How Much to Charge for Chess Lessons?

Price a quick opening or position question around $10–$25 and a full annotated game review around $40–$90, depending on depth and coach strength. A multi-game tournament prep package generally sits at $100–$250. Those figures are derived from a prevailing chess-coaching rate of $35–$60 per hour published by tutoring marketplaces, cross-checked against individual coach listings on public chess directories. For async formats, price the deliverable itself, not a clock hour. Paid Questions let a follower pay upfront to ask one private question, and you send one written reply on your own time — no live call or scheduling.

"Chess lessons" usually means a live, scheduled hour on a video call, billed by the hour. An async coaching page cannot sell that hour, so the pricing question changes shape: instead of a rate, a coach sets a fixed price on a fixed deliverable — a quick priced question and a full paid game review. Both are easier to price than an hourly slot because the scope is settled before the client pays.

What do chess coaches typically charge per hour?

Chess coaches typically charge $35 to $60 per hour, the average Wyzant publishes for chess tutors on its own marketplace. Beginner coaches often sit near $20 to $30 per hour, while titled coaches on public directories list numbers ranging from €15 to $120 per hour. Published guide averages and observed listings disagree, so treat each as a separate signal.

Wyzant states on its chess tutoring page that chess tutors cost $35 to $60 per hour on average across its marketplace (Wyzant). Wyzant is the operator of the marketplace it is reporting on, which makes the figure a first-party statement about its own listings rather than a third-party estimate — but it is still a self-reported average, not an audited record of completed transactions.

The nearest thing to an official wage benchmark covers employed instructors, not private coaches. O*NET OnLine, the US Department of Labor–sponsored occupational database, reports median wages of $22.50 per hour for Self-Enrichment Teachers (SOC 25-3021), the federal occupation code covering chess and other enrichment instruction, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data (O*NET OnLine). O*NET OnLine reports median wages of $20.84 per hour for Tutors (SOC 25-3041) on the same 2025 BLS wage data (O*NET OnLine). Both federal medians describe wage employees rather than independent coaches setting their own private rates, which is one reason the $35-to-$60 marketplace average for chess tutoring sits well above the $22.50 federal median.

Individual coach listings are the closest available proxy for what private chess coaching actually sells for, so they are worth reading directly rather than through a guide. On 2 September 2026, the first page of the Lichess public coach directory in its default sort showed 10 coach cards, all of them titled players; 9 published an hourly-rate field, and 6 of those 9 gave a specific number — 15 €, "From 30 €", 25 USD, 28 USD, 55 USD, and $120 per hour — while the other 3 wrote only "competitive," "reasonable," or "flexible" (Lichess coach directory). That is a single-page snapshot of a page whose contents rotate with coach activity, not a census: it shows that titled coaches on one page spread from 15 € to $120 per hour, and it does not establish a complete or stable range for titled coaches as a group.

"Since many have asked about my prices and method, here they are: $60/hour for private lessons." — NM Jesse Cohen (USCF 2228), Chess.com member profile

Two published pricing guides fill in the levels the directories do not label, and both are secondary explainers rather than transaction data. Superprof's pricing guide states that the average US chess lesson costs about $50 per hour, within a typical range of $5 to $300 per hour (Superprof). Circle Chess's rate overview states that chess coach rates range from as low as $20 per hour to over $150 per hour depending on the coach's experience and qualifications.

No government wage series measures private chess-coaching rates and no audited census of completed chess lessons is published, so an individual coach's actual rate can sit outside every band in the table above.

Why doesn't hourly pricing translate directly to Brillay?

On Brillay, you set a fixed price for a defined deliverable instead of charging for scheduled time. Paid Questions are one question and one written answer with a reply window you set, and Custom Work is one defined deliverable with a delivery time you set. For both offers, you price the deliverable rather than the clock, so a $50-per-hour benchmark becomes an input, not a price. The same shift shows up in any hourly service unbundled into a scoped deliverable — a web developer pricing a small business website build works through an identical translation problem.

Brillay's own documentation is the authoritative source for the format constraint:

Brillay's how it works page describes the same shape: questions are answered by text, and Personalized Videos or Custom Work are delivered as recordings, files, or links on the creator's own time, within the delivery window they set, with no live video calls or appointments to schedule.

