How Much Should I Charge For Home Tuition (Answer From A Successful Tutor)

Are you planning to start home tuition and have the most difficult question, “How much should I charge for home tuition?”

Or you have already done a workout for your home tuition but still have a question like, what should I charge for home tuition? Then, you are at the place to get all your answers related to home tuition charges or fees.

This in-depth article will help you decide the fees for your home tuition that is competitive to attract students and, at the same time, let you earn decent money from tutoring.

I had done the complete research on fee structure and its deciding factors for our own home tuition business, and now I am able to share our proven formula to decide the winning amount that you can charge as home tuition fees.

What you will learn from this article,

• What factors affect the home tuition fees that you must know
• How to research your locality to know how much your competitors are charging
• How to attract students for home tuition by offering competitive fees
• How to convince parents for your home tuition charges when you have no experience
• Average fees structure and home tuition fees in India

Suppose you have just started your home tuition business. In that case, I recommend you read our definitive guide on how to start tuition at home, which is full of valuable information and it will help you start, run, and grow your home tuition business smoothly.

Alright. Let us dive into your question.

Before I answer your question, How much should I charge for home tuition? Let me tell you what mistakes you should avoid before deciding your charges for home tuition.

If you search on Google like, what should I charge for home tuition, you will get many answers from different websites, and you will always get confused about the exact amount that you tell parents to pay you.

This type of research is completely a wrong practice.

The worst scenario is you have already advertised your home tuition classes.

If you want to learn to write and design home tuition advertisements for free, I recommend you to read my detailed article on how to write an advertisement for tuition classes.

If you don’t do proper research and quote higher than the market, you will hear from parents similar to these words.

“Okay. I will tell you later.”

“I need to discuss in my family.”

“Let me prepare my child for tuition and then I will contact you.”

“I think your home is too far from our home and we won’t be able to pick and drop my child on daily basis.”

All are these excuses only.

Do you want to hear these replies from parents?

And when you quote lower than the market, they might think like these.

“The teacher has no experience and that’s why she/he is charging are too low.”

“Quality may not be up to the mark.”

“She/he might be teaching many students at a time and can’t focus personally on every student.”

I don’t think that you ever want to give such a wrong impression to any parents.

You should never decide the tuition fees based on random data available on the internet if you want to succeed in your home tuition business.

As I have been in the tutoring business for many years, I have observed that many aspiring tutors do not know How to set prices for home tuition and they ask for the highest charges.

They directly compare the home tuition charges with the established tutors and ignore that they are just beginners and have to compete with the established tutors.

I know your next question will be,  How much a beginner tutor should charge? Keep reading this article, and you will get a clear idea of deciding your home tuition charges as a beginner.

Can you answer the question, what is a fair price for tutoring? Especially when you don’t know what your competitors are charging.

Based on my experience and research, I have created a table for average home tuition fees in India. I have kept this table at the very end of this article deliberately.

Why?

Because I want you first to understand things, do your local research, and then refer to the table. If I had put that table at the beginning of this article, you would have picked from it, and that may not be suitable for your locality where you live.

There is a high chance you will fail with your home tuition business if you decide the charges or fees YOU want that PARENTS can’t afford.

 

Please do not jump on the table after reading this and go through this well-researched post step by step.

Let us understand the factors and techniques on how to decide fees for home tuition.

How Much Should I Charge For Home Tuition: (Answer from a successful tutor)

You should know the important factors that help you decide your home tuition fees. If you ignore these factors and try to get more students by beating your competition, it won’t work.

Like any other business, you have to put extra effort to understand the tutoring market. The good thing is, you can do it within a couple of days and you don’t need any investment!

Let us understand these factors in detail.

Your Locality

Have you ever realized that you buy the same thing from different locations and get different prices?

For example, if you buy a schoolbag from the posh area of your city, you have to pay more money. But, the same school bag is available at a lower price in a small shop near you.

Why?

Because pricing depends on the area & location, the fully developed area will always have higher pricing than developing or undeveloped areas.

The same applies to your home tuition business.

How do you determine your home tuition fees based on the locality?

I don’t know in which city you live or what kind of locality you have, but I am damn sure that the home tuition fees will keep changing every 2-3 kilometers as per my research.

