How Much Can I Earn While Teaching English Online in 2024?

To Earn while Teaching English online has never been easier than it was in 2024. With more students choosing to learn online and more organizations and schools offering virtual sessions, there is enough employment for TEFL teachers. To maximize your earning potential, you must first grasp the many online jobs available and what they may give you in terms of salary.

Why teach online?

-Teaching English online allows you greater control over your schedule. You can work your hours and days and take vacations whenever you like.

-Teaching online provides you with more resources, platforms, and students from all around the world. As a teacher, you have greater reach, which might be beneficial. This also means that there will be more career opportunities available!

-The ability to work from anywhere! This is a significant benefit of online education. You can work from home if you want to! This is also doable if you want to work from the Bahamas! You only need a laptop and a reliable internet connection to become a travelling TEFL explorer!

-Having more students means having more jobs and earning opportunities. If you specialize in private sessions, you can charge a higher fee, which is much more accessible online than in person.

What do I need to become an online English teacher?

First and foremost, you must have a TEFL certification. The 120-hour TEFL course is the minimum requirement for the TEFL sector. This is a good alternative if you have some classroom experience and a degree. Suppose you don’t have a degree or any teaching experience. In that case, you might consider taking the 180-hour Level 5 Diploma, which will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to TEFL and all the skills you’ll need to teach both in the classroom and online!

Assume you want to improve your skills even more. Our 300-hour Advanced Diploma is ideal because it contains specialized courses (such as how to teach English online and Business English). This is the only method to master the art of TEFL properly!

Following your certifications, the most essential items you’ll need to teach online are a good laptop and equipment. Trying to train with a tablet may appear a good idea initially, but it will not work in the long run and will not allow you to deliver quality lessons. You should purchase a good laptop. It does not need to be the greatest on the market but should have adequate memory and processing power.

You should also make sure your laptop has a good camera and microphone. If not, you’ll have to purchase these separately. Many teachers opt to buy noise-cancelling headphones. If you work from home, you must have access to dependable high-speed internet. Having a backup in an emergency, such as a dongle, cable, or even your phone’s internet, is always a good idea!

What can I earn while Teaching English Online?

What you earn will be determined by how and where you work. There are numerous ways to work online with different conditions (some excellent, some bad). Let’s look at the various possibilities and prospective earnings.

Earn while teaching English Online – Working for a big ESL company 

Most people begin their careers in online TEFL in this manner. Why? It’s the most straightforward approach to finding a job, and you won’t have to worry about finding students or lessons. These businesses frequently have their preferred teaching methods and materials, making starting easier. Different companies specialize in various markets around the world. Hence, it’s essential to check the peak earning times as sometimes, across timezones, this translates into you needing to work during the night, which means it’s not the right company for you!

Working for a large ESL company can mean earning between $10 and $20 per hour – remember that most schools pay you in US dollars! The amount varies per firm and is determined by experience or mother tongue. Many companies offer a rising incentive system, meaning pay increases are based on weekly hours done, student reviews, and several years worked. It would be best if you looked for this when applying for a job because it signifies your earning potential will grow.

Advertising yourself on a teaching platform

Other teaching English online sites (ClassGap, Amazing Talker, Italki) serve as a sort of mediator between teachers and students, connecting them for private classes for a charge, of course! These networks necessitate creating a profile and advertising your instructional services. They usually feature introductory videos, student reviews, a schedule where students may schedule online sessions, and even a trial lesson.

These networks are beneficial in finding pupils; the best part is that you may charge whatever you want. Working here often pays more than working for a giant corporation. You choose your pricing, so setting $30 an hour is an option! The platform will then charge you a commission, which ranges between 10% and 30% depending on the website.

Although earning more money and setting your hourly rate is advantageous, you must remain realistic. Examine similar teachers’ profiles to determine what they charge to assist you in developing it at a suitable price. It must be reasonable about your qualifications, expertise, and time, but you will not attract pupils if you charge exorbitantly high fees.

The more experience you have and positive ratings on the site, the more students and attention you will receive. If you have a long-term relationship with the student, you may even agree to arrange sessions away from the platform, which means you get 100% of the revenue with no commission to pay.

How Much You Can Earn Teaching English Online? – You are building up your TEFL empire!

This is the most financially rewarding approach to teaching TEFL. You sell yourself, recruit students, set your pay, and start training! Sounds easy. Not at all! This is, undoubtedly, the finest technique to create money, but it requires time and work. To attract students, you must establish a reputation and develop marketing methods. This frequently entails having a solid social media presence and spending on marketing. Building a student list takes time, but you can earn up to $25 per hour. If you can gather a group of students, you can earn 60-90 euros per hour, depending on the group size!

This is really for people in TEFL for the long haul, and it may take a few years to start your own business, but it is pretty profitable. If you put in the time and work, it will expand, and you will be paid well for your courses! You might even get to the stage where you recruit additional teachers to help you deliver lessons! Social networking is vital for this form of education, as is creating a website for possible students to visit!

When setting your teaching English online rates, you need to consider the following:

–your experience and qualifications. If you’re new to teaching, you might not be able to charge a lot immediately, but this will increase as your knowledge increases!

-Where are your students based? Remember that if your rates are much higher than their local rates, they probably won’t be able to pay you more.

How should I begin?

The benefit of online teaching is the freedom to set your timetable. Combining several income-generating modalities is the most effective strategy to design your schedule and salary. To begin, a large ESL company will provide you with better employment stability and an easier way to earn, so apply for various of these. Then, you might consider how to sell yourself and acquire your classes simultaneously. This will most likely begin with a few private pupils; thus, having worked for a leather firm can provide you with better employment stability for your income.

Multiple revenue sources are the most excellent strategy to flourish in online teaching. There’s nothing wrong with working for a more prominent firm, selling yourself on a teaching platform, and spending time marketing yourself on Instagram to attract students. You can cut your hours with the teaching firm where you don’t make as much money as the number of private students and higher earning classes increases.

You will discover how to generate more money and specialize as you gain more experience and confidence. Perhaps you’ll find and expand on a speciality area of English teaching, which is a terrific way to increase your revenue!

Get a TEFL Course

There is a wide variety of pay available for online teaching, and you may not earn the highest rates straight away after qualifying. It is critical to lay the groundwork early to succeed in the long run. Charging a higher cost will become more natural as you get more expertise and knowledge of teaching English online. Working for multiple companies and platforms lets you choose when and where to work.