How Do Teachers Make Extra Money Online?

Teachers make extra money online mainly through private tutoring, selling lesson plans on Teachers Pay Teachers, live classes on Outschool, freelance curriculum work, and paid questions or reviews from people who already know their work. Marketplace cuts differ sharply: Outschool keeps 30% of a class price, Wyzant 25% of a lesson, and FanBell 12% of a direct payment.

What are the main ways teachers make extra money online?

Five formats cover most online teacher side income: tutoring, digital resource sales, live classes, freelance education contracts, and direct paid requests. The published platform cut differs sharply — Teachers Pay Teachers keeps 45% of a Basic seller's sale (20% for a Premium seller) plus a per-resource fee, Outschool keeps 30% of the class price, Wyzant keeps 25% of the tutor's posted rate, and FanBell keeps 12% of a direct payment — so the same $100 pays out differently in each. Privately billed tutoring and direct freelance contracts have no sale-based platform cut at all.

Private tutoring arranged directly and freelance contracts have no single platform fee, because the teacher and the client set the terms. The four marketplace figures above come from each platform's own published fee page (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates; Outschool Teacher Earnings and Payments Policy; Wyzant Tutor Fee Structure; FanBell pricing;). Disclosure: FanBell publishes this guide, so its 12% figure comes from FanBell's own pricing page rather than an independent source, while the Teachers Pay Teachers, Outschool, and Wyzant figures come from those companies' help centers.

• Online tutoring: One-on-one or small-group sessions billed by the hour or as a package. On Wyzant, tutors set their own hourly rate and keep 75% of it after a flat 25% Platform Fee.
• Selling teaching resources: Lesson plans, worksheets, unit bundles, and printables sold through a marketplace such as Teachers Pay Teachers, which pays a Basic Seller 55% of each sale and a Premium Seller 80% (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates).
• Live online classes: Scheduled classes offered to enrolled learners. Outschool charges educators a 30% Teacher Fee on every paid enrollment and says there are no additional costs to teach on the platform.
• Freelance education work: Direct or marketplace-based contracts for curriculum writing, grading, test-prep content, instructional design, and course scripting.
• Direct paid requests: Questions, essay feedback, study-plan reviews, tips, and similar requests. FanBell, the publisher of this guide, charges a 12% platform fee when a fan pays, so a $100 payment leaves the teacher $88.

Sources for this table: TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates; Outschool Teacher Earnings and Payments Policy; Wyzant Tutor Fee Structure; and, as a first-party source for its own fee, FanBell pricing.

Each marketplace's take-home formula is published and fixed, so the same sale produces a different net amount depending on where it happens:

(TpT figures: Seller Fees & Payout Rates; Outschool: Teacher Earnings and Payments Policy; Wyzant: Tutor Fee Structure; FanBell: pricing;.)

Subject expertise can affect the most suitable mix. See how language teachers and music teachers can combine specialized teaching with online offers.

How much can teachers make selling lesson plans?

Teachers Pay Teachers pays a Basic Seller 55% of each sale minus $0.30 per resource and a Premium Seller 80% minus $0.15, so a $10 lesson plan nets $5.20 or $7.85 respectively before membership costs of $29 one time or $59.95 a year (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates).

A Teachers Pay Teachers Basic Seller account costs $29 as a one-time, non-refundable fee, pays the seller 55% of each sale, and charges $0.30 per resource sold (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates).

A Teachers Pay Teachers Premium Seller membership costs $59.95 per year, pays the seller 80% of each sale, and charges $0.15 per resource sold (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates).

Source for this table: TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates.

For a hypothetical $10 resource, the published Teachers Pay Teachers formula leaves a Basic Seller $5.20 after the 55% payout and $0.30 per-resource fee, before the one-time membership cost. The same $10 sale leaves a Premium Seller $7.85 after the 80% payout and $0.15 per-resource fee, before the annual membership cost (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates).

Teachers Pay Teachers pays sellers through the payout processor Hyperwallet, and seller payouts usually arrive around the 10th of the month.

Whether that formula becomes meaningful income depends on the seller's pricing, tier, catalog size, and sales volume — a catalog of low-priced resources needs high volume to match the payout of one higher-priced sale. The model can produce repeat, passive sales after the initial listing work, but building and marketing a catalog usually requires more upfront setup than accepting one tutoring or feedback request.

How much do teachers earn from online tutoring?

Online tutoring has no universal published rate because tutors set their own price, so the dependable figure is the platform's cut: a Wyzant tutor keeps 75% of their posted hourly rate after a flat 25% Platform Fee, meaning a $60 posted rate pays the tutor $45 per hour.

Wyzant students pay their tutor's rate plus a separate 9% service fee on each lesson, which is charged to the student rather than deducted from the tutor's 75% share. Take-home pay still varies by subject, grade level, credentials, location, lesson format, and demand.

