What makes your price go up or down
Five things influence your price as a language teacher: experience, the language, the goal of the lesson, whether it's online or in person, and where your students live. Compare yourself with teachers in your market.
Two teachers of the same language can charge very different rates and both be right. How is that possible? Because price isn't set at random, it comes from these five things:
- Experience and results. Years of teaching, a degree or certificate and students who pass their exams justify a higher rate. Remember this: you never have to apologize for your price.
- The language you teach. If there are few teachers of your language there's less competition, so less common languages can cost more. The good old law of supply and demand.
- The goal. Exam preparation and business lessons can cost more than general conversation, because the student isn't paying for an hour of chat: they're paying for a result (that B2, that job interview).
- Online or in person. In person, the commute is part of your working day too (even if nobody pays you for it), so add it to the price as an extra.
- Where your students live. Your price competes with other teachers in your city or on the same platforms, not with a national average.
Individual or group lessons
Individual lessons have a typical rate of €30 an hour and group lessons €35 per student, according to SmartCookie data. The group price is per student, so a full group earns you more per hour.
In our data, the typical rate is €30 an hour for individual lessons (21 teachers) and €35 an hour per student for group lessons (17 teachers).
| Type of lesson | Teachers | Middle half, from | Typical rate | Middle half, up to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | 21 | €20 | €30 | €40 |
| Group (per student) | 17 | €15 | €35 | €50 |
Range (10% to 90% of teachers)Middle half of teachersTypical rate
Worth noting: group prices are per student. Each student in the group pays that rate, so a full group earns you several times the hourly rate. The range is also wider: from €15 to €50.
Packs, monthly fees and cancellations
Packs and monthly fees let you get paid before the lesson: packs suit regular students with a variable schedule and monthly fees suit a fixed schedule. Both need a written cancellation policy.
A pack is a set of lessons paid in advance: the student commits to more lessons and you stop chasing payments every week. Everybody wins. Sizes, expiry and prices are in our guide to private lesson packs.
A monthly fee works well with students who have a fixed schedule, like Laura, who comes every Tuesday at 6pm. In addition to the 60 hourly courses in our data, SmartCookie teachers have 24 active courses with a fixed monthly fee.
Whatever you choose, put your cancellation policy in writing before the first lesson: how much notice is needed and whether a late cancellation counts as a lesson given. A clear policy protects your income and saves you awkward conversations (and the odd message at all hours). Copy our free cancellation policy template.
How to raise your rates
To raise your private lesson rates, give the new price to new students first, give current students written notice with the start date and keep the old price on what's already paid for.
Your hairdresser raises their prices every now and then and you don't take it personally, do you? Well, it's the same with your lessons. A planned, explained raise is accepted much more easily.
- 1
Start with new students
Give the new rate to everyone who joins and keep your existing students on the old one for a while. Someone new has nothing to compare it to.
- 2
Give notice in advance
Tell your current students in writing and ahead of time, with the date the new price starts. Always do it in writing to come across as professional.
- 3
Raise your rates once a year
Pick a natural moment, like September or January, instead of making small changes every few months. Your students will understand one raise a year.
- 4
Explain what they get
To justify your prices, talk about results, materials or flexibility, not your expenses. Your electricity bill is none of your students' business.
- 5
Honor what's already paid for
Lessons in a pack that has already been bought keep the price they were bought at. What's paid is paid.
How we collected this data
We took a single snapshot of the active hourly courses priced in euros of 33 SmartCookie teachers on 9th of October 2026. It describes our users, not the whole private lessons market.
The sample: 60 active hourly courses from 33 teachers, taken on 9th of October 2026. Only courses charged by the hour and priced in euros count (courses without a currency set count as euros), and we removed test accounts.
The calculation: we took the middle price of each teacher's courses and then calculated percentiles across teachers, so that a teacher with many courses doesn't skew the result. A type of lesson (individual or group) only appears if at least 10 teachers use it. Group prices are per student.
The limits: this isn't a market study. It only includes teachers who use SmartCookie, so rates in your city or language may be different. With 33 teachers the sample is small, so take it as a guide, not a rule. The 24 courses with a fixed monthly fee aren't included in the prices.
Set a rate you can comfortably defend
Bring your price, packs and cancellation policy together in one place and let SmartCookie send the payment requests. You spend your energy on teaching.