Short answer
Charge per session: (session hours + unpaid prep, admin and travel hours) × your wage plus self-employment tax, plus overhead per hour, plus materials, all ÷ (1 − margin). Example: a 60-minute online session with 30 minutes of prep and notes, a $25 wage, 15.3% burden and 25% margin prices at $62.73.
- A 60-minute online session carries 1.5 hours of work on these assumptions and prices at $62.73.
- Adding 30 minutes of round-trip travel for in-home tutoring raises the same session to $88.53.
- Short sessions cost more per teaching hour: 45 minutes works out at $70.00 per hour, 90 minutes at $55.47.
- A student tutor using the same formula with a $15 wage prices a 60-minute session at $37.80.
- Adding 25% as a markup keeps only 20% of the price, $3.92 short per session.
On this page
- How to work out what to charge for a tutoring session
- Tutoring price calculator: test your own session
- Worked example: a 60-minute online tutoring session
- Tutoring rates per hour: 45, 60 and 90-minute sessions
- How much to charge for online tutoring vs in-home tutoring
- Is $30 an hour for tutoring good? What $30 and $50 cover
- Packages and small-group tutoring sessions as outputs
- How much to charge for tutoring as a high school or college student
- The common mistakes: markup instead of margin, and the 60-minute trap
- Spreadsheet formulas for a tutoring price sheet
- Calculator, starter sheet or custom build: what to use, and what to put on your rate sheet
- Step-by-step
- FAQ
How to work out what to charge for a tutoring session
Price the whole block of time a session uses, not just the hour on the clock. Add the unpaid minutes each session drags along, pay yourself a wage plus tax on those hours, add a share of your yearly costs, then divide by one minus your margin.
- Hours per session = teaching time + prep + admin (booking messages, parent updates, progress notes) + travel for in-home sessions.
- Labour = hours × loaded rate, where loaded rate = wage × (1 + burden %).
- Overhead share = hours × (yearly overhead ÷ yearly tutoring hours).
- Materials = worksheets, printing, a workbook share, or fuel for a home visit.
- Price = (labour + overhead + materials) ÷ (1 − margin).
Most pages ranking for this question are forum threads where people swap the number they charge. I'm not a tutor; I build pricing math. This page derives a price from inputs you replace, and each figure shows its working.
Assumptions used throughout (replace each one): a $25 wage you pay yourself; a 15.3% burden for self-employment tax; $1,800 of yearly overhead; 960 tutoring hours a year; 25% target margin. On those inputs the loaded rate is $28.83 and overhead is $1.88 per hour.
Tutoring price calculator: test your own session
Enter the hours a session really takes, your wage, burden, materials and yearly overhead to see break-even and the price to quote. It opens on the 60-minute online session below, priced at $62.73.
Two inputs need care. "Hours on the job" is the full 1.5 hours, not the 60 minutes of teaching. Leave workers at 1 unless a second tutor or assistant is in the room. The calculator calls the yearly split "billable days"; for a tutor that is yearly tutoring hours ÷ 8 (960 hours = 120 days). The same math runs in the free job pricing calculator, with no signup.
Worked example: a 60-minute online tutoring session
One hour of teaching plus 15 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of admin is 1.5 hours of work. With $1 of materials it breaks even at $47.05 and prices at $62.73 at a 25% margin.
Worked example: 60-minute online session: 1 hour teaching + 15 min prep + 15 min admin, messages and progress notes = 1.5 hours; $1 of printed or digital materials (assumed inputs)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Workers (input) | 1 |
| Hourly wage paid (input) | $25.00 |
| Labour burden % (input) | 15.3% |
| Materials (input) | $1.00 |
| Overhead for the year (input) | $1,800.00 |
| People in the field (input) | 1 |
| Billable days a year (input) | 120 |
| Target margin % (input) | 25% |
| Jobs a week (input) | 13 |
| Hours on the job (input) | 1.5 |
| Loaded labour rate (per hour) | $28.83 |
| Crew-hours | 1.5 |
| Labour cost | $43.24 |
| Overhead per sellable hour | $1.88 |
| Overhead share | $2.81 |
| Break-even cost | $47.05 |
| Price to quote | $62.73 |
| Profit on the job | $15.68 |
| Price if you MARK UP instead | $58.81 |
| Margin you actually keep with markup | 20% |
| Lost per job by marking up | $3.92 |
| Lost per year by marking up | $2,650.48 |
Computed with the same formulas as the free calculators on this site. Change any input in the calculator above to see your own numbers.
Check it: loaded rate $25 × 1.153 = $28.83. Labour 1.5 × $28.83 = $43.24. Overhead 1.5 × $1.88 = $2.81 (the unrounded rate is $1,800 ÷ 960 = $1.875). Materials $1.00. Break-even $43.24 + $2.81 + $1.00 = $47.05. Price $47.05 ÷ 0.75 = $62.73, leaving $15.68 of profit.
