Is online tutoring worth it? About $17 an hour after tax

The numbers

Assumptions: we assume a $40 rate, which sits inside Wyzant’s stated $35 to $60 average. We assume 75% of working time is paid lessons. The cost is Wyzant’s 25% tutor fee. Tax is 15.3% self-employment tax (IRS) plus an assumed 10% income tax set-aside. We assume you already own the equipment. Figures are rounded to the nearest cent.

On those assumptions, online tutoring pays about $17 for every hour you work once the platform fee, unpaid time and tax are taken out. That is a reasonable side income if you can charge a mid-market rate and keep your unpaid minutes low. On fixed-rate conversation platforms, the same math lands under $9.

Assumptions

1. Listed rate: $40 an hour. Wyzant says its tutors “cost $35-60 per hour on average,” and listed rates on that page run from $30 to $580. $40 sits in the lower half of that average range.
2. Paid share of working time: 75%. That is 20 unpaid minutes for every paid hour, spent on prep, messaging, scheduling and setup. No official figure exists for this, so put in your own.
3. Platform fee: 25% (Wyzant). Other platforms are compared below.
4. Self-employment tax: 15.3%, applied to the whole profit as a simple set-aside.
5. Income tax: an assumed 10% set-aside. Your real rate depends on your bracket, your other income and your state.
6. Equipment: $0 extra. We assume you already own a computer, webcam and home internet. If you have to buy any of them, spread the cost over your expected hours and subtract it.

The arithmetic for the table:

• Gross per hour worked: $40 × 0.75 = $30.00
• Wyzant fee: $30.00 × 0.25 = $7.50
• Net per hour worked: $30.00 − $7.50 = $22.50
• Tax set-aside: 15.3% + 10% = 25.3%
• After tax: $22.50 × (1 − 0.253) = $22.50 × 0.747 = $16.81

What each platform actually pays you

Platforms pay in one of two ways. Either you set the rate and the platform takes a commission, or the platform sets the rate. The table puts both on the same footing: what you keep from every $40 of lesson revenue.

Wyzant

You keep 75% of your posted rate, or 100% for students you referred. Students pay a separate 9% service fee on top, which doesn’t come out of your share. On a $40 lesson, the student pays $40 × 1.09 = $43.60.

Payouts go by direct deposit on the 1st and 15th of each month. Lessons must be submitted within 14 days, and at least 5 business days before a payout date to make that payout.

Wyzant also tells students they don’t pay for a first hour with a new tutor if they aren’t satisfied. Count first lessons as income at risk.

Preply

According to the Preply commission model, the commission starts at 33%. It drops to 28% after 20 hours taught and keeps stepping down to 18% at 400+ hours. Hours count across the whole platform, trial lessons included. Preply also keeps 100% of the trial lesson with every new student, so the headline rate understates the platform’s cut.

Withdrawals cost money too:

• Wise bank transfer: $1.13 fee for U.S. accounts, $10 minimum.
• PayPal: 2% fee, up to $20.
• Payoneer: $1 fee, $20 minimum.
• Skrill: 1% fee.

If you are based in Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, West Virginia or Alaska, Preply also deducts sales tax on its commission for non-trial lessons.

Outschool

Teachers keep 70% of the class price. Parents pay a separate marketplace fee that doesn’t come out of the teacher’s share. Payouts are PayPal only, in U.S. dollars.

Cambly

Cambly’s tutor page lists $0.17 a minute ($10.20 an hour) for adult lessons and $0.20 a minute ($12 an hour) for Cambly Kids, paid weekly by direct deposit. You need no degree or teaching experience, but Cambly says it is “temporarily limiting the number of new tutors.” Pay is per minute on a call, so any gap between calls pulls your real hourly figure below $10.20.

Tutor.com

The rate is set by subject and only revealed after you pass the application and the subject exam. No official figure is public.

Worked example: a month on Wyzant at 15 lesson hours a week

This is the base case at a part-time pace.

• Paid lesson hours: 15 × 4 weeks = 60 hours
• Gross: 60 × $40 = $2,400.00
• Wyzant fee: $2,400 × 0.25 = $600.00
• Tutor earnings: $2,400 − $600 = $1,800.00
• Unpaid time: 60 × 20 minutes = 1,200 minutes = 20 hours
• Total hours worked: 60 + 20 = 80 hours
• Self-employment tax set-aside: $1,800 × 0.153 = $275.40
• Income tax set-aside (assumed 10%): $1,800 × 0.10 = $180.00
• Take-home: $1,800 − $275.40 − $180 = $1,344.60
• Per hour worked: $1,344.60 ÷ 80 = $16.81

Suppose half of those 60 hours came from students you referred. There is no fee on that half, which adds $1,200 × 0.25 = $300 before tax, or $300 × 0.747 = $224.10 after tax.

Worked example: a new tutor’s first month on Preply

Assumptions for this example:

1. A $40 rate, the same as above, so the two platforms compare cleanly.
2. Six trial lessons, each counted as one hour for simplicity.
3. Three of the six students stay and book four regular hours each.
4. Total hours stay under 20, so the 33% commission applies throughout.

The arithmetic:

• Trial revenue to the tutor: 6 × $0 = $0.00
• Regular hours: 3 × 4 = 12 hours
• Regular gross: 12 × $40 = $480.00
• Commission: $480 × 0.33 = $158.40
• Tutor earnings: $480 − $158.40 = $321.60
• Hours taught: 6 + 12 = 18
• Per hour taught, before tax: $321.60 ÷ 18 = $17.87
• Platform’s real share: ($240 of trials + $158.40) ÷ $720 of total lesson value = 55.3%
• PayPal withdrawal fee: $321.60 × 0.02 = $6.43

In month one, the platform takes more than half the lesson value, against a headline commission of a third. The share falls as more trial students convert and as your total hours bring the commission down toward 18%.

