How much should you charge for private tutoring?

In 2026, the platforms we looked at often show an average of around €20 to €22 an hour for common school subjects, while rates published by level frequently rise to between €22 and €35 at lycée (upper secondary school). These are not official scales. A rate of €30/h can be consistent, including for a university student, if their expertise and positioning justify it. You also need to distinguish the price of the session, the tutor’s pay and their income after social contributions, expenses and tax.

The lowest price is not necessarily the best starting point. A tutor who charges €20 for a session that requires 30 minutes of preparation, 15 minutes of follow-up and possibly travel is not really earning €20 per hour of work. Conversely, setting €50 straight away because another tutor charges that much does not mean families will accept that price level for your profile.

I prefer to reason with a simple formula:

consistent rate = value of the level taught + experience + invisible time + constraints of the format + market positioning.

You then need to check that the amount remains compatible with real demand. A rate is built, then tested.

1. Assess your level of expertise and experience

The first question is not “what do others charge?” but what am I genuinely able to teach?

The school level changes the difficulty of the session considerably. Going back over fractions with a Cinquième (second year of collège, lower secondary school) student and preparing a Terminale (the final year of lycée) student taking the maths specialisation do not call for the same knowledge, the same preparation or the same ability to handle difficult exercises live.

Profile	What can justify the rate	Point to watch
University student starting out	Very good academic level, familiarity with recently studied curricula, availability	Do not present a degree alone as “teaching experience”
University student with several tutoring experiences	Command of the subject + first teaching methods + real feedback	Specify the levels actually taught
Experienced tutor	Faster diagnosis, knowledge of curricula, adaptation, follow-up	Seniority alone does not guarantee quality
Specialised profile	Prépa, higher education, competitive exams, rare discipline or particular expertise	The potential market may be smaller

Your academic background therefore counts, but you need to connect it to the service you provide. Being an engineering school student can be reassuring when teaching maths. It is not enough to automatically justify the same price as a tutor who has spent several years preparing students in classes préparatoires (CPGE, the preparatory classes for the grandes écoles) for specific competitive exams.

Conversely, a university student may well be more relevant than a much more experienced profile for certain students. A rate should not be designed as a hierarchy of prestige, but as the expression of a level of expertise, a service and demand.

2. What rates can be seen by subject and level in 2026?

There is no national regulated rate for private tutoring. The available figures come mainly from platforms and should be read as commercial benchmarks, not as an official average of all French tutors.

At the time of our check in August 2026, Superprof showed, for example:

• an average of €21/h in maths;
• an average of €22/h in French;
• an average of €20/h in English.

These averages mix different profiles, levels, locations and formats. So they do not mean that a Terminale maths tutor should necessarily charge €21.

The data published by Les Sherpas in August 2026 offers another angle, as it distinguishes levels more clearly:

Level	Average range published by Les Sherpas
Primary	€14 to €20/h
Collège	€18 to €25/h
Lycée	€22 to €35/h
Higher education	From €25/h

The platform states that tutors set their own rates and that the subject, level, experience, qualifications and background influence the price. In a guide for new tutors, Les Sherpas even recommends starting slightly below the average when a profile has no reviews or history on the platform yet, then raising the rate gradually.

So you can build a starting benchmark without turning it into a scale:

• around €18 to €25/h for many collège-level sessions;
• around €22 to €35/h for many lycée sessions;
• more when the level, subject, preparation or specialisation justify it.

To understand the same question from the family’s point of view, our analysis of the price of private tutoring in 2026 and the budget actually paid distinguishes the tutor’s rate, additional fees and the final cost.

3. Factor in preparation and follow-up time

This is probably the most important miscalculation when starting out.

Suppose you charge:

€30 for a one-hour session.

But that hour requires:

• 15 minutes to look at a test paper and prepare the exercises;
• 60 minutes of tutoring;
• 15 minutes to send the work and note the next priority.

Your total time is therefore:

1 h 30.

