The online desk: one platform in eight will tell you what it pays

You voted for this one. Online won the reader poll twice, so we spent this fortnight doing what we said we would: reading what the online teaching platforms actually publish about pay, and then the part nobody puts in the brochure, which is what happens when the money reaches you and the tax office wants a word. Eight platforms, eight official pages. One of them names a rate. There is also a JET update that is not the one we expected to be writing, and a correction to a figure we printed two editions ago.

Katie Troy, Managing Director at The TEFL Institute

Katie TroyManaging Director, The TEFL Institute. With teaching experience and a degree in education, Katie has taught young learners in Zambia and Abu Dhabi.

Updated 22 September 2026 — two corrections to this edition. One: the JET section below says the 2027 application had not opened. It opened on Monday 21 September 2026, four days after this edition was written. The US portal now reads “APPLICATION IS OPEN” with a published deadline of Friday 13 November 2026 at 11:59pm HST. The openings board above has been corrected; the original wording of the JET item is left in place below, with the update marked, rather than quietly rewritten. This also withdraws the correction this edition made to Edition 3. Edition 3 said the JET 2027 application would open in September, and it did, on 21 September. Edition 3 was right and the correction printed here on 17 September was premature. We are recording that the same way we would record any other error of ours. Two: this edition reached the website on 17 September before it reached subscribers, which reverses our inbox-first promise. The email edition went out on 22 September carrying the corrected JET story and figures re-verified that morning. We are recording both here because the Charter says we correct in public.

The big oneEight platforms, one published rate

Here is the finding, and it is the story rather than a footnote to it. Of the eight online teaching platforms we checked on 17 September 2026, exactly one publishes on its own site what a teacher is paid. Three publish a commission percentage and let you work backwards. Four publish nothing at all, and one of those four describes its pay as competitive without printing a number anywhere.

Platform	What it publishes about pay	Commission	Entry bar, in their words
Cambly	A real rate. 0.17 USD a minute, which it states as 10.20 an hour, about 8.85 EUR. Cambly Kids 0.20 a minute, 12 an hour. Cambly Pro 0.25 a minute, 15 an hour	NONE fixed rate	“No teaching certificate, bachelor’s degree or prior teaching experience needed”
Preply	You set your own rate. No figure paid by Preply	33% falling to 18% and 100% on a new student’s trial lesson	“No specific certification or teaching experience is required”
italki	You set your own rate. No figure paid by italki	21% single lesson, 19 to 15% on packages, 0% on a trial, 30% group	Tiers not published on a readable page
AmazingTalker	You set your own rate, with “no upper limit”	Not published. “A variable service fee”, “as low as 0%”	“Relevant teaching experience or language teaching certificates”
Lingoda	NO FIGURE	Not applicable	C2 in the language, a teaching certificate, and 2 to 3 years of experience
Engoo	NO FIGURE	Not published	18 or over, proficient in English, headset, webcam, fast internet
Novakid	NO FIGURE “Competitive pay rates”	Not applicable	C1 or above, and a degree in education or an international certificate such as TEFL or CELTA, plus online experience
LatinHire	NO FIGURE “Paid for every minute they teach or wait”	Not published	Generic wording only, plus the client’s own evaluation

Every row read on the platform’s own site or help centre on 17 September 2026. USD to EUR at the European Central Bank reference rate published 16 September 2026, 1.1537 USD to the euro. Where a platform publishes nothing, we have left the cell empty rather than filling it from a blog or a job board. Figures circulating for Lingoda, Engoo, Novakid and LatinHire pay are third party and we could not source any of them officially.

The number that actually matters is the one after commission. Set a lesson at 25 EUR on Preply as a new tutor and the 33% band leaves you 16.75. Preply’s own worked example uses the same maths: “if you specify a value of 10$ and 33% commission is applied, you will be credited 6.7$”. The band only falls to 18% after 400 taught hours. And the first lesson with any new student is taken at 100%, which is stated plainly on Preply’s own help page and is the single most under-quoted fact in this market. On italki the equivalent single lesson deduction is 21%, and a 10 lesson package brings it to 17%.

The standing version of this table, kept current between editions with the euro conversions redone at each check, is on the Online Desk. If you are weighing up the move rather than the rates, start with our guide to teaching English online.

Two things worth saying out loud. The first is that “set your own rate” is not the same as being paid it, and the platforms that let you set it are the ones that publish the percentage they remove. That is more honest than it first looks. The second is that Novakid is the only one of the eight to name a TEFL or CELTA certificate as an alternative to a degree, in its own words, which is worth knowing if you do not have one. Lingoda wants the certificate and two to three years of classroom experience on top.

The online deskThe tax side, and two dates that are close

This is the half that decides whether online teaching is worth doing, and it is almost never covered. You are self employed. Nobody deducts anything for you. Below is what the revenue authorities themselves publish, with the dates that matter this autumn.