Brillay does not run booking or live 1:1 video calls in its current version, so a chess coach using Brillay is not replacing the live lesson — they are unbundling it. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. See the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Paid Questions and Custom Work differ on whether the client needs to send a file. Custom Work clients can attach files when they order, like a track, resume, or screenshot. Paid Questions are one written question from the client and one private written reply from you; see Custom Work for the full listing format.

A format change is not a downgrade. An annotated game review with written notes can be worth more of a serious player's attention than 20 minutes of live commentary, because the client can re-read the notes and replay the line.

How should a quick opening or position question be priced?

Price a single narrow chess question at $10 to $25, then raise it when engine checking, line verification, or a growing queue makes each answer more demanding. The arithmetic: a written answer takes ten to twenty minutes, and at Wyzant's published $35-to-$60 chess-tutor average that time is worth $6 to $20. A flat price at the top of that band pays for the coach's judgment, not the minutes. It's the same reasoning an illustrator uses when pricing a quick caricature commission as a flat rate instead of billing by the minute.

The full derivation, stated so it can be checked: twenty minutes at $35 per hour is $11.67 of coach time, and ten minutes at $60 per hour is $10.00, which puts the honest floor of the band at roughly $10; twenty minutes at $60 per hour is $20.00, which supports a $25 ceiling once engine-checking and line verification are counted. A coach with a title or a strong published rating can reasonably open at $25 rather than $10.

An independent listing supports the same shape. FM Pesotskiy Mikhail (FIDE 2217) lists an hourly lesson at 20 € and prices training games at 10 € without analysis and 15 € with analysis on his Lichess coach profile, a 5 € premium attached to the analysis rather than to the playing time (Lichess coach profile). For specialist chess coaching, start a Paid Question around $10–$25 and adjust after you see how long a careful answer actually takes.

Chess questions can sit at or above a general $5–$15 starting range because a sound opening answer requires engine checking and line verification, not just an opinion.

A single, narrow chess question — "is this opening line sound," "what should I have played on move 14" — fits Paid Questions, where the client sends one written question and the coach replies privately in writing with no live call.

How should a full game review be priced?

Price a quick written game review at $15 to $35, a full annotated review with move-by-move notes and a voice summary at $40 to $90, and a multi-game tournament prep package at $100 to $250. Each band reflects assumed working time priced against the $35-to-$60 hourly average Wyzant publishes for chess tutors.

A full game review belongs under Custom Work, where the client can send a PGN export, a screenshot, or a game link. Brillay's Custom Work page explains that a creator delivers a written note plus up to five files, and/or a private link for anything too large to attach directly, and that the follower can also attach their own files when they order. With Custom Work, you set a delivery time from one hour to five days.

Each price band below is built the same way: the low price is the figure a coach can defend when the deliverable runs to the slow end of the time estimate, and the high price is the figure the same deliverable supports at the fast end or with a stronger coach. The middle column states the assumed working time explicitly so the arithmetic can be checked against any hourly rate, not only Wyzant's.

Every price above is a recommendation derived from the cited hourly ranges and estimated working time, not a guarantee of demand. The same scaling logic applies to any bundled, multi-step deliverable — the pricing mirrors how a practitioner might price building out a personalized skincare routine, where price rises with the amount of custom work bundled in. A coach with a title or a strong published rating has room to price at the top of each band; a newer coach building a track record has room to start at the bottom and raise prices as the queue fills.

What should a chess-review listing say before a client pays?

A chess-review listing should state five things before payment: the input the client sends, the output format, the assumed playing level, a specific delivery time inside the 5-day maximum Brillay allows, and the review’s promised scope. A client who reads all five knows exactly what arrives and when. On Brillay, you put the accepted input, review depth, output, and delivery window on the listing, so a review starts as a paid order with the PGN attached instead of a DM that still needs a quote.

• Input: One game (PGN or a clear text description) versus a full opening repertoire.
• Output: Written notes, a marked-up game, a voice walkthrough, or a combination.
• Level assumption: Whether the review assumes a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player.
• Delivery time: A specific window inside the 1-to-5-day delivery range a Brillay service supports (Brillay product behavior).
• Boundary: That a review is coaching feedback, not a guarantee of a rating gain or a tournament result.

Should a coach charge more for a titled player's review?