Where the 15.3% burden comes from
A self-employed tutor pays both halves of Social Security and Medicare. The IRS self-employment tax page states the rate is 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. The IRS computes it on net earnings, not on your wage line, and income tax sits on top, so treat 15.3% as an assumption for the calculator, not tax advice.
What the $1,800 of overhead covers
Every figure here is a placeholder: a website or booking tool $240, liability insurance $450, workbooks and printing $360, a background check $50, and a share of a laptop plus software $700. Swap in your receipts.
The 960 hours is the honest part. Count only hours that sessions pay for, including their prep and admin: 20 hours a week × 48 weeks. That is about 13 one-hour online sessions a week. Holidays, exam-season gaps and cancellations shrink the number, and fewer hours means each one carries more overhead.
Tutoring rates per hour: 45, 60 and 90-minute sessions
On this page's assumptions, an online session prices at $52.50 for 45 minutes, $62.73 for 60 and $83.20 for 90. Each row is one computed job, with a fixed 30 minutes of prep and admin added to the teaching time.
| Session | Online hours | Online price | Online per teaching hour | In-home hours | In-home price | In-home per teaching hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 minutes | 1.25 | $52.50 | $70.00 | 1.75 | $78.30 | $104.40 |
| 60 minutes | 1.5 | $62.73 | $62.73 | 2 | $88.53 | $88.53 |
| 90 minutes | 2 | $83.20 | $55.47 | 2.5 | $109.00 | $72.67 |
Each price is job(hours, materials) from the same math the calculator runs: online materials $1, in-home $5.
Why shorter sessions cost more per hour
The 30 minutes of prep and admin is roughly fixed per session, so it is a bigger share of a 45-minute lesson than a 90-minute one.
How much to charge for online tutoring vs in-home tutoring
In-home tutoring costs more because travel is time you cannot sell twice. On these assumptions, 30 minutes of round-trip travel and $4 of vehicle cost turn the $62.73 online session into $88.53 in-home.
Worked example: 60-minute in-home session: the same 1.5 hours + 30 min round-trip travel = 2 hours; $1 materials + $4 assumed vehicle cost (assumed inputs)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Workers (input) | 1 |
| Hourly wage paid (input) | $25.00 |
| Labour burden % (input) | 15.3% |
| Materials (input) | $5.00 |
| Overhead for the year (input) | $1,800.00 |
| People in the field (input) | 1 |
| Billable days a year (input) | 120 |
| Target margin % (input) | 25% |
| Jobs a week (input) | 13 |
| Hours on the job (input) | 2 |
| Loaded labour rate (per hour) | $28.83 |
| Crew-hours | 2 |
| Labour cost | $57.65 |
| Overhead per sellable hour | $1.88 |
| Overhead share | $3.75 |
| Break-even cost | $66.40 |
| Price to quote | $88.53 |
| Profit on the job | $22.13 |
| Price if you MARK UP instead | $83.00 |
| Margin you actually keep with markup | 20% |
| Lost per job by marking up | $5.53 |
| Lost per year by marking up | $3,740.53 |
Computed with the same formulas as the free calculators on this site. Change any input in the calculator above to see your own numbers.
Check it: 2 hours × ($28.83 + $1.88) = $57.65 + $3.75, plus $5.00 of materials and fuel = $66.40. Divided by 0.75, $88.53.
Travel is better priced as minutes than as a flat surcharge, because a family 5 minutes away and one 25 minutes away cost you very different amounts. Set a travel band (for example, up to 15 minutes each way) and price each band as its own row. Online sessions shift some cost into overhead instead: a reliable connection, a headset, a drawing tablet and a video or whiteboard subscription belong in the yearly figure.
Try it with your numbers — free
The free calculator does this whole method in about a minute: loaded labour, overhead share, break-even and the price to quote at your margin. No signup, nothing to download, and your numbers stay in your browser.
Open the free job pricing calculator →Get the free spreadsheetWant it built around your own rates, services and branding? Done-for-you custom calculator ($497).
Is $30 an hour for tutoring good? What $30 and $50 cover
Whether a price is good depends on what it pays for. Run it backwards: take the session price, remove margin, materials and overhead, divide by the hours, then remove the 15.3% burden. What is left is the wage the price pays you.
| Session price | Margin kept | Break-even part | Wage it pays per hour of work |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30 | 0% | $30.00 | $15.14 |
| $30 | 25% | $22.50 | $10.81 |
| $50 | 0% | $50.00 | $26.71 |
| $50 | 25% | $37.50 | $19.48 |
Check the first row: $30 − $1 materials − $2.81 overhead = $26.19 of labour. Divide by 1.5 hours = $17.46 loaded, then by 1.153 = $15.14. The 60 minutes billed are not the 1.5 hours worked, which is why $30 "an hour" pays well under $30 an hour.
