Working as a private tutor means you are free to set your own hourly rate. Whilst this can be as high as you like, you must consider it carefully if you want to realistically attract clients. Many factors come into play when deciding your price point; in this article we will discuss ten of them. By the end, you should have the information to make an informed decision about what hourly rate is the best for you.
Not all subjects are created equal. It will come as no surprise that in the UK, by far the most popular ones are Math, English, and Science. Supply rises to match demand, therefore many tutors you encounter will teach one of these topics. Meanwhile, more niche areas, for example law, Chinese and psychology will be less commonly tutored.
Statistically, as a tutor, you will be teaching one or more of the popular subjects, so let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of this.
A major advantage, of course, is the client pool; you’ll have a lot more people looking at any one time for a math tutor than a sociology one, so in general you are more likely to encounter a larger volume of students. This is particularly important at the beginning of a tutor’s career, as typically at this stage you will charge less due to lack of experience, making the number of hours you work all the more important. And more potential clients means more potential hours.
However, you won’t be the only one out there with something to offer; teaching these common subjects means there is far greater competition for clients amongst tutors, therefore you need to make sure you stand out. Price point is a major factor when it comes to a client’s decision, so offering a better deal than the competition can help you get ahead.
To help determine what the price range for your subject is, visit some tutoring websites and type in your subject of choice to see what people seem to be charging in general. A great way to begin attracting new clients is to slightly undercut the competition.
The level at which you teach also has an impact on what you charge. Generally, the lower the academic level, the less you would charge for tuition. For example, a physics tutor may charge £15/hour for a GCSE/Nat5 student and £20/hour for an A-Level/Higher student. This is completely reasonable, as it reflects not only the extra preparation that goes into the more advanced session, but also the time and effort the tutor has spent to get themselves to a level in the subject that they feel confident enough to teach it. So, if you plan on teaching a range of subject levels, consider varying your prices to reflect this.
Experience matters when it comes to tutoring. Specifically, we are referring to how many hours you have spent doing 1-to-1 lessons as a pose to any teaching qualifications held, which we will discuss in the next section. Being able to say you have been teaching for 5 years or have over 800 hours of logged lesson time is something that will instil trust and confidence in your clients and they will generally be happy to pay more for your time.
Like any skill in life, tutoring is something that you will get better at with practice. If you are completely new to it though, don’t be downhearted, every single experienced tutor started somewhere.
If you do fall into this novice group, we would recommend offering your services at a lower price to begin with and slowly raising them as you gain confidence. The beauty of the job is that you can raise your prices at any time, so you are by no means committed to that lower rate forever. Moreover, offering low prices will allow you to tap into a whole new niche in the market, that being people on a budget. The great thing about this is it helps you get your teaching hours up quickly; the lower the price the more clients you will attract and the more hours you will complete. After you feel you have completed enough hours you can raise your price slightly, and more importantly feel confident in your decision to do this.
Qualifications are like a form of quality assurance for a tutor. If a client sees that you have a qualification in teaching, then they can be confident that you at least know a thing or two about it.
Therefore, if you have any qualifications relevant to teaching or related to the subject(s) you are tutoring, then flaunt it. In general, a qualified tutor can charge more than an unqualified one, but you will find both groups in abundance if you search the web.
A certificate does not necessarily equal experience though; so even if you do have a PhD in astrophysics, it doesn’t mean you’ll be the best math tutor for GCSE. Try to consider your qualifications not just a reason to increase your prices, but rather an asset that makes you stand out from your competitors. If person A and B both charge the same price, but person A has a PGCE (post-graduate certificate in education) and B does not, then you are far more likely to choose person A. So, if you are person A in this scenario, use these qualifications to give you an edge over the competition. If you are person B, consider lowering your prices to get that competitive advantage.
Prices range based on both tutor and client location, and whilst this is perhaps a more critical factor in face-to-face tutoring, it still can have an impact online.
Towns and cities vary in average living costs, and this can determine both what you charge and what clients are willing to pay. If you are a tutor based in a costly area like London, your prices may be higher than you would charge if you were living somewhere else. Similarly, clients from more costly areas like this are generally expect to pay more for lessons.