If you are in the UK. You can earn up to 1,000 pounds a year in trading income before you have to tell HMRC anything. Above that you must register for Self Assessment, and the deadline to register for the tax year that ended on 5 April 2026 is 5 October 2026, which is eighteen days from today. HMRC’s wording: “If you tell HMRC after 5 October 2026, you could get a penalty.” After that, a paper return is due by 31 October 2026, and an online return and the payment itself are both due by 31 January 2027. VAT only comes in at 90,000 pounds of taxable turnover, so it is unlikely to reach you.

If you are in Ireland. Two tests decide whether you file a Form 11 as a chargeable person rather than a Form 12. If you have PAYE income and your net non-PAYE income is 5,000 EUR or more, you are chargeable. Separately, if your gross income from all non-PAYE sources is 30,000 EUR or more, you are chargeable. People trip on this because the small number is net and the large number is gross. Pay and file for the 2025 return is 31 October 2026, and Revenue extends that to 18 November 2026 on ROS, but only if you do both halves there. Revenue’s own eBrief puts it beyond doubt: “Where only one of these actions is completed through ROS, the extension does not apply.” VAT for someone supplying services only begins at 42,500 EUR.

The invoice itself. The UK government publishes a list of what an invoice must carry, and it applies to sole traders as well as companies: a unique identification number, your name and any business name you use, an address where legal documents can be delivered, the customer’s name and address, a clear description of what you are charging for, the supply date, the invoice date, the amount, and the total owed. Ireland is different and this is worth being precise about. Revenue publishes a detailed invoice contents list, but it is explicitly the VAT invoice list. If you are not VAT registered, there is no equivalent published rule, so treat the VAT list as a sensible template rather than a legal requirement. The UK list and Revenue’s VAT invoice list.

Openings board

Programme	Pay	Deadline	Status
Fulbright ETA France	1,250 to 1,550 EUR / month plus 1,200 EUR travel	6 Oct 2026 5pm Eastern	HARD DEADLINE 19 DAYS
JET Japan	4.02M JPY / year about 22,500 EUR	13 Nov 2026 US, 11:59pm HST	LIVE WIRE OPENED 21 SEP
EPIK Korea	2.2M to 2.8M KRW / month about 1,390 to 1,775 EUR	Rolling	LIVE WIRE FLOOR CORRECTED
TAPIF France	1,010.67 EUR gross / month about 810 EUR net	Not open yet	CLOSED PORTAL WATCH IT
NALCAP Spain	800 to 1,000 EUR / month 14 to 16 hrs a week	Closed	LINE CLOSED TERMS CHANGED
UK sponsored teaching roles	34,069 to 46,940 pounds about 39,700 to 54,700 EUR	23 Sep 2026 next one closing	THIN 9 JOBS, NO ESOL

Every row verified against the programme’s own page on 17 September 2026. EUR conversions use European Central Bank reference rates published 16 September 2026, at 178.88 JPY, 1578.03 KRW and 0.85740 GBP to the euro. Salary figures are gross unless the programme says otherwise. Taiwan’s TFETP stays off the board for a second edition, because its official pages still return nothing readable. What we could verify about Taiwan is below, and it is not a salary.

On the wireThe month JET did not open, and a correction to our own figure

We said JET would open this month. Seventeen days in, it has not [UPDATED 22 SEP: it opened on 21 September]

Update, 22 September 2026. The JET 2027 application opened on Monday 21 September 2026, four days after the paragraph below was written. The published deadline is Friday 13 November 2026 at 11:59pm HST for US applicants, and 5:00pm Thursday 5 November 2026 AEDT for Australia. Deadlines vary by country and we could not verify a UK one, so we are not printing it. The original paragraph stands unedited below as the record of what we published on 17 September.

Edition 3 led with the line that the JET application for 2027 departures opens in September. Today is 17 September and the portal is shut. The official page still carries the same banner it carried in August: the 2027 application “will open Fall 2026”. The September to November dates we reported sit under a heading that reads ROUGH TIMELINE, with a footnote saying “As dates have yet to be determined, please check back in closer to the 2027 JET Program application cycle for updates.” We should have carried that caveat harder than we did, and this edition is carrying it now. The same page gives a general rule that is more useful than the rough dates: the application “is open once a year between late September to mid-November”. For shape, last cycle opened on Tuesday 29 September 2025 and closed on Friday 14 November 2025 at 11:59pm Hawaii time. So the likeliest fortnight for this to move is the one starting now. Watch the official timeline.

