Teaching · For Tutors · Business

A $70 session.
What does it cost you?

Type a month’s bills, your sessions and your price. The calculator shows the cost of one session, what is left, and your real hourly earnings.

Cost my sessionsWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Tutoring business kit, $69 for 80 items.

The tutoring cost per session calculator

The worked example is an online math tutor teaching 64 sessions a month at $70. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

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What you get

Teaching · For Tutors$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
The cash cost of one session split into its fixed share and its variable part, what is left of the price, your earnings per hour actually worked, and, if you value your time, the full cost and the lowest price that pays it. It prints as a one-page costing.
Who it is for
Independent tutors setting or checking a price, and tutoring center owners costing a service line before they quote it.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Tutoring business kit ($69) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The For Tutors space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Add up a typical month’s fixed bills.
  2. Count the sessions you taught that month.
  3. Add what each session uses and the fee.
  4. Count the unpaid minutes around a session.
  5. Compare the result with your price.

Cost my sessions

How a session is costed

A share of the fixed bills, plus what the session uses.

The worked example: online math at $70 a sessionFixed a month$160÷ 64 sessionsFixed share$2.50per sessionPlus variable$3.60materials and 3% feeCash cost$6.10leaves $63.90The worked example: online math at $70 a sessionFixed a month$160÷ 64 sessionsFixed share$2.50per sessionPlus variable$3.60materials and 3% feeCash cost$6.10leaves $63.90
A session carries its share of the month’s fixed bills plus what it uses itself; the rest of the price is yours, before tax.

Fixed and variable

Fixed costs (software, insurance, a room you rent by the month) arrive whether you teach 20 sessions or 80, so each session carries a share: the month’s total divided by the sessions taught. Variable costs (materials, travel, the card fee) come with every session. A quiet month raises the cost of every session even when nothing else changes.

Your time is a cost too

The price pays for more than the hour in the room: preparation, notes, messages to the family and travel. Dividing what is left by all of those minutes gives the hourly figure to compare with other work. Earnings here are before income and self-employment tax.

Sources

  1. U.S. Small Business Administration. Calculate your startup costs; Manage your finances; Break-even point (sba.gov).
  2. Internal Revenue Service. Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center and Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business (irs.gov).
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: teachers, tutors and instructors, pay and work schedules (bls.gov/ooh).
  4. U.S. Small Business Administration. Fixed and variable costs in pricing (sba.gov, Plan your business: market research and pricing).

Arithmetic on your own costs. Your entries stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.