The payment arrangement determines how teachers should calculate take-home income:

• Private billing: The teacher sets the price and does not owe a tutoring marketplace commission, but must find clients, schedule sessions, and collect payment directly.
• Tutoring marketplaces: A platform may provide leads, scheduling, and payment tools in exchange for a cut of each lesson — Wyzant's is a flat 25% Platform Fee on the tutor's posted rate.
• Packages or small groups: Selling several sessions together or teaching multiple learners can change effective hourly earnings without changing the teacher’s underlying subject expertise.

Payout timing matters as much as the rate for a teacher counting on side income: Wyzant pays tutors by semi-monthly direct deposit on the 1st and the 15th of each month, and a lesson must be submitted within 14 days of taking place (Wyzant: When will I be paid?).

For example, a teacher who privately invoices $100 starts with $100 in gross tutoring revenue, and as a self-employed worker owes self-employment tax at a rate of 15.3% on top of ordinary income tax, before payment-processing costs, cancellations, and preparation time are counted (IRS: Self-Employment Tax). The IRS applies that 15.3% rate to 92.35% of net self-employment earnings, and lets the taxpayer deduct one-half of the self-employment tax when figuring adjusted gross income, so the headline rate overstates the real bite.

Before joining a tutoring platform, teachers should check its current tutor agreement for commissions, withdrawal charges, cancellation policies, pricing controls, and unpaid preparation requirements. For calculations based on subject and fee model, see how much to charge for tutoring.

How much do teachers keep from Outschool classes?

Outschool charges educators a 30% Teacher Fee on the parent's payment and pays the teacher the remaining 70% of the class price, so $100 in Outschool class sales leaves the teacher $70. Outschool states that the fee covers services including Zoom licensing, credit-card processing, and class marketing.

Outschool collects that 30% Teacher Fee from all paid enrollments and states there are no additional costs to teach on Outschool.

Outschool classes cannot be free, must be priced in round whole numbers, and carry an enforced minimum price of $1.

For teachers deciding what to charge, Outschool recommends a price of $18–$21 per learner per hour spent in class (Outschool New Teacher FAQ; Outschool: Organizations on Outschool). Group classes on Outschool are capped at 18 learners, which sets the ceiling on what one class hour can gross.

Outschool sends payment for a fixed-duration class 7–10 days after the class start date, so class income arrives more than a week after teaching begins.

The tradeoff is distribution: Outschool gives teachers access to parents already searching its catalog for classes, and charges 30% of the class price for that access. Whether that exchange is worthwhile depends on enrollment, preparation time, class size, and how hard it would be to recruit learners independently.

What does a realistic month of online teaching income look like?

The published fee pages for Wyzant, Outschool, and Teachers Pay Teachers state fee terms but no typical-teacher earnings figure, so the honest way to estimate a month is to apply each published fee schedule to a stated volume of work. The scenarios below are arithmetic on published rates — including Outschool's own recommended $18-$21 per learner per hour — not earnings promises.

Each row uses the platform's published terms: Wyzant's 25% Platform Fee, Outschool's 30% Teacher Fee and $18-$21 per-learner-per-hour guidance (Outschool Teacher Earnings and Payments Policy; Outschool New Teacher FAQ), TpT's 80% Premium payout minus $0.15 per resource (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates), and FanBell's 12% fee;.

Three costs sit outside every row. Preparation, lesson planning, and marketing hours are unpaid, so a 16-hour Wyzant month is more than 16 hours of work. Membership costs come off the TpT total — $59.95 a year for Premium (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates). And every row is pre-tax: self-employment tax of 15.3% applies to 92.35% of net self-employment earnings (IRS Topic no. 554).

How does freelance education work pay?

Freelance education work — curriculum writing, assessment development, grading, test-prep content, instructional design, and course scripting — has no published rate card, because pay is negotiated contract by contract rather than set by one platform. Projects may pay by the hour, deliverable, milestone, or retainer, so the only reliable number is the one written into the agreement.

Teachers comparing freelance offers should calculate:

1. The total project payment stated in the contract.
2. Estimated research, writing, meeting, administrative, and revision hours.
3. Any marketplace or payment-processing fees the contract specifies.
4. The effective hourly rate after those deductions.

A single freelance curriculum contract can also cross the IRS threshold at which self-employment income must be reported: net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more require a tax return even when the work is a side job or temporary (IRS: Manage taxes for your gig work). If the teacher finds the project through a freelance marketplace, that marketplace's current fee schedule must also be deducted from the contract total before the effective hourly rate is calculated.

Freelance work can compensate teachers for specialized expertise, but each contract normally requires client acquisition and delivery. It is less repeatable than selling an existing download and may be less immediate than accepting a clearly defined tutoring or feedback request.

Can teachers earn from direct paid questions and feedback?

