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Teach English online: plan what you could earn in 2026

Online English teacher pay runs from a fixed $10.20 an hour on Cambly to $25 an hour and beyond for tutors who set their own rates. This planner uses the platforms’ own published rates and commissions, converts everything to euro at the European Central Bank rate, and shows what your hours are really worth per week, per month and per year.

The Online Desk

Teach English online: plan what you could earn

Half the votes in our destination poll point the same way, you want to teach English online. So here is the honest picture. Online English teacher pay runs from a fixed $10.20 an hour (about €8.84) on Cambly to $25 an hour (about €21.66) and beyond for tutors who set their own rates on the big marketplaces. Pick a route, set your rate and hours, and see what teaching English online pays per week, per month and per year.

Your hourly rate $10.20

Hours a week 15

Preply commission:

A week

€0

A month

€0

A year

€0

15 hours is 38% of a full 40 hour week

Goal mode:I want to earna month.

Online teaching pay, straight from the platforms

Route	How the pay works	Official pay page
Cambly	Fixed $0.17 a minute, so $10.20 an hour, about €8.84. Cambly Kids pays $0.20 a minute, $12.00 an hour, about €10.40. No degree needed, weekly payout.	Cambly tutors →
Preply	You set the hourly rate. Most English tutors charge $15 to $25 an hour, about €13 to €21.66. Commission starts at 33% and falls to 18% as your hours build. Trial lessons are unpaid.	Preply tutors →
italki	You set the rate. 21% commission on single lessons, down to 15% on packages, 0% on trials.	italki commission →
Your own students	Privately arranged lessons. No commission, you keep everything, but you find the students and handle payments yourself.	—

Teaching English online, your questions answered

How much can you earn teaching English online?

It depends on the route. Cambly pays a set $0.17 a minute, which works out at $10.20 an hour (about €8.84), and Cambly Kids pays $0.20 a minute, or $12.00 an hour (about €10.40). On marketplaces such as Preply and italki you set your own hourly rate, and Preply says most English tutors charge $15 to $25 an hour before commission, about €13 to €21.66. Experienced tutors with strong profiles charge well above that.

What commission do online teaching platforms take?

Cambly takes nothing off its advertised rate, so the pay you see is the pay you get. italki keeps 21% on single lessons, less on lesson packages, and nothing on trials. Preply keeps 33% of a new tutor’s lesson price and this falls to 18% as your taught hours build up, though the first trial lesson with each new student is unpaid.

Do I need a degree to teach English online?

Not always. Cambly asks for fluent English rather than a degree, and marketplace platforms let you build a profile on your teaching skill and reviews. A 120 hour TEFL certificate is the qualification most platforms and most paying students expect to see, and it is what lets you charge more from day one.

Can you teach English online as a full time job?

Yes, plenty of teachers do. The usual pattern is to start on a fixed rate platform for steady bookings, add a marketplace profile where you control the price, and slowly move regulars into privately arranged lessons where there is no commission at all. Use the planner above to see what your target income needs in hours.

New to this? A 120 hour TEFL certificate is the qualification online platforms and paying students look for first. Start with the 120 Hour Advanced TEFL Course and you can be taking bookings in a few weeks.

Checked 6 August 2026 against official platform pay pages. Euro figures use the European Central Bank dollar rate for August 2026.

Rates and commissions change. Always confirm on the platform before you plan around them.

Our Editorial Charter

Checked, dated, corrected in place

Every figure on this desk comes from an official source, a ministry circular, an embassy notice or the platform’s own pay page. Each line carries the date we last checked it, and when something changes we correct it in place and say so. That is the standard the whole publication runs on.

Read the full Editorial Charter →