Is $50 an hour too much for tutoring? On these inputs, $50 for an online hour pays $19.48 an hour at a 25% margin. For an in-home hour with 2 hours of work and $5 of costs, the same $50 pays $12.47 at that margin.
Packages and small-group tutoring sessions as outputs
Build packages and group rates from the single-session price, so you can see what a discount costs you. If a prepaid package really cuts booking messages, model that as fewer admin minutes, not a flat percentage. Ten online sessions at $62.73 are $627.30. Offered at 10% off, that is $564.57, or $56.46 a session, and the margin falls from 25% to 16.66%.
Group sessions: price per student
Price the group session as one job, then divide by students. A 60-minute online session for 3 students, with an extra 15 minutes of prep (1.75 hours) and $1 of materials per student, prices at $75.63, or $25.21 per student. The same session for 2 students prices at $74.30, or $37.15 each.
| Students | Session price | Price per student |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $62.73 | $62.73 |
| 2 | $74.30 | $37.15 |
| 3 | $75.63 | $25.21 |
How much to charge for tutoring as a high school or college student
A student tutor uses the same formula with smaller inputs: a lower wage and less overhead. At a $15 wage, $300 of yearly overhead over 320 hours and the same 1.5 hours per session, a 60-minute online session prices at $37.80.
Worked example: Student tutor, 60-minute online session: 1.5 hours of work at a $15 wage; $300 yearly overhead over 320 tutoring hours (assumed inputs)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Workers (input) | 1 |
| Hourly wage paid (input) | $15.00 |
| Labour burden % (input) | 15.3% |
| Materials (input) | $1.00 |
| Overhead for the year (input) | $300.00 |
| People in the field (input) | 1 |
| Billable days a year (input) | 40 |
| Target margin % (input) | 25% |
| Jobs a week (input) | 8 |
| Hours on the job (input) | 1.5 |
| Loaded labour rate (per hour) | $17.30 |
| Crew-hours | 1.5 |
| Labour cost | $25.94 |
| Overhead per sellable hour | $0.94 |
| Overhead share | $1.41 |
| Break-even cost | $28.35 |
| Price to quote | $37.80 |
| Profit on the job | $9.45 |
| Price if you MARK UP instead | $35.44 |
| Margin you actually keep with markup | 20% |
| Lost per job by marking up | $2.36 |
| Lost per year by marking up | $982.76 |
Computed with the same formulas as the free calculators on this site. Change any input in the calculator above to see your own numbers.
The $300 is assumed: a $50 background check, $150 of materials and a $100 share of a laptop. The 320 hours is 8 hours a week for 40 school weeks. The wage is an input you choose, not a rule about age.
The burden can change too. The IRS self-employment tax page says self-employment tax and Schedule SE apply when net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more. If a summer of tutoring nets less, a 0% burden is a fair input; on the same session that gives $33.21.
The common mistakes: markup instead of margin, and the 60-minute trap
Adding 25% to cost keeps 20% of the price, not 25%. On the 60-minute online session, cost × 1.25 bills $58.81 instead of $62.73, $3.92 short each time. Across 13 sessions a week for 48 weeks (624 sessions), that is $2,446.08. The markup vs margin guide has the conversion chart.
The second mistake is pricing only the teaching minutes. Charging the $28.83 loaded rate for 60 minutes skips 30 minutes of prep and admin every session, which is a third of the work.
Spreadsheet formulas for a tutoring price sheet
Layout: B2 = session minutes, B3 = prep and admin minutes, B4 = travel minutes (0 online), B5 = wage, B6 = burden %, B7 = yearly overhead, B8 = yearly tutoring hours, B9 = materials and vehicle cost per session, B10 = margin %, B11 = students in the group.
Hours per session
=(B2+B3+B4)/60B2 = session minutes, B3 = prep and admin minutes, B4 = travel minutes. Enter this as the calculator's hours.
Session price
=((B2+B3+B4)/60*(B5*(1+B6)+B7/B8)+B9)/(1-B10)Hours × (loaded rate + overhead per hour) plus materials, ÷ (1 − margin). Enter B6 and B10 as decimals (0.153, 0.25).
Price per teaching hour (output)
=ROUND(((B2+B3+B4)/60*(B5*(1+B6)+B7/B8)+B9)/(1-B10)/(B2/60),2)Session price divided by teaching hours, to compare session lengths.
