Is online tutoring worth it? Real prices per hour in the US, UK, Australia and Canada in 2026, what the money buys at each price, and when it is not worth it

"Is online tutoring worth it" is really two questions: what does it cost, and what do you get for it. This post answers both with numbers. The prices are the ones the platforms and agencies publish today, in September 2026, for the US, UK, Australia and Canada; the "what you get" part comes from teaching families in those countries since 2018 and from the honest cases where tutoring did not help. The Netherlands has its own price post, what tutoring costs in the Netherlands.

What online tutors charge per hour in 2026

Three things the table shows. The spread is enormous, tenfold within one country. The price tracks where the tutor lives and how much the agency keeps, not how well the tutor teaches; a marketplace tutor at $15 and an agency tutor at $65 can be the same person. And the agencies that publish no price at all, and sell a quarterly or yearly plan on a call, are the ones whose reviews are about refunds.

What the money buys at each price

$10 to $20 an hour (marketplaces). A tutor, often a student or a teacher abroad, chosen by you from a profile. Cheap and workable if you interview two or three and stay with one; the risk is the tutor's reliability and no one to call if it goes wrong.

$35 to $70 an hour (agencies). A matched tutor, a booking system, a recording, someone to call, and usually a replacement tutor if the first does not fit. This is where most families should be, and the questions that separate a good agency from a bad one at this price are below.

$100 and up (premium). A qualified teacher, often a former examiner, for a specific exam: 11-plus, GCSE, HSC, SAT, AP. Worth it for the six weeks before that exam; not worth it for a Year 4 child who needs fractions.

Group classes. Anything with more than three children online is a lecture with a chat box. Cheaper per hour and almost always the wrong buy for a child who is behind, because the class cannot stop for them.

The five cases where it pays for itself in a term

1. A child who has fallen behind in one subject because of a move, an illness, a bad year, or a school that went fast. Two classes a week on the missing topics, in the school's order, closes the gap in a term; the school report shows it.
2. A child whose school order is different from the one the parents know. Indian families in Dutch, Australian or American schools: the child is fine, the parents cannot help with homework in that format. A tutor who knows both saves the family evenings.
3. A test with a date. NAPLAN, SATs, STAAR, GCSE, the 11-plus: a fixed date makes a term of tutoring efficient, because the work is defined.
4. A bright child who is bored, working above the class and starting to switch off. Teaching a year ahead, one to one, is the cheapest way to keep such a child engaged, and it is exactly what a classroom cannot do.
5. English for a child in a non-English school, where the school does not have the hours (Italy, the Netherlands, the UAE's Indian-curriculum schools); an hour or two a week of real reading and writing is worth more than any app.

The three cases where it does not

1. The problem is not academic. A child who will not do homework, or who is anxious about school, needs a routine and sometimes a conversation with the school, not a tutor. Tutoring adds an hour of the thing the child is avoiding.
2. The child is too young for a screen. Under about 7, online works only in very short sessions with a parent beside the child; in-person or a parent with a book is better and cheaper.
3. The company is selling a year. A yearly plan with pause days and a refund policy in a PDF is a bet that you will not leave; nobody knows in September whether the tutor will suit the child in March. Pay monthly or by term, or walk away.

What to ask before paying

• Who is the tutor, what is their qualification, and can we see them teach before we pay? (A free first class answers all three.)
• Is it one child per tutor, or a group?
• Does the same tutor teach every week?
• Is the class recorded and does the child get notes and an assignment?
• What is the price per hour, in my currency, with no plan attached?
• What happens if we want to stop after a month?

A company that answers all six in one message is worth trying; a company that answers with a call-back is not.

What we charge, and why the number is different

Science with Shobha teaches one tutor to one child, live on a shared whiteboard, from Chandigarh in India, to families in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, the UAE, the Netherlands and Italy, since 2018. Our tutors are master's-qualified women teaching their own subject; because they teach from India, the per-hour rate a family pays is a fraction of the local agency band in the table, for the same one-to-one class, with the recording, the notes and the same tutor every week. We quote one rate per child on WhatsApp, before the free 30-minute class, with no plan and no contract; families pay monthly and stop when they want. Ask for the number and compare it with the table above; that comparison is the whole answer to whether it is worth it.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →