$ Tutor Real Rate Calculator

How to use it

Your $50 per hour is not really $50 per hour. Enter what you charge per session, the session length in minutes, your unpaid prep minutes per session, travel minutes round trip, and travel cost per session. Prep, grading, and messaging parents all count; be honest or the number lies to you. Set your platform fee percent (default 25; the tool notes Wyzant is widely reported to keep about 25 percent; set 0 if you book students yourself), plus sessions per week and no-shows per month (no-shows pay $0 but still cost you prep and travel time). The time bar visualizes how each session splits between paid session, unpaid prep, and travel. Results show total real time per session, your nominal rate, what you keep per session after the fee and travel, monthly net, monthly real hours including no-shows, and your monthly real rate. The verdicts are blunt: paying to tutor, priced solid, hidden hours eating it, or donating your time. A second card reverse-engineers your minimum price per session from the real hourly rate you want. All defaults are editable starting points. Estimates for planning only; rates, fees, and no-show policies vary.

Worked example

Example only, not typical earnings. You charge $60 for a 60-minute session with 20 minutes of prep, 30 minutes of travel round trip, $4 in travel cost, and a 25% platform fee. Real time per session is 110 minutes. You keep $60 x 0.75 - $4 = $41 per session. Your real rate is $41 / (110/60) = $22.36/hr against a $60 nominal rate: a 62.7% hidden pay cut, so the verdict is DONATING YOUR TIME. Monthly at 10 sessions a week: about 43.3 sessions, $1,775 net, and 81.1 real hours including 2 no-shows, for a monthly real rate of about $21.90/hr. The reverse calculator shows the session price you would need to hit whatever target rate you set.

FAQs