Your revenue relative to the time actually spent becomes:

€30 ÷ 1.5 = €20 per hour of work.

This is not yet your income after social contributions, nor your income after tax.

Comparing three rates with the same working time

Session price	Total time spent	Amount per hour of work before charges
€20	1 h 30	€13.33
€30	1 h 30	€20
€40	1 h 30	€26.67

This calculation explains why two tutors who both charge €30/h can have very different returns. One improvises almost the whole session and does no follow-up; the other prepares a test paper, selects exercises and structures what comes next.

That does not mean you should bill every minute of preparation separately. The simplest approach is usually to build the average time required into your hourly rate.

Preparation also varies with the level

A tutor who has a perfect command of the Sixième (first year of collège) curriculum can prepare some sessions very quickly. A higher-education session on a specialised subject may require going back over the topic beforehand.

Your rate can therefore change with the level even if the time you spend with the student remains exactly one hour.

4. Tutor pay, revenue and family price: three different amounts

The word “net” causes a great deal of confusion in private tutoring.

You need to distinguish:

1. the price paid by the family;
2. the amount that comes to you before your personal obligations;
3. what remains after social contributions, business expenses and, where applicable, tax.

Case 1: you work as a micro-entrepreneur

The official Mon-entreprise simulator from the Urssaf (the body that collects French social security contributions) lists teaching among the examples of liberal professions falling under bénéfices non commerciaux (BNC, non-commercial profits) when carried out within this framework.

For a micro-entrepreneur (France’s simplified self-employment regime) in the category of other services and BNC liberal professions, the Urssaf gives a social contribution rate of 25.6% from 1st January 2026. The contribution to vocational training is also 0.2% for liberal professions according to Urssaf documentation.

In this scenario, excluding Acre (a start-up contribution relief scheme) and before income tax, you can use the following example:

€30 of revenue × (1 - 25.8%) = €22.26 after these contributions.

If the €30 session took you 1 h 30 of work:

€22.26 ÷ 1.5 = €14.84 per hour of time spent, before other expenses and before income tax.

This calculation is an example, not a personalised tax calculation. The applicable regime depends on your situation, any Acre, your other activities and how you are taxed. The Urssaf offers up-to-date simulators precisely to avoid applying a generic percentage to every situation.

Case 2: you are employed by a private household via the CESU

The reasoning changes completely. The family becomes a private employer and declares a salary. The CESU (chèque emploi service universel, the French scheme for households employing someone at home) then calculates the contributions based on the declared pay.

The CESU gives a collectively agreed minimum of €10.82 net per hour, paid leave included, as of 1st June 2026 in the general case described on its page. This is a minimum wage, absolutely not a recommended price for a private tutor.

The total cost for the family is higher than the net salary paid, because of contributions. The CESU provides an official estimator for converting the declared salary and the cost of employment according to the situation.

Case 3: you use a platform

You need to read its business model. A platform can:

• take a commission on your rate;
• add its fees to the price paid by the family;
• charge the student a subscription;
• combine several of these mechanisms.

Our guide to the criteria for comparing private tutoring platforms explains this difference in detail.

On NOEO, the tutor currently sets their desired pay and NOEO’s 15% fee is built into the final price shown to the family (10% if the match is brought by the family or the tutor, with a floor of €2 per session). In the platform’s vocabulary, the tutor’s “net pay” refers to the amount that comes to them in the NOEO transaction: it is not necessarily their net income after their own social contributions and tax.

5. Should you charge more for at-home tutoring than online?

There is no obligation to apply two different rates. But economically, at-home tutoring often involves an additional invisible cost: travel.

Suppose:

• session: 1 hour;
• round trip: 30 minutes;
• price: €30.

Without even factoring in the cost of transport:

€30 ÷ 1.5 h = €20 per hour of time committed.

If you want the equivalent of €30 of revenue per hour of time spent, a session taking up 1 h 30 should mathematically generate:

€30 × 1.5 = €45.

