How Much to Charge for a Workout Plan

Charge $30–$60 for a 4-week custom workout plan, $60–$100 for an 8-week plan, and $90–$150 for a 12-week program — the ranges Hevy Coach publishes in its workout-plan pricing guide. Ongoing monthly coaching runs $50–$200 a month, and adding nutrition support moves a plan into FitBudd's $150-and-up premium tier. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.

This guide is for trainers selling workout plans directly to their clients through one link, not for trainers pricing in-person studio sessions. If you are still deciding what to package, review these services content creators can sell.

The benchmarks behind every number on this page

The strongest primary benchmark for what fitness programming is worth is the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report, a survey of 1,133 active US personal trainers carrying a ±2.9% margin of error at a 95% confidence level. Packaged plan prices, by contrast, come from vendor-published pricing guides rather than survey data, and are labelled as such throughout this page.

• Self-employed personal trainers bill a blended $61.90 per hour for virtual and online coaching, versus $45.80 per hour for gym employees doing the same virtual work, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• The industry-wide average rate for a certified personal trainer is $56.60 per hour, while NASM-certified independent trainers average $72.36 per hour before adding any specialization, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• Personal training in the United States costs $40–$100 per hour, with a $55-per-hour national average, according to Thumbtack's personal-trainer cost report, which is built from real customer quotes rather than vendor guidance.
• Hevy Coach's workout-plan pricing guide states that "a good price for a four-week plan is typically between $30 and $60," and prices eight weeks at $60–$100, 12 weeks at $90–$150, and 16 weeks at $120–$200 (vendor-published guide).
• FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide prices a downloadable PDF plan with no personal support at $30–$50, a custom plan with email check-ins at $60–$100, and a premium tier combining 1-on-1 training, nutrition support, habit tracking and frequent communication at $150 and up (vendor-published guide).

Use those figures as starting points, then adjust for how closely the plan fits one person's goals, equipment, training level, limitations, and requested support.

Are you selling a one-time plan or monthly programming?

A one-time plan is a fixed deliverable you write once; monthly programming is recurring work with check-ins and adjustments, and the two carry different published prices. FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide prices a one-time downloadable PDF plan at $30–$50 and a recurring subscription model at $50–$200 per month. Monthly programming commits you to the next check-in and adjustment; a one-time workout plan ends when you deliver the defined program, so that payment does not depend on another month of coaching.

• One-off plan: best for a client who can self-manage. Hevy Coach's workout-plan pricing guide prices a single four-week custom block at $30–$60 and a 12-week program at $90–$150.
• Monthly coaching: best for a client who expects continuing adjustments. FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide prices a recurring subscription model at $50–$200 per month, the single monthly range used throughout this guide.

Three findings from the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report explain why recurring and remote work is where the money moves:

• Trainers earning $100,000 or more are 2.2x more likely to offer hybrid or remote coaching packages than the rest of the report's 1,133 respondents, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• Online coaching supplies 15% of primary income for trainers earning $100,000-plus, versus 5% for those under $75,000 — a 2.9x difference — according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• 78% of the personal-training industry is still tethered to the 1-on-1 session model, and 1-on-1 sessions account for 58% of the average earner's income versus 43% of a $100,000-plus earner's, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.

If asking for support feels awkward, sell a one-off plan as a clear purchase instead: your client gets one defined program for one stated price, with no continuing coaching obligation. On Brillay, your client pays your displayed price upfront before you start, and you deliver the workout plan later. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request (Brillay, How It Works, https://brillay.com/how-it-works).

How does program length affect the price?

Program length is the single largest published pricing lever: Hevy Coach's workout-plan pricing guide prices four weeks at $30–$60, eight weeks at $60–$100, 12 weeks at $90–$150, and 16 weeks at $120–$200 — a midpoint that rises from $45 at four weeks to $120 at 12 weeks, about 2.7x, not a straight doubling.

One hour of live personal training costs a US client $55 on average, according to Thumbtack's personal-trainer cost report. Self-employed trainers bill a blended $67.55 per hour for in-person 1:1 work, versus $37.74 per hour for gym employees doing the same work, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report. Measured against Thumbtack's $55-per-hour average, a $90–$150 twelve-week written program is priced at roughly 1.6 to 2.7 hours of live coaching.