Group price per student
=ROUND(((B2+B3+B4)/60*(B5*(1+B6)+B7/B8)+B9*B11)/(1-B10)/B11,2)B9 here is materials per student; add extra group prep minutes to B3 first.
If you would rather start from the income you want each year and divide by billable hours, the freelance hourly rate calculator runs that method; it is a useful cross-check on this one.
Calculator, starter sheet or custom build: what to use, and what to put on your rate sheet
For one price, use the free calculator. For a rate sheet you reuse, use a spreadsheet. There is no ready-made tutoring template in the store, so the options are free tools or a custom build.
| Option | Cost | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Forum or agency rate | Free | A market sanity check only |
| Free job pricing calculator | Free, no signup | One session type at a time |
| Free Job Pricing Starter | Free | Loaded rate, overhead, break-even and margin on one sheet, in Excel or Google Sheets |
| Done-for-you custom build | $497 one-time | Your own session rows, a job log and a branded quote page |
Put these on your sheet:
- Prep, admin and travel minutes per session type, timed on your own week.
- Wage, burden % and the loaded rate.
- Yearly overhead by line, and the tutoring hours you expect to sell.
- Materials and vehicle cost per session.
- Target margin, applied by division.
- Rows for 45, 60 and 90 minutes, online and in-home, plus package and group outputs.
For the general version of this method across any service, see how to price a service.
Step-by-step: How Much to Charge for Tutoring: Price Each Session From Your Real Hours
- Time one real session. Log teaching, prep, admin and travel minutes for a typical session, then convert the total to hours.
- Set your loaded rate. Choose the wage you want per hour of work and multiply by 1 + burden, such as 1.153 for self-employment tax.
- Spread your yearly overhead. Divide yearly overhead by the tutoring hours you expect to sell, counting prep and admin attached to sessions.
- Find break-even. Hours × (loaded rate + overhead per hour) plus materials and vehicle cost gives the session's break-even.
- Apply your margin. Divide break-even by (1 − margin). For 25%, divide by 0.75 rather than multiplying by 1.25.
- Build the rate sheet. Repeat for each session length and for online and in-home, then derive package and per-student group prices.
Run your own numbers — free
The free calculator does this whole method in about a minute: loaded labour, overhead share, break-even and the price to quote at your margin. No signup, nothing to download, and your numbers stay in your browser.
Open the free calculator →Get the free spreadsheetWant it built around your own rates, services and branding? Done-for-you custom calculator ($497).
Frequently asked questions
How much should I charge for tutoring per hour?
Derive it from the session, not the other way round. A 60-minute online session that takes 1.5 hours of work prices at $62.73 on this page's assumptions: a $25 wage, 15.3% burden, $1,800 overhead and 25% margin. A 90-minute session works out lower per teaching hour, at $55.47.
Is $30 an hour for tutoring good?
It depends on the hours behind it. If a 60-minute session takes 1.5 hours of work with $1 of materials and the overhead used here, $30 pays a wage of $15.14 an hour with no margin, or $10.81 with a 25% margin. Put your own minutes in to see your figure.
Is $50 an hour too much for tutoring?
This page shows what it covers rather than judging it. On these assumptions, $50 for an online hour pays $19.48 an hour of work at a 25% margin, and $26.71 with no margin. For in-home tutoring with travel, $50 pays $12.47 at a 25% margin.
How much should I charge for online tutoring?
Online sessions skip travel, so they price lower than in-home on the same inputs: $62.73 for 60 minutes against $88.53 in-home with 30 minutes of travel. Put video, whiteboard and equipment costs in yearly overhead so every session carries a share.
How much should I charge for tutoring as a student?
Use the same formula with your own wage and smaller overhead. At a $15 wage, $300 of yearly costs over 320 hours and 1.5 hours of work per 60-minute session, the price is $37.80. Under the IRS $400 net-earnings threshold, a 0% burden gives $33.21.
How do I price a tutoring package of 10 sessions?
Multiply the single-session price, then decide on any discount knowingly. Ten sessions at $62.73 are $627.30. At 10% off the package is $564.57, $56.46 a session, and the margin drops from 25% to 16.66% on this page's assumptions.
How much should I charge for group tutoring?
Price the group session as one job with extra prep and per-student materials, then divide by students. On these assumptions, a 60-minute online session for 3 students prices at $75.63, which is $25.21 per student, and 2 students pay $37.15 each.
Sources
- IRS: Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) — 15.3% self-employment tax rate (12.4% Social Security + 2.9% Medicare); $400 net-earnings threshold for SE tax and Schedule SE
I'm not a contractor, landlord or accountant. I build the pricing maths, and every number on this page shows its working so you can check it instead of trusting it. Guides are drafted with AI assistance; every worked figure is computed by the same code as the free calculators. How these guides are made → · Watch the breakdowns on YouTube →