Cities have categories, types, and classifieds as Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3. (More on this, later).

The thing is that you should always check is the average charges for home tuition classes in your area.

You can decide how much you should charge for home tuition once you get at least five to six home tutor rates from your nearby locations.

The next factor is how you are taking tuition.

Type Of Home Tuition

Let me explain to you what home tuition is and its types.

There are two types of home tuition. ( The third one is also there and I personally not a fan of that type of home tuition. )

The first option is to teach students from your home, which means students have to come to your home.

The second option is to teach students by going to their homes. That means you have to go to the student’s homes to teach them.

One another option which is popular since covid19 is online tuition with the help of smartphone with digital writing pads.

I hope you know this, but if you know this, why am I telling you?

Because it is closely related to your home tuition fees.

Always remember, if you are going to teach students at their home, the charges will be at least three to four times higher than in the case when students come to your home.

You can even charge as you want, looking into the parent’s need, contribution, time, and efforts.

So when you think of what should I charge for home tuition, always pay attention to this point as if you don’t do research and randomly decide any price, you might not survive, or you will earn less money than you are worth.

Always consider following checkpoints when you teach students at their homes.

• The distance to travel daily and expenses for that
• Time duration of tuition
• Special terms and conditions, if any.

But if you are teaching students from your home only, you will have more freedom.

So you might think that which is a better option?

I highly recommend that you start with your home only, and it is better than going to a student’s home. There are many advantages of starting tuition at home than becoming a private tutor who teaches at a student’s home or joining any home tuition agency.

There is also a term known as group tuition.

What is group tuition?

Group tuition is when a tutor teaches a small group of students ( 4 to 6 ) at the same time. It is the most popular style for all the tutors who teach students from their homes.

In personal tuition, you teach only one student at a time, but in group tuition, you can teach 4 to 6 students and earn more money by investing the same time. I recommend focusing on group tuition once you get your first five students.

How much should you charge for group tuition?

Usually, when the group is limited to six students max, you can charge a bit lower than personal tuition. However, it is up to the parents if they need personal tuition for their children or group tuition.

A simple thumb rule you should consider is that personal tuition charges should be three to four times higher than group tuition.

(Note: When you are just starting, please do not ask for higher charges but make sure to communicate with parents that you will teach them in a group once you get more students. If the parent is interested in personal tuition, they will ask you for personal tuition charges, and at that time, you can charge higher as discussed above.)

One more mode of tuition is available in the home tuition market: an hourly basis. But, it is not so popular and effective in the home tuition or coaching classes and is mainly focused on specific subjects and higher grades.

For this mode of tuition, parents pay fees per hour basis. And, there may be or may not be a fixed fees structure or contract of duration. It is very complicated, so it has less popularity than the home tuition concept. This concept is mostly in the metro or megacities.

For this article, I believe that you will start tuition from your home and focus on this mode of home tuition only. If you want to go to the student’s home, the significant difference you can consider in fess is that you have to charge at least double to triple.

Alright. Let us move to the next factor: grades of students or level of difficulty of teaching.

Level OF Difficulty

Teaching a class 2 student is obviously simpler than teaching a class 7 student.

Teaching a state board student and a central board student is different.

You can’t charge the fees that are suitable for a class 7 student to a class 2 student. If you fail to understand the difficulty of subjects and syllabus, you can’t charge the fees that you are worth and will not have positive responses from parents.

Always check and decide the appropriateness of the charges of home tuition based on the difficulty levels.

If you teach different grades students, your fee structure must have a clear difference between the grades.

Let us say you are teaching students from class 4 to class 7. So the lowest fees will be for class 4, and it should increase as you go up.

Never quote flat fees for different class students.

For example, let us assume that you will teach Sr.Kg to class 5 students.

I will charge 500 Rupees/month for Sr.Kg to class 1, for classes 2&3, it will be 700 rupees/month, and 1000 Rupees/month for classes 4 and 5.

(The fees amount is just for explanation purposes)

This fee structure is not professional.

I have seen many home tuition teachers that they quote like this.

What you can do is,

Mention a separate fee structure for each class.