Give each offer one clear price or a small number of defined tiers rather than negotiating every request individually. Custom Work on Brillay lets you list a fixed-scope workout plan with one price, one delivery time, what the client gets, and what is excluded. Delivery is one-time (Brillay, How It Works, https://brillay.com/how-it-works).

What do clients already pay for workout programming elsewhere?

Published consumer prices for delivered workout programming span roughly 12x, from $15.99 a month for an algorithmically generated plan to $199 a month for a dedicated human coach. Those published prices show what clients already compare with your custom workout plan.

• Future charges $199 per month, with a $50 first month, for a dedicated certified virtual coach who builds and updates the client's workouts, according to Future's own homepage pricing — effectively the ceiling of the $50–$200 monthly range FitBudd publishes for independent coaches.
• Fitbod charges $15.99 per month or $95.99 per year for algorithmically generated workouts with no human coach, according to the Fitbod FAQ — a practical floor, because a human-written custom plan priced near it is competing with software on price rather than on personalization.
• Ladder charges $29.99 per month, or $179.99 per year ($14.99 per month), for coach-written strength programs that are followed as published rather than personalized, according to Ladder's pricing page.

A custom, one-to-one written plan is the most expensive thing in that list to produce, which is why the packaged ranges above sit closer to Future's end than to Fitbod's.

Which add-ons justify charging more?

Add-ons are what separate published price tiers: FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide prices a plain PDF plan with no personal support at $30–$50, the same plan plus email check-ins at $60–$100, and 1-on-1 training with nutrition support and habit tracking at $150 and up — a roughly 3x spread on scope alone.

• Exercise demonstrations or form-check videos: FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide attaches "frequent communication" to its $150-and-up premium tier rather than to its $30–$50 no-support tier.
• Nutrition or macro guidance: FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide puts 1-on-1 training combined with nutrition support, habit tracking and frequent communication at $150 and up. Only provide nutrition guidance that is lawful and within your qualifications and scope of practice.
• Detailed intake work: Hevy Coach's workout-plan pricing guide recommends pricing from build time, giving the example that a nuanced 12-week plan taking 90 minutes to write plus paid resources supports a price of $90 or more.
• Niche expertise: Programming for a first powerlifting meet, postpartum return, or physique-show peak can justify a premium when the creator has appropriate expertise. Health-related programming should remain within the creator's competence, and clients with medical concerns should be directed to an appropriately licensed professional.

Formal specializations carry a measured price premium in the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report, all measured against an industry-wide certified-personal-trainer baseline of $56.60 per hour:

Trainers earning $100,000 or more hold an average of 2.5 active credentials, against 1.1 for the rest of the market, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report. If clients repeatedly request these additions while your price assumes a basic 4-week block, your listed scope or price no longer reflects the work being delivered.

What will you keep after platform and payment fees?

On a $100 workout-plan sale through Brillay, an example estimate is $88.80 before taxes: Brillay charges an 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work with no monthly fee (Brillay, Pricing, https://brillay.com/pricing), and using Stripe's published standard US online-card rate of 2.9% + $0.30 gives an estimated $3.20 processing fee (Stripe pricing). Your actual Stripe fee may differ and is deducted from your earnings.

1. Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals, and creating the page is free with no monthly fee (Brillay, Pricing, https://brillay.com/pricing).
2. For planning, you can estimate Stripe processing using its published standard US online-card rate of 2.9% + $0.30. Your actual processing fee may differ, including for international cards or currency conversion, and Brillay deducts Stripe's actual fee from your earnings. Payout controls are available inside Brillay.

Brillay's pricing page states the formula as "Creator earnings = follower payment − platform fee − processing fee" (Brillay, Pricing), so both fees are subtracted from the same gross sale price rather than stacked sequentially. Brillay card payments remain subject to chargebacks; use clear scope, pricing, and delivery records to reduce preventable disputes.

Those figures are before tax and use an estimated Stripe processing fee for planning; the actual fee deducted from creator earnings may differ. The US self-employment tax rate is 15.3% — 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare — and self-employment tax is owed once net earnings from self-employment reach $400 or more for the year, according to the IRS Self-Employment Tax page. The flat $0.30 component of Stripe's published US online-card rate also weighs more heavily on cheap sales: it is 1.5% of a $20 plan but 0.3% of a $100 plan, one reason a genuinely custom plan is hard to justify much below the $30 floor of Hevy Coach's four-week range.

When should you raise your workout-plan price?