Can you make a living tutoring online?

The BLS puts median tutor pay at $43,350 a year, or $20.84 an hour (May 2025 data), across all tutors, online or not. It counted 208,400 tutor jobs in 2025 and projects little or no change from 2025 to 2035. Only 12% of tutors are self-employed, and most work part time.

Full-time hours on the base case, assuming 30 paid hours a week for 48 weeks:

• Paid hours: 30 × 48 = 1,440
• Earnings after the Wyzant fee: 1,440 × $30 = $43,200
• Unpaid hours: 1,440 × (20 ÷ 60) = 480
• Total hours worked: 1,440 + 480 = 1,920
• After the 25.3% set-aside: $43,200 × 0.747 = $32,270.40

Before tax, that is about the BLS median, with no employer benefits. It also needs 30 booked hours every week, competing with the 29,134 online tutors Wyzant lists. The math allows a living, but only with steady demand. For most people it works better as a side income.

The parent’s side of the bill

One lesson a week at Wyzant’s average rates, with the 9% student fee added:

• Low end: $35 × 1.09 = $38.15 a lesson, × 4 = $152.60 a month
• High end: $60 × 1.09 = $65.40 a lesson, × 4 = $261.60 a month

Whether that pays off depends more on dose and tutor quality than on the screen. A 2020 meta-analysis of experimental studies found a pooled effect of 0.37 standard deviations. Effects were larger when teachers or paraprofessionals did the tutoring, in earlier grades and during the school day.

A 2022 trial of online tutoring for middle schoolers, delivered by college volunteers, found positive effects that were not statistically significant: 0.07 SD in math and 0.04 SD in reading. That program cost much less than higher-dose in-person programs, and its effects were smaller. The evidence favors regular sessions with a strong tutor over cheap, light-touch help.

Taxes on tutoring income

All gig income is taxable, whether or not a form arrives. For 2026, fewer forms will arrive:

• Form 1099-NEC is now required only for $2,000 or more of payments made after December 31, 2025, according to the IRS 1099-NEC FAQ. Wyzant’s help page still refers to $600.
• Form 1099-K is back to over $20,000 and over 200 transactions.
• Outschool tells teachers to report income whether or not they get a tax form.

You are taxed on profit: income minus business expenses, reported on Schedule C. Self-employment tax of 15.3% applies once net earnings reach $400. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for 2026, estimated payments are due on these dates:

• April 15, 2026
• June 15, 2026
• September 15, 2026
• January 15, 2027

To avoid a penalty, pay the smaller of 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s. That rises to 110% of last year’s tax if your 2025 AGI was over $150,000.

The IRS simplified home-office deduction allows $5 per square foot of space used only for business, up to 300 square feet. That works out to a maximum of $1,500 a year. A kitchen table you also eat at doesn’t qualify, and tutors employed on a W-2 can’t claim it. For a dedicated 100-square-foot room:

• Deduction: 100 × $5 = $500
• Set-aside saved at 25.3%: $500 × 0.253 = $126.50 a year

All of this is estimate math, not tax advice. A tax professional can apply it to your actual return.

What changes the answer

Net after tax per hour worked, changing one input at a time from the base case:

Formula for each row: rate × paid share × share kept × 0.747. The Cambly rows assume 100% paid time, which is the best case. Your rate and your unpaid minutes move the result most. At $40, going from 60% to 90% paid time is worth $6.72 an hour.

Compared with

Many states set a higher minimum than $7.25, so check your state labor department’s figure. A wage job withholds tax for you and doesn’t leave prep time unpaid. A self-employed tutor’s figures have to absorb both. Compared with driving apps, tutoring has no fuel or vehicle wear. That is why it ranks well in our side hustles ranked by after-tax pay.

Eligibility, scams and other filters

• Wyzant: you must live permanently and be physically located in the U.S. and have a valid SSN. Sign-up is free.
• Tutor.com: you need U.S. residence, an SSN and work authorization, and there is no H-1B, F-1 or OPT sponsorship. That rules out many international students. You must also be at least a college sophomore in a 4-year program (or hold a 4-year degree), and be available 5 or more hours a week. The technical requirements are Windows 10 or 11 and 15/5 Mbps internet. Students weighing it against campus jobs can compare it with our college options ranked by net pay.
• Outschool: you must be 18 or older and live in one of the 50 states for at least six months a year (U.S. territories are excluded). You also have to pass identity verification and a background check.
• Preply: you must be 18 or older. Registration is desktop only, and applications are reviewed within 5 business days.
• Scams: the FTC describes a fake-check scam where someone sends a check for more than they owe and asks you to send back or pass on the difference. The check is fake, it can take weeks to discover even after the funds show as available, and you repay the bank. The FTC page doesn’t mention tutoring, but the pattern fits any private deal with a stranger. Keeping payment on the platform avoids it.

Sources

• Wyzant: fee structure for tutors
• Preply: commission model
• Cambly: tutor pay
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: tutors
• IRS: self-employment tax
• IRS: Form 1099-NEC FAQ

Verdict in one number

$16.81 per hour worked, after a 25% platform fee, 20 unpaid minutes per lesson hour and a 25.3% tax set-aside. That is about double the best case on fixed-rate platforms, as long as you can charge a mid-market rate on a platform like Wyzant and keep the unpaid minutes down.