For example, let us break down the fees structure like this.

• Sr.Kg – 500
• Class 1 – 600
• Class 2 -700
• Class 3 – 800
• Class 4 -900
• Class 5 – 1000

What are the benefits of this home tuition fees structure?

It will clearly indicate to the parents that you know the difficulty level of each class and what level of effort you need to put in for each class, and therefore, your charges are different.

This type of fee structure increases your value as a tutor.

Got my point?

We are now moving to the next factor which is one of the most important in deciding the home tuition fees.

Your Experience, Qualifications, And Reputation

Parents are getting more intelligent than before, and they usually check the background of any tutor before sending their kids to any tuition classes.

Before you quote your home tuition fees, be prepared for the questions like these,

How much experience do you have as a teacher?

What are your qualifications?

Can you show the results or give references to your previous students?

Are you feeling frustrated?

I know you might be. But you don’t need to frustrate by such questions.

I will be covering the topic later in this article on how to convince the parents for tuition classes even if you are a completely new teacher. Don’t worry. Keep reading further.

Qualification refers to your educational degree, and nobody will ask to show it physically, and parents will just want to know your level of expertise. That’s all.

However, the more you qualify, the more you can charge, but this is not the only factor that decides the fees, as we have discussed.

It would be best if you never hide your actual qualifications in any case. Be honest and tell what are your qualifications.

Experience refers to how long you are teaching the students, and it is more important than qualification.

Parents want to check your understanding of teaching students. Not about what, but about how.

Reputation refers to your local popularity, which means how many parents or people know about you and your teaching. You will probably not be much famous as a teacher if you are just starting.

In short, based on the three criteria that I have just mentioned, you cannot ask for the fees as same as already established home tutors.

That doesn’t mean that you should charge low. No. That is not what I meant.

What I want to make you understand is to become competitive.

Never worry about the competition. It will always be there.

As a new tutor, you don’t have a reputation and results to show, so it is always better to lower your fees from the market. How much is low? I know you have this immediate question.

Keep reading further, and you will get all answers.

Special Cases

Charges for home tuition are also dependent upon some uncommon factors.

In some cases, just before the two months of the examination, parents want their kids to perform better, and they need urgent tuition.

For this case, you have to give more time and effort as you have to cover the syllabus quickly and deliver results.

The charges will be much higher than regular tuition. Please note that only take such students if you can devote time and deliver results.

Another case that we have often faced in our tuition classes is that some students are too weak, and their parents already know about that.

In that case, again, you have to give more time to the weak students, and if you don’t know how to deal with weak students, you will not be able to teach effectively.

If the parents are pressing hard about their child’s weakness, you can ask for premium fees and charge higher.

Financial Background Of Parents

How much to charge for offline tutoring in India?

The answer is the amount that the average parent can afford.

You should also consider the parents’ financial background while deciding on reasonable home tuition fees. If your charges are above the affordability of average parents, sometimes you will hear these types of responses,

“Sorry we cant afford your fees.”

“We are not in a position to pay you so much.”

These can be the real reasons and even the bargaining trap from smart parents.

But, if you think that the reason is quite genuine and you also need students, you can agree with the parent not to reveal the fees to any other parent as you are charging the lower fees from them.

But don’t do this with every parent, and you will lose trust once the other parent comes to know about this.

Only accept these cases when you are in urgent need of new students. After all, you are doing all this to earn money, and you also have your priorities and issues. Isn’t it?

I think now I have discussed the primary factors that decide the home tuition charges, and now we will move to the next topic of how to research your locality to know how much your competitors are charging.

How to know the home tuition fees that your competitors are charging?

You have two methods to know that, one is offline, and the second is online.

Offline method:

You have to visit every nearby home tuition class or small coaching center. Get the information for the standards, grades, or subjects you will teach. ( You can get the information over the call but visiting your competitors in person will help you get more information that you don’t want to miss)

You can quickly know the fees from the tutors or administrators in the case of coaching classes. The only thing you need to do is become a fake parent.

I know that this sounds crazy, but it is a business, and you are not doing anything harmful to anyone.

You can take help from your trusted neighbors, relatives, or simply your parents or any adult person from your family if you are uncomfortable with this task.