Yes — a FIDE title or a high published rating justifies pricing above the marketplace average, but the listing should state the rating instead of implying it. No source verified for this page publishes a rate table broken out by title, so a titled coach prices against the general advanced band rather than a title-specific figure.

Observed listings show that a title alone does not set the price. In the 2 September 2026 snapshot of the Lichess coach directory's first page, an International Master listed 28 USD per hour while a Woman Grandmaster on the same page listed $120 per hour and a Grandmaster published no number at all, writing "Flexible rate". Circle Chess's guide places the top of the published market at over $150 per hour and attributes the spread to experience and qualifications rather than to title alone. Treat any title-specific number beyond these published ranges as unverified rather than a market fact.

How should a chess coach price the other async offers?

Beyond reviews and questions, a chess coach can price Personalized Videos for recording time, let supporters choose a custom amount through Tips, and set a funding target with Goals. Brand Collaboration Inquiries carry no listed price because terms are negotiated per deal.

• Personalized Video: A congratulations clip after a tournament result is a recording, so price it against the minutes it takes to record and deliver, not against a coaching hour — the same time-based logic used when pricing a personalized eulogy or tribute speech.
• Tips: No price to set — a tip is a one-time amount the supporter chooses, with nothing to deliver in return.
• Goals: The number to set is a funding target for a defined project, such as a repertoire guide, not a per-unit price.
• Brand Collaboration Inquiries: Chess-adjacent brands propose terms per deal, so the intake collects budget and scope instead of publishing a rate.

Keep the core review and question offers narrowly scoped, and let the secondary formats absorb requests that fit neither one.

Recommended async chess prices at a glance

Recommended async chess prices: $10 to $25 for a single opening or position question, $15 to $35 for a quick written game review, $40 to $90 for a full annotated review, and $100 to $250 for a multi-game tournament prep package. Adjust upward for a title, downward while building a track record.

The table below states two implied hourly equivalents per band, because one number would hide the pairing. The midpoint column divides the middle of the price band by the middle of the time estimate. The floor column pairs the lowest price with the longest assumed time, which is the worst realistic case for the coach.

Three of the four midpoint hourly equivalents — about $50 for a quick review, $52 for a full annotated review, and $58 for a tournament prep package — fall inside the $35-to-$60 average Wyzant publishes for chess tutors on its marketplace. The single-question band is the deliberate exception: at a $17.50 midpoint for 15 minutes of work it implies roughly $70 per hour, above the marketplace average, because a short answer is priced for the judgment behind it rather than for the minutes. At the floor column, all four bands fall below $35 per hour — $30, $26, $27, and $25 respectively — which is the cost of quoting a flat price on work that occasionally runs long.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions coaches ask most when converting an hourly rate into async prices: whether live lessons are possible on Brillay, whether a title is required, which offer type fits a game review, what Brillay charges, and where to read about chess coaching income beyond per-lesson pricing.

Can I run live chess lessons on Brillay?

No. Brillay does not support booking or live 1:1 video calls in its current version, so live lessons need a separate scheduling tool. Brillay fits the paid written requests — a question or a game review — that a coach can layer alongside live coaching or sell on their own.

Do I need a chess title to charge for lessons or reviews?

No specific title is required to price coaching. Circle Chess's rate overview reports a $20-to-over-$150 hourly range driven by experience and qualifications rather than by a fixed title requirement. Represent your actual rating and experience accurately on the listing.

Should game reviews be a Paid Question or a custom request?

Use Custom Work when the client needs to send a PGN file, screenshot, or game link; Custom Work lets clients attach their own files at order time, while a Paid Question fits a single position the client can type out.

What does Brillay charge?

Brillay's own charge is a small platform fee taken only on payments you actually receive, with no monthly fee, and both rates are listed on the pricing page; Stripe's card processing is a separate charge. All six offers sit behind one link. There is no follower minimum or application gate, and creators can receive payouts in 41 countries after connecting their bank through Stripe. Stripe's published pricing lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction as its typical US domestic online-card rate (Stripe).

Where can I read more about how chess coaches earn overall?

For the full range of income sources beyond per-lesson pricing — scholastic programs, marketplaces, tournament prizes, and direct client payments — see how do chess coaches make money.

Create your free Brillay page and turn the next "can you look at my game?" message into a priced question or review.