Pricing your tutoring without guessing
Most tutors price by copying the person down the street. How to work out what a session actually costs you, and when raising the price loses nobody.
27 August 2026 2 min read
Ask a tutor how they set their fee and the answer is almost always the same: it is roughly what others in the area charge. That is a reasonable starting point and a poor stopping point, because it tells you what the market tolerates and nothing about whether your particular week is worth running.
Work out the cost of a session first
Work out the cost rather than the price. Per teaching hour, honestly:
- Preparation and marking. The hidden multiplier. A session that needs an hour of preparation and forty minutes of marking is nearly three hours of work sold as one.
- Travel and dead time between groups.
- Room, printing, materials, and any share of a centre's fee.
- Unpaid administration: parent messages, scheduling, chasing payments. Genuinely count this; it is frequently the largest invisible block in a tutor's week.
Divide your monthly income from a group by the total hours it actually consumes. Tutors doing this for the first time routinely find their most prestigious small group is their worst-paid work, and that a group they nearly dropped is carrying the month.
Then price the differences, not the hour
Students and parents do not compare hours, they compare outcomes and evidence. Two things reliably support a higher fee: a track record you can state specifically, and a service the alternative does not offer: written progress reports, a documented question bank, exam-condition mocks with analysis. Pricing above the area rate without a stated difference invites the comparison you would rather not have.
Raising a price
Announce it before the term, never mid-term. Give a reason that is about what students receive rather than about your costs. Apply it to new joiners first and existing families a term later where you can. Loyalty priced at a small discount is cheaper than replacing the family.
And expect to lose a few. A price rise that loses nobody at all was almost certainly overdue.
The group size question
Doubling group size does not double income, because it lengthens marking, raises administration, and eventually costs you the students who came for attention. Work out the size at which your income per hour of total work peaks. For most subjects it is smaller than the largest group you could physically fill.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my rate is too low?
Divide the income from a group by every hour it consumes: teaching, preparation, marking, travel and parent messages. Many tutors find their most prestigious group is their worst-paid work once the full hours are counted.
When should I raise my prices?
Before a term starts, never mid-term, with a reason stated in terms of what students receive. Expect to lose a few families; a rise that loses nobody at all was probably overdue.
Is a bigger group always more profitable?
No. Group size raises marking and administration and eventually drives away the students who came for attention. Income per hour of total work usually peaks below the largest group you could fill.
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