This calculation does not mean the market will automatically accept €45. It simply shows why applying the same rate to an hour by video and to an hour requiring thirty minutes of travel reduces your effective pay.

The tax credit changes how the at-home price is perceived

Academic support delivered at home can, under the conditions for services à la personne (home-based personal services), give entitlement to a tax credit. The tax authorities state a credit equal to 50% of the expenses actually incurred, within the ceilings set by the scheme.

You should not, however, conclude that any independent tutor can advertise “50% refunded”. Eligibility depends on the framework in which the service is provided. Remote academic support, in particular, is not automatically treated as eligible at-home tutoring.

As NOEO offers online sessions only, this tax benefit linked to services provided in the home must not be presented as applicable to NOEO sessions.

6. When should you raise your rate?

A rate increase makes sense when your positioning genuinely changes.

Several signals can justify it:

• your slots are regularly full;
• you turn down new requests for lack of availability;
• you have built up genuine reviews and recommendations;
• you now teach a more demanding level;
• your preparation or follow-up has become more structured;
• you are developing a sought-after specialisation;
• your rate is clearly below comparable profiles while demand remains strong.

Raise it gradually rather than doubling it without explanation

Suppose you start at €22/h. After several months, your diary fills up and your experience grows. Moving to €25, then possibly €28 or €30, lets you test the market’s reaction.

Calculating the increase is simple:

going from €22 to €25 is +€3, or +13.6%.

Over four billed hours a week for four weeks:

16 h × €3 = €48 of additional monthly revenue.

With ten hours of tutoring a week:

40 h × €3 = €120 extra over four weeks.

A small change in rate therefore becomes significant as volume increases.

Should you raise the price for existing students?

There is no single right strategy. You can keep the old price for some families and apply the new rate to new students, or announce a change well in advance.

The important thing is to avoid unpredictable changes in the middle of ongoing support. A regular relationship also rests on clear terms.

7. How do you present your price without underselling yourself?

A tutor who immediately apologises for their rate gives the impression that they do not know what they are offering.

Avoid:

“I charge €30, but I can go lower if that’s too expensive.”

Prefer:

“My rate is €30 for one hour. It covers the session as well as the necessary preparation and follow-up of the work planned between sessions.”

You can then discuss the need. If the family is looking for a less costly solution, it is sometimes better to reduce the frequency than to undervalue your hour.

Do not justify the rate by your need for money

Your rent, your studies or your need to supplement your income are legitimate, but they are not the reason a family should pay €30 or €40.

The price is justified by what you bring:

• subject knowledge;
• experience;
• preparation;
• quality of the session;
• follow-up;
• any rarity of the skill;
• practical constraints.

Do not automatically lower your rate at the first refusal

A refusal may mean you are too expensive for that family. It does not prove you are too expensive for the market.

Conversely, if twenty successive requests disappear exactly when your price is announced, that is a signal worth analysing. You then need to compare your rate, experience, reviews, subject and the level requested with genuinely similar profiles.

Your rate is therefore also a positioning tool. Too low, it can make the necessary preparation and follow-up difficult. Too high for your current profile, it can significantly slow down finding your first students.

A simple method for setting your first rate

1. Define your subject and levels precisely.
2. Look at 15 to 20 genuinely comparable profiles on one or two platforms.
3. Ignore the extremes and observe the zone where most rates are concentrated.
4. Estimate your invisible time: preparation, follow-up and possibly travel.
5. Check your social security status so as not to confuse revenue with disposable income.
6. Choose a simple amount, for example €22, €25, €30 or €35, rather than an artificially precise price.
7. Test it on several requests.
8. Reassess it after a few students, genuine reviews or a change in your expertise.

For a new tutor, aiming for the maximum rate from day one is rarely necessary. The initial goal is rather to set a price high enough to respect your time while remaining consistent with the evidence you can currently show.

On NOEO, tutors state the pay they wish to receive directly in their application and can then organise their sessions and payouts in their tutor workspace. Joining the platform is free for approved tutors. If this model suits your activity, you can apply to tutor on NOEO.