Most private tutors set a rate in their first month and never revisit it — even as their experience, results, and demand grow. Meanwhile the actual cost of delivering a great lesson (planning, marking, admin, travel) rarely gets counted at all. The hourly rate ends up detached from both the market and the real work involved.
The visible 45–60 minutes with the student is the part everyone prices around — but it's rarely the only time spent on that student.
Planning a lesson around a specific student's syllabus, exam board, and current weak points takes real time — commonly 10–20 minutes per hour of teaching for an established tutor, more for a new subject or a first session with a student. Generic, unprepared lessons are faster to deliver but produce worse results, which affects referrals and retention.
Reviewing homework, marking practice papers, and preparing written feedback between sessions is real, valuable work that happens outside the lesson slot and is easy to under-price or forget to charge for entirely.
Scheduling, parent/guardian updates, invoicing, and DBS/safeguarding admin (a real ongoing cost for tutors working with under-18s in the UK) all take time that a flat hourly lesson rate needs to absorb.
Travel time to a student's home is unpaid time unless it's explicitly priced in — a 20-minute journey each way for a one-hour lesson means you're effectively working 100 minutes for 60 minutes of billed time unless travel is factored into the rate or charged separately.
Rates should reflect subject difficulty, qualification level, and exam-specificity — not be a single flat number across everything you teach:
| Level | Typical UK hourly rate range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Primary / early years | £20–£35 | Lower prep complexity, high demand for foundational subjects |
| GCSE | £28–£45 | Exam-board specific prep raises value |
| A-Level / IB | £35–£60 | Subject specialism and exam pressure justify a premium |
| Entrance exams / Oxbridge / specialist | £45–£80+ | Niche expertise and high-stakes outcomes command top rates |
Pay-per-lesson feels simple but leaves your income exposed to cancellations, half-terms, and families who quietly stop booking. Term-based packages — a set number of sessions booked and paid up front for a term — protect your income and, done well, are genuinely attractive to parents budgeting for the term rather than being surprised by weekly invoices. A clear cancellation policy attached to the package (e.g. 24-hour notice or the session is still charged) protects the time you've held open.
Per-subject package pricing, one-click term scheduling, student progress notes, and auto-generated invoices from completed sessions. Offline, no subscription.
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