But you must do this.

As some wise person once said, everything is fair in love and war. And this is an education business war!!!

You should never hesitate to do this.

Alright?

Online method:

This method is super easy, but many home tuition teachers do not reveal the tuition fees on a phone call.

You all need to go to Google and search “home tuition near me,” and you will see the top three Google business profiles that are offering home tuition and are close to you.

You will see the top three results will have either website or phone number mentioned. Pick up the phone and dial one by one and ask for the fees as a parent. ( if possible, don’t use your phone to call them; use your family member’s phone.)

Record the fees on paper or in an Excel sheet or wherever you wish to. But do note it down.

After the three results, click on “view more,” and you will see many more listings. Call at least 10 to 15 home tutors, and you will have a fair idea of average fees.

Now you have complete data on fees structure from offline and online methods.

Quick info: Home tuition fees are usually higher than tuition classes or coaching classes. Because it is considered personal tuition or private tuition.

While gathering the data, if you are teaching specific subjects, focus on home tuition fees per subject while you visit or call any tuition classes or tutors.

Congratulations! You have actual data of home tuition charges with you that help you decide how much you should charge for home tuition.

Attraction & Convincing Strategies 

How To Attract Students For Home Tuition By Offering Competitive Charges Or Fees?

What are competitive home tuition charges?

A competitive charge means the money you charge from the parents to teach their kids which is slightly lower than what your competitor tutors are charging.

I consider that you are just starting your home tuition and are new to this business.

Now how much to lower your home tuition charges?

Based on the data that you have researched, select the middle charges.

For example, if you see that the highest charge for a class 7 student is 1200/month and the lowest charges are 800/month, then 900 to 1000/month is a good amount to become competitive.

You might feel that why not 800 or lower than that?

If you think that you will get students by offering the lowest charges, believe me, it won’t help you in real life.

Yes, it might attract some low-income parents, but the majority of parents will consider you as a “LOW QUALITY” tutor.

Never do that. I repeat, never go too low.

The middle spot is perfect, and parents will happily accept your quote. Competitive fees do not mean the lowest fees.

Now comes the attraction part. When you write an advertisement for tuition classes, you must mention your USP.

What is USP?

USP stands for the unique selling point, also called a unique selling proposition. What does that mean? It means how your tuition is better than others or what extra you are offering to students at the same charges.

Think about it.

Let me give you some examples,

• Offer more session time than the market – if others are offering one-hour classes, offer one and a half hours.
• Offer weekly assessment and feedback system.
• Offer an extra class as a revision ( you can offer one extra class every 15 days but don’t take the extra load).
• Offer discount for the second child of the family

Be creative and offer something that doesn’t cost you much time and effort yet is attractive to parents and students.

Most tutors don’t have basic teaching materials when they start tutoring.

This type of practice is wrong. Always buy essential teaching materials as soon as you get your first student.

Suppose parents come to meet you for the tuition of their kid.

If you have teaching material like, a good quality whiteboard, picture books or charts, study chair, the parents will be impressed with your professional teaching, and you can convince them easily.

We are now coming to the convincing part.

How to convince parents to your home tuition charges when you have no experience?

When you are a beginner, and even if you are offering the best competitive charges, some parents will not accept or agree with those charges.

Yes, it happens. I have faced it plenty of times and still facing the same problem. Don’t worry. It is normal, and you have to tackle this issue cautiously.

Always express yourself as a teacher by heart. Indirectly tell parents about your academic achievements and mention why you love to teach students.

You can craft a story around your personal experience of how you have benefited from proper teaching by relatively a fresh teacher. (Keep a few stories ready with you).

This will engage the parent and help you to connect easily with them.

First, in a friendly tone, ask a parent why they think your fees are high.

There are high chances that they will either tell you your competitor’s price or have some much lower quotes from the market.

Never offend them. Try to listen. If you don’t listen to them, you will never come to know about their actual pain areas.

Once they reveal why they feel that your charges are higher, always mention that their thinking is correct.

Never give bad comments to any competitor but mention your USP. And press hard on why it will be necessary for their child.