Yes. Teachers can charge for clearly scoped requests — a subject question, an essay review, a study plan — without a tutoring schedule or a marketplace storefront. FanBell, the publisher of this article, charges 12% only when a fan pays, so a $100 request pays out $88, against Wyzant's 25% and Outschool's 30%.

The three models trade discovery for a cut of revenue in different ways. Wyzant and Outschool list teachers in a searchable marketplace and take 25% and 30% of the transaction respectively; FanBell — which publishes this guide, so its own mechanics below are first-party claims — has no public marketplace or discovery feature, keeps a smaller 12% cut, and is built for teachers who already have students, parents, or followers who know them (Wyzant Tutor Fee Structure; Outschool Teacher Earnings and Payments Policy; FanBell pricing;). On a $100 transaction that difference is $88 kept on FanBell, $75 on Wyzant, and $70 on Outschool.

FanBell provides one payment link through which students, parents, or followers can purchase Paid Private Questions, Creator Services such as an essay review or study plan at a defined price and turnaround, or Tips toward a project (FanBell: how it works). FanBell is free to start with no monthly fee, has no follower minimum, and charges a 12% platform fee only when a fan pays, so a $100 payment leaves the teacher $88. FanBell payouts are made through Stripe to the teacher's connected bank account. Those FanBell figures are first-party: they are published by FanBell, the publisher of this article, and are not independently audited, unlike the Wyzant, Outschool, and Teachers Pay Teachers terms above, which come from those companies' own help centers.

Which model fits depends on whether the teacher needs a platform to find students (Wyzant, Outschool) or already has people who know and value their expertise (FanBell).

How coaches and experts monetize their knowledge explains how defined paid offers can be structured around expertise, while how small creators can charge for advice covers pricing questions for people with an existing audience.

What should teachers check before selling online?

Four rules sit outside the fee schedules and can cost a teacher more than any platform cut: tax filing thresholds, employer or district policy, ownership of the materials being sold, and each marketplace's own eligibility rules. All four are set by someone other than the teacher, and three of them are published in writing.

• Tax filing. The IRS requires a tax return on net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more, even when the work is a side job, part-time, or temporary (IRS: Manage taxes for your gig work).
• Who owns the lesson plan. Teachers Pay Teachers states that U.S. copyright law allows Teacher-Authors to own the rights to original work they create as long as that work is created outside of their employment, which makes materials built on school time and school equipment the ambiguous case.
• Third-party content inside a resource. TpT's intellectual property policy requires that a resource contain only content the seller created or has the right to use, such as through a license, and resources removed under its DMCA process can trigger buyer refunds.
• Platform eligibility. Outschool requires an educator to be at least 18 years old, verify their identity, and pass a criminal background check before teaching.

Employer and district rules vary and are not published in one place, so a teacher should read their own contract and district policy before charging current students, using school-created materials, or naming their school in a listing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the easiest way for a teacher to start earning online?

The easiest option depends on what the teacher already has and on how much setup each route needs. Teachers Pay Teachers requires a paid seller membership of $29 one time or $59.95 a year before selling (TpT: What membership types are available?), while a teacher with willing students or parents can start faster with tutoring or one clearly priced paid review.

Do teachers need a large following to make money online?

No. Private tutoring and freelance work depend on finding suitable clients rather than building a large public following. FanBell also has no follower minimum and charges nothing until a fan pays, although direct paid requests still require at least one person who knows and values the teacher’s expertise.

Can teachers sell lesson plans and tutor at the same time?

Yes, and the fee structures are independent of one another: a Teachers Pay Teachers Premium Seller keeps 80% of each resource sale minus $0.15 (TpT Seller Fees & Payout Rates) while a Wyzant tutor separately keeps 75% of their posted hourly rate. Combining channels diversifies revenue, though each still needs preparation, marketing, or client acquisition.

Is Outschool worth its 30% Teacher Fee?

It can be if Outschool’s parent audience, payment processing, Zoom licensing, and class marketing produce enrollments the teacher would not obtain independently. Outschool charges a 30% Teacher Fee, leaving the teacher $70 from every $100 in class sales. Teachers should compare that amount with their preparation and teaching time.

How can teachers get started?

Choose one offer that matches work you already do: a tutoring session, classroom resource, live class, curriculum deliverable, or clearly scoped question or review. Then subtract the published platform fee before judging the price — 45% of a Basic TpT sale, 30% of an Outschool class, 25% of a Wyzant lesson, or 12% of a FanBell payment — and test demand before building a large catalog or schedule.

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Publisher's note: This guide is published by FanBell, one of the five options it compares; the Wyzant, Outschool, Teachers Pay Teachers, and IRS figures above come from those organizations' own published pages, and the FanBell figures come from FanBell's pricing page. Teachers who want to test the direct-request model can create your free FanBell page at no upfront cost, or apply the same fee math to whichever platform fits their situation.