Raise your price when the work you deliver has outgrown the tier you published, and expect experience to compound. The NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report found that a trainer's average hourly rate rises from $32/hr under one year, to $42/hr at 1–3 years, $55/hr at 4–9 years, and $72/hr at 10-plus years — a 2.25x climb across a career.

Three further sourced markers of when a price is due for review:

• NASM-certified personal trainers earn 22% more than their industry peers on average, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• In virtual coaching specifically, NASM-certified trainers bill $57.84 per hour against a $44.41 industry average — a 30% gap, the largest of any modality measured — according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report.
• On the packaged-plan side, FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide suggests $30–$70 for a basic PDF plan from a new trainer and $150 or more once nutrition and 1-on-1 support are included (vendor-published guide).

The three thresholds below are this guide's own editorial rules of thumb, drawn from no study, survey, or Brillay transaction data, and should not be cited as data.

• Your queue is growing faster than you can deliver: a backlog that regularly runs two weeks or more past your stated delivery time, or declining more than roughly one in five inbound requests, suggests demand has outrun the current price.
• You have never revised your launch price: review a low introductory price once you have completed your first 10–15 sales at it, rather than leaving a launch discount in place indefinitely.
• The average plan has expanded: if roughly a third or more of requests now include nutrition guidance, longer programming, or form-check video, move the offer up a tier — the same jump FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide prices as $60–$100 to $150 and up.

Apply a new price to future requests rather than changing the agreed price midway through a paid deliverable. Keep each tier's inclusions, exclusions, price, and delivery time clear before the client buys. Extra work requires a new order.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a beginner charge for a workout plan?

FitBudd's workout-plan pricing guide recommends $30–$70 for a basic PDF-based plan from a trainer who is just starting out, and Hevy Coach's workout-plan pricing guide sets the same floor at $30 for a four-week plan. For context, the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report puts the average rate for trainers with under one year of experience at $32 per hour. Start at that floor and raise the price as scope grows.

Do I need a certification to sell a workout plan?

Brillay itself has no application or eligibility review, so no credential is needed to list a plan there; local rules are a separate matter. Certification does, however, correlate with price: NASM-certified personal trainers earn 22% more than their industry peers on average, and $57.84 per hour versus a $44.41 industry average in virtual coaching, according to the NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer report. Certification, licensing, insurance, nutrition and scope-of-practice rules vary by jurisdiction and by the service provided. Check the applicable local requirements and do not provide medical diagnosis, rehabilitation, or regulated nutrition services unless qualified to do so.

Should nutrition be included or priced separately?

Either structure can work, but nutrition is the single add-on with the clearest published price step: FitBudd's guide moves a $60–$100 custom plan with email check-ins to $150 and up once nutrition support and habit tracking are added. Offer only guidance that falls within your qualifications and local scope-of-practice rules.

Is a one-off plan or monthly coaching more profitable?

A one-off 12-week plan bills $90–$150 once (Hevy Coach), while monthly coaching bills $50–$200 per month (FitBudd) — roughly $150–$600 across three months, but with continuing check-in work. The more profitable option is the one whose price covers the hours required and the number of clients you can serve well.

What if a request needs much more time than I priced for?

Complete the agreed deliverable at the listed price when it is safe and within scope, then revise the price or package for future followers. If a request falls outside your competence or cannot be completed safely, decline it before delivery. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. For niche-specific offer ideas, see the coaches and experts guide.

Sources

Every figure on this page is tied to the source named beside it.

• NASM 2026 State of the Personal Trainer Report — survey of 1,133 active US personal trainers, ±2.9% margin of error at 95% confidence; source for all hourly-rate, credential-premium and revenue-mix figures.
• Thumbtack personal-trainer cost report — $40–$100 per hour nationwide, $55-per-hour average, aggregated from real customer quotes.
• First-party consumer pricing pages: future.co ($199/month), Ladder ($29.99/month), Fitbod ($15.99/month).
• Stripe pricing — published standard US online-card rate of 2.9% + $0.30, used here for planning estimates.
• IRS, Self-Employment Tax — 15.3% rate, $400 filing threshold.
• Brillay's own pricing and how it works pages — Followers pay upfront. Creators receive payouts through their own Stripe account connected inside Brillay.
• Vendor-published pricing guides, labelled as such above: Hevy Coach and FitBudd.

Ready to set your price and take workout-plan requests? Create your free Brillay page, add Custom Work alongside Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries behind one link, and let followers pay by card without creating an account. Creator payouts are available in 41 countries.