Tutoring is a topic I have mentioned so many times before as a way to make money online, but the problem with it is that you often have to market yourself on these platforms, which means you have to set your rates.
This is where people often struggle.
How much are you worth?
How much should you charge a student to be competitive?
If you’re thinking about tutoring students, either online or in person, I wanted to create a simple guide to let you know what you should charge for tutoring. Hopefully, by the end of this guide, you should have a better idea as to how much you’re worth.
Tutoring is a great way to make money online, but you will want to make sure you’re charging the right amount so that you’re getting leads and you’re making it worth your time.
How Much Should a Tutor Charge?
As a tutor, you should expect your hourly rate to be anywhere between $16 to $110+ per hour. However, the average rate, according to PayScale, is only $17.78 per hour.
I know it’s a wide margin, but this rate will be based on the following:
Level of education
The more education you have, the more you can make. As you’re about to see in my examples noted below, a master’s degree can earn you 30% more than a Bachelor’s degree. At a minimum, however, you should have at least a four-year degree in the subject you want to tutor.
Experience
This is like any job, and the amount of experience you have will affect the price as well. Let’s say that you have a bachelor’s degree, but you have 20+ years of experience as a math teacher. This will make your resume a lot more attractive than someone who has only been teaching math for a year or two. If you don’t have much personal experience, you can still tutor, as long as you have the educational credentials, however, you will have to start near the bottom.
Subjects
Let’s face it. Some subjects are much easier to tutor than others, and some subjects are much more in demand. In my experience, math, chemistry, biology, English and any SAT/ACT prep is often the best subject to tutor, but other subjects can yield interest as well. It just won’t be as much. If your subject is in demand, you can be prepared to charge a higher price.
Time Slots
Whether you teach online or in person, time slots matter. Since most of your students will be at school from 8 to 3-4ish, many won’t be available until after 5 p.m. If you’re unable to tutor during these later hours, then your demand will drop drastically. The same can be said about weekend availability, a time when students often request tutors. As long as you’re available most of the weekend as well as after 5 p.m., you shouldn’t have a problem here.
Students
The age of your students, like the subject matter, will affect your rate. You won’t make $125 per hour teaching math to a first grader, but you could get this rate teaching a college student.
Reviews
On almost every online tutoring platform, people will have to contact you to use your tutoring services. And, within these listings, when they do contact you, you will have a rating system, similar to what you see on an e-commerce website, such as Amazon, etc. With that being said, your reviews matter, and it’s important to keep a five star rating so that people want to contact you. If you have anything less than a 4.5 or so, you’re risking your leads. While you can get students, most will be attracted to the five-star listings. In the beginning, it can be hard to get reviews, so you will have to drop your rates to lure students in. As long as you provide great customer service and your students see results, it won’t be hard to get a five star rating.
Results
And, lastly, I mentioned it prior, but the results matter. These students are coming to you to learn a particular subject. If they aren’t grasping the subject matter or their grades aren’t increasing, then you will more than likely be left with a bad grade and review for that matter. As long as you know what the student wants and you know you can help them, then, again, there shouldn’t be an issue here.
With that being said, there are many variables, as you can see, so finding the perfect hourly rate can be tough. However, there is a way to see what people are charging for your particular subject.
This is where you can use tutoring marketplaces to your advantage.
Using Wyzant to Find an Aggressive Price
Wyzant is one of the most popular online tutoring companies online, and it’s one you can join as a tutor to find students. What I like about it is that you can see what other tutors are charging for the exact subject matter you’re looking to teach. This can give you an idea as to what you can charge to be competitive.
So, let me give you an example…
Go to Wyzant and click on the “Find a Tutor” tab and then “Search For Tutors.”
Then, what you will want to do is follow the prompts to find active tutors.
During this process, it will ask which subject you want to teach, where you want to meet, your time zone, the student’s level, as well as which specific subject you’re looking for. If you chose math, then it would ask for a certain topic, such as Algebra 1, Geometry, etc.
When you fill this out, remember to act as if you’re finding the perfect student to tutor. That way, you can see your competitors.
Once you fill this out, which should only take a minute or so, you can get the results, and I provided a screenshot of what it will look like below.
I said I wanted an Algebra 1 tutor for a high school student, and this is what my results looked like….
There were more than 5,100+ results, and the top matches, which seemed to have the highest reviews, charged anywhere from $70 to $225 per hour. Again, it’s a high range, but you can narrow it down even more if you choose.
For example, the highest rated person, Douglas Z, was a graduate student in mathematics, as well as had a postdoc. If you had a similar resume, then it would be safe to say you could make $200 per hour, but if you only had a bachelor’s degree, and that’s it, then you would have to charge much less. Elena, for instance, has a master’s degree and could charge $70 per hour. Using that bachelor’s degree only example, again, you would have to weed out the results to see what someone with similar credentials would charge, as $70 would be too high for your resume as well.
If you attempt to leave the site, it should present you with a pop-up, which will look something like this…
This gives you an idea as to the range tutors are charging for the subject matter I was interested in.
You can see 447 tutors are charging less than $30, but 1,690 are $40 per hour or less. The sweet spot seems to be in that $30 to $40 per hour range, but there are tutors charging much less. I would study those who are charging less than $30 per hour to see what kind of credentials they have. Click on that list to study as much as you can. The more you research, the more you can figure out your worth.
And, remember, since you have to sell yourself on these platforms, you will have to set your rates a pinch lower than what you want so that people will hire you. Then, once you build your ratings, you can increase your rates as time goes on.
Final Thoughts
There’s a lot that goes into determining your rate as a tutor. I’m hoping this “hack” can help you figure out what you should charge. By simply going to Wyzant and browsing the results, it should at least give you an idea as to what you should charge. Again, just remember that you’re going to have a hard time at first, seeing you don’t have reviews, but if you undercut your competitors to build your ratings, you can raise your fees accordingly.
If you’re interested in tutoring, be sure to check out the more than 20+ online tutoring companies available right now. No matter what kind of experience you have, there should be at least one option for you.
That’s going to wrap it up for now.
As always, I encourage you to share your thoughts below. By sharing your experiences, you can help others out.
Thanks for stopping by!
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