A correction: the EPIK pay floor we printed is too high, and so was our ceiling

In Edition 3 we corrected the EPIK band upwards and put the real floor at 2.35M KRW, on the basis that the offices of education are not hiring at Level 3. That first half still holds and is still on the page in terms: “The Offices of Education are not currently hiring level 3 applicants.” The second half was wrong. Level 2 does not start at 2.35M. On the official scale, Level 2 pays 2.2M in Daegu, Daejeon, Gwangju, Ulsan and Gyeonggi, and 2.35M is the top of Level 2, in Gyeongbuk and Gangwon. So the honest floor is 2.2M KRW, about 1,390 EUR. Our ceiling was also understated: Chungbuk publishes two higher renewal levels, S at 2.9M and S+ at 3.0M, and Seoul is not on the main scale at all and runs its own. One more caveat worth having: the scale is stamped “Updated on 2026.05.04 for the Fall 2026 intake” while the live intake is Spring 2027, and the page itself warns the scale “is subject to change between intakes”. Read the official salary page.

Spain: three NALCAP figures have moved, including the month you would start

The programme is closed and the ministry has not published a 2027-28 opening date, but the terms on the page are not the ones we printed. The stipend now reads 800 to 1,000 euros a month rather than a flat 800. The teaching load reads 14 to 16 hours a week. And the assignment now runs 1 November to 31 May for most placements, not 1 October, which is a month later than anyone planning a move would assume. The ministry has also moved domain, from educacionyfp.gob.es to educacionfpydeportes.gob.es. See the ministry page.

Taiwan: still no salary, but the official contract does carry numbers

The TFETP application and remuneration pages returned nothing readable again this fortnight, so Taiwan stays off the board. It is worth saying why the figure cannot be found rather than repeating that it cannot: the official employment contract template published by K12EA, revised in May 2026 and in force from 1 August 2026, leaves the salary line blank. Article 4.1.1 reads “The monthly salary shall be NT$______”, with the scale deferred to an appendix that is not in the document. The same contract does publish other numbers, and these are usable: airfare reimbursed to a limit of NT$40,000 per trip, housing reimbursed up to NT$5,000 a month and up to NT$10,000 if you live with a spouse or direct relatives, accident insurance with minimum cover of NT$2,000,000, and overtime at NT$405 a period in primary and NT$455 at junior high. Note also that the most recent ministry recruitment announcement, dated 23 February 2026, is for the 2026 cycle and expects to recruit 980 teachers and teaching assistants on a rolling basis. No 2027-28 cycle is posted anywhere official.

France: the only hard deadline before January is nineteen days away

The Fulbright US Student Program’s 2027-28 competition is open and closes on 6 October 2026 at 5pm Eastern. France carries up to ten English Teaching Assistant awards, a stipend of approximately 1,250 to 1,550 euros a month, a one off travel allowance of 1,200 euros, and a grant period running 1 October 2027 to 30 April 2028. TAPIF, the other French route, has not opened: the application portal reads “There are presently no open calls for submissions”, and when it does open the terms last published were 1,010.67 euros gross a month, about 810 net, twelve hours a week, October to April, with B1 French. One caution if you are reading around this: Fulbright’s France page and Villa Albertine’s TAPIF page currently give different TAPIF deadlines, 15 January against 15 March, so neither is safe to work from until the window actually opens. The Fulbright France award.

The UK board is thin again, and still has no ESOL

Nine sponsored teaching vacancies on the government board today, and not one dedicated ESOL or EAL post among them for the third edition running. The two English roles are a Teacher of English at Lift Kingswood in Hull at 34,069 to 46,940 pounds, about 39,700 to 54,700 euros, closing 23 September, and a qualified English teacher post with a TLR 2a at North Ridge High School in Manchester on the main to upper pay scale, closing 30 September. The board moves weekly, so search it rather than working from this paragraph. Search the official board.

Reader favouritesYou asked for the online desk twice, so here it is

Online led the Edition 2 poll and led it again on the re-audited count we published in Edition 3: seven of seventeen verified votes, against three for Asia, three for Europe, two for the Middle East and Eurasia, one for Latin America and one for Africa. That is what this edition’s front half is. If the desk is worth keeping, tell us what to put in it next: platform by platform application walkthroughs, or the rates question taken further into what teachers actually charge. The poll is on the hub.

CV corner: the online profile, in the order it gets read

1. The first line is the whole thing. On every platform in that table, the searcher sees a headline and a thumbnail before anything else. Name who you teach and what changes for them. “IELTS speaking, band 6 to band 7.5” gets booked. “Passionate about languages” does not.

2. Record the video before you write the bio. Every marketplace weights the intro video heavily and most rejections at application stage are video quality rather than credentials. A wired headset, a window in front of you rather than behind, and sixty seconds is enough.

3. Price for the commission, not for the market. If you are starting on Preply at the 33% band, your headline rate has to carry that deduction and the free first lesson before it earns anything. Work out the rate you need to clear, then set the listed price above it. This is the step most new tutors skip and it is why the first month reads as disappointing.

4. Register before you need to. If you are in the UK and you passed 1,000 pounds of trading income in the year to 5 April 2026, that registration is due on 5 October. It takes minutes now and it is a penalty later.