson type on italki (about 21% on single lessons, 15% on large packages). Fixed-pay platforms like Cambly skip rate-setting entirely and pay a set amount per minute of talk time. And subscription platforms like Superprof charge students a monthly pass while letting tutors keep 100% of their lesson price.

None of these models is universally best. High commissions often buy real marketing muscle — platforms that spend heavily to bring you students can be worth 25% when your own pipeline is empty. Low-fee platforms leave you more per lesson but may deliver fewer bookings. Many working tutors run profiles on two or three platforms and let results decide.

What the numbers don't show

Remember that platform take-home is still pre-tax self-employment income in most countries — set aside roughly 20–30% for tax and contributions. Payout methods (PayPal, Payoneer, bank transfer) can add 1–3% in fees and currency conversion. And unpaid time — messaging students, preparing lessons, no-shows — effectively lowers your true hourly rate, which is a good reason to favour platforms with strong booking and cancellation policies.

How the numbers are worked out

  • Take-home per hour = your rate × (1 − the platform's commission). For tiered platforms, pick the tier that matches your hours taught so far.
  • Fixed-pay platforms (like Cambly) ignore your rate and use their published per-hour pay instead.
  • Monthly figures use 4.35 weeks per month; the yearly figure lets you set teaching weeks per year (most full-time tutors teach 44–48).
  • The comparison table applies every platform's current standard fee to your same rate and hours — commissions are from each platform's published fee schedule, and platform pages in our directory carry the details.

Frequently asked questions

How much do Preply tutors actually make?

Preply tutors set their own rates but pay a commission that starts at 33% for a new tutor and decreases with hours taught to 18% at the top tier. So a $20/hour listing pays a new tutor about $13.40/hour, rising to $16.40 as the commission falls. Popular subjects with strong reviews can sustain much higher listed rates.

Which tutoring platform has the lowest fees?

Among the big names, Superprof charges no lesson commission at all (it monetises through subscription passes instead), Verbling and Lessonface take 15%, and italki takes about 21% on single lessons, falling to 15% on large lesson packages. But fees aren't everything — a platform that fills your calendar at 25% commission can out-earn a low-fee platform with thin demand.

Is Cambly's fixed pay good or bad?

It depends on your alternatives. Cambly pays a fixed per-minute rate (about $10–12/hour) regardless of experience — well below what established tutors earn on marketplaces, but with zero rate-setting, zero marketing and instant students, it's a low-friction way to start earning or fill schedule gaps.

Do I pay tax on tutoring platform income?

Almost certainly yes — platform tutors are self-employed contractors in most countries, and platforms generally don't withhold tax for you. Set aside roughly 20–30% of take-home pay for income tax and self-employment contributions, and keep records; many platforms issue annual earnings statements to help.

Should I work on more than one platform?

Most experienced online tutors do. Different platforms deliver different student flows, and terms change — a commission hike or algorithm shift hurts far less when it touches only part of your income. A common setup is one high-traffic marketplace for growth plus a low-fee platform for regulars.