So, when you are trying to devise a price for your lessons, think about the main locations you are advertising in. If you are based in rural Scotland, but most of your client base is in central London, then you could definitely charge more and therefore increase your profit margins. However, try to avoid the opposite, where as a tutor you live in an expensive location but have your clientele mainly from a lower-income location. Most of the time though, you will be working in the same area as your clients, meaning prices tend to naturally level themselves out.
Although uncommon, group lessons can be a great way to increase your hourly rate AND make lessons cheaper for clients. Whilst group sessions in tutoring only really work in a handful of situations, for example a group of siblings or close school friends of a similar age/ability, they can be lucrative if they do come up. Instead of charging £20/hour for a one-to-one, you could charge £10/hour per student. Make a group of 3 students, and you’re up to £30/hour. We wouldn’t recommend you focus too much attention on advertising lessons like this, after all most people are looking for private tuition for the one-on-one aspect, but it is something to bear in mind if the opportunity arises.
Offering discounts is a win-win for both students and tutors. For the student, they get their lessons cheaper. For a tutor, it provides a more regular stream of income and encourages clients to pay in advance of the lessons, with the convenient add-on that this can discourage last-minute cancellations. Bulk discounts don’t have to be enormous either. Your usual rate could be £20 per hour and you could offer 4 lessons for £70 or 10 lessons for £175.
If you have a particularly keen tutee, you may offer a discount to do longer lessons. Again, this is a way to increase your hours spent teaching without the added effort of advertising for a new student. This only works in some situations though, for example we wouldn’t recommend trying to get a 10-year-old to sit through a 2-hour math lesson. It can, however, work quite well with older students who can concentrate for longer periods.
School holidays like summer and winter are often quite quiet for tutors; your students may want a break or have plans to go away during these periods. Half term breaks and the Easter holidays, however, can offer opportunities for keen tutors, as exam and mock season tends to fall right after these periods.
As a tutor, you may offer a “bootcamp” of sorts to your students looking to cram before the exam. This is like bulk lessons, however it is concentrated into a very short period of time, for example you may do 1 to 2 hours with a student per day Monday to Friday. You can even offer these sessions at a discounted price like you would with a block booking.
Whilst some students may not want or need an intensive bootcamp like this, if you can get a handful on board then it can be quite lucrative.
Everyone loves a bargain, and there isn’t a better bargain than free. It is quite common for tutors to offer a free first lesson to students as a trial run.
Clients really like a trial lesson, not only because it saves them money, but also because the “trial” aspect takes away that sense of commitment to the tutor. If they don’t enjoy the lesson, then they don’t have to come back, no explanation needed.
When starting out as a tutor, you may offer clients this as an option as it increases the odds that they’ll give you a try, after all it’s free. If you perform well during the trial, then you are highly likely to have bagged yourself a new student.
Pricing is by no means static when working as a tutor. You should always be reviewing your price point, adapting it to the general market as well as aligning it to your own abilities and selling points.
We recommend doing a review every 6 months in the beginning and readjusting prices as and when needed. For your current students, you have two options when you implement a price increase:
1) Keep their prices the same and only increase for new students. You will naturally get student turnover so keeping lower-paying students is a valid option.
2) Increase prices for current students by the same amount but be prepared you may lose some of them.
Finally, you earn more not just by charging more per hour but also by increasing the volume of teaching you are doing, so in your review, if you want to earn more, consider points 7-10 as ways you can increase the hours you are spending teaching.
You came here for a number to put on your price tag; however it is likely now clear that there isn’t one number that fits for everyone. We can, however, give you a recommendation range based purely on your experience tutoring.
£10-£15: Just starting out. If you have never taught in your life, consider beginning in this range and be honest to clients about your experience, most are still happy to pay for one-to-one if the price is right.
£15-£20: If you have over 100 hours of in-lesson tutoring experience, consider raising your prices slightly to reflect this.
£20-£30: If you have over 500 hours of in-lesson experience, it is fair to say you are competent as a tutor, so think about raising your prices again towards this range. Of course, you can go much higher than this but remember, you need to be able to offer lessons of a quality that reflects your price; overcharging will not get you far in the long run.
Price point is a flexible measurement in tutoring, and even though the sky is the limit, you must be smart when setting your hourly rate. The golden rule is start low, and only go as high as the level to which you can still stand out amongst the competition.