For example, if the parent says that some coaching center has lower fees than you, then politely explain that coaching classes teach students in a mass and can’t focus on everyone personally.

You can easily focus on their child and try to explain to parents why your mode of tuition is better with a friendly atmosphere.

Similarly, whatever your USP is, use it as a strong weapon against the objection of fees from parents.

What you should avoid,

• Don’t debate or argue with parents if they disagree; say sorry and end the discussion
• Don’t go into negotiation as you are already at competitive pricing
• Never behave rude or harsh with any parent
• Avoid criticizing other tutors

Try to understand them and let them express their views. Tell them that you understand their problem, but unfortunately, you can’t help them.

This way, you will win parents’ trust and position yourself as a mature and professional tutor.

Now it is time to directly answer your question: how much should I charge for home tuition?

As part of our tuition classes, I have done extensive research on fees structures according to the city types considering all the factors we have discussed.

Here are my findings.

To know in which category (tier) your city falls under, read this information.

Consider ( X=Tier-1 cities, Y=Tier-2 cities, and Z=Tier-3 cities)

Home Tuition Fees Structure ( Average Charges)* Updated June – 2022

*Comment: All charges are per month only and applicable in the scenario when students go to the tutor’s home. All subjects are included up to class 9, and from class 10, the charges are for two to three subjects only.

In a broader view, home tuition fees in Hyderabad may not be the same as those in Patna. Similarly, home tuition fees for class 5 in Ahmedabad may be higher than those for the 10th class in Tier-3 cities like Kanpur or Ranchi.

I hope now you don’t need to refer to anything else to dig the internet with How much should I charge for home tuition as this guide is carefully crafted and exclusively for you to get rid of the burning question of what should I charge for home tuition.

FAQs on Home Tuition Charges

My competitors are highly qualified, and they charge higher than other tutors like me. How can I charge the same fees?

Home tuition charges do not only depend upon the tutor’s qualifications but, more importantly, how experienced they are, what results they are delivering consistently over the years, and how popular they are in your area.

If you are a beginner, you can’t charge the same fees, but as you gain experience and popularity through your quality teaching that delivers good results, you can easily charge as you want.

Can I improve my educational qualifications to become an authentic and qualified tutor?

Of course, you can. You can take an online course related to teaching and showcase it in your personal profile (home tuition business)

How to take tuition fees from parents?

The most preferred way of taking fees for home tuition is in cash mode. You can also use UPI options like Google Pay, Paytm, etc.

Do I need to mention home tuition fees in my advertisement?

As per our experience, NO. Because you are creating a barrier for parents who are uncomfortable with the fees you mentioned in your advertisement, let them come to you for inquiries to understand and know more about the current market and competition.

Should I take home tuition fees in advance?

It depends. But, I don’t recommend you in your initial days. Once you gain some popularity, you can ask for advance payment for every new student but not for existing students.

You can also offer a fee discount if the parent is ready to pay the full fees in advance. Keep reading this blog, and you will learn many exciting marketing strategies for your home tuition business.

I am a housewife and want to start home tuition from my home. How can I start my own home tuition business without investment?

You can refer to our complete step-by-step guide on starting a home tuition business without investment.

I have some query, but it is not mentioned or explained in this article. Where can I get that information?

Simply comment in the comment section below, and I will reply to your query at the earliest possible.

Final words on your burning question: How much should I charge for home tuition?

I hope you have read the complete guide where we discuss many factors in deciding the fees, how to stay competitive, and get more students. We also talked about dealing with parents who have objections regarding your home tuition charges.

And finally, I have given you my research table sheet about the average fee structure for home tuition in India.

I am sure that you will follow the steps and do your research before finalizing your charges for home tuition. And I guarantee you that if you do this, you will get more students and ultimately earn more money from home tuition.

Now I want to know something from you.

What specific issue are you facing to finalize your home tuition charges?

Leave your comment in the comment section below, and I will include it in this article. Apart from that, if you have any questions or queries regarding the home tuition business, you can ask without hesitation.

No question is right or wrong.

I read and reply to every comment.

I wish you the very best in your home tuition business.

Also Read: How to design home tuition posters for tuition classes for FREE in under 30 minutes!