When to raise your price on Preply, and by how much, comes up again and again in tutor groups. The answers usually come from one tutor's experience. We compared the listed prices of the same 1,881 tutors two months apart, in English, French, Spanish and Math, to see what tutors actually do.
The short answer
- Half changed their price within two months. 49% kept the same price, 32% raised it and 19% lowered it.
- The typical raise was $5. That's the median in English, French and Spanish, about a fifth of the old price. In Math, where prices are lower, it was $4, about a third.
- Cheaper tutors raised; pricier ones came down at least as often as they went up. Of tutors under $20, 43% raised and 13% lowered. At $60 and up, 15% raised and 31% lowered.
- Tutors who raised were already busy. In English, French and Math, they taught more lessons a month than tutors who kept their price. That shows who raises, not what a raise does.
How many tutors changed their price
The same 1,881 tutors, seen in two scrapes about two months apart: early August and 6 October, or 26 September for French. That's 416 tutors in English, 516 in French, 496 in Spanish and 453 in Math.
| Subject | Kept their price | Raised | Lowered |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 55% | 26% | 19% |
| French | 45% | 33% | 22% |
| Spanish | 49% | 32% | 19% |
| Math | 48% | 38% | 14% |
| All four | 49% | 32% | 19% |
Raises outnumbered cuts in every subject. Math had the most raises and the fewest cuts; English had the most tutors keeping their price. The figures compare two days only: a tutor who changed their price and changed it back in between counts as unchanged, so if anything, they undercount changes.
How much tutors raise and cut
| Subject | Median raise | Middle half of raises | Median cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | $5 | $3 to $9 | $5 |
| French | $5 | $3 to $7 | $4 |
| Spanish | $5 | $2 to $8 | $5 |
| Math | $4 | $2 to $9 | $3 |
As a share of the old price, the median raise was 19% in English, 20% in French and Spanish, and 33% in Math, where the median price is $15.
Most raises were small steps. Of the 612 raises, 23% were $1 or $2, 42% were $3 to $5, 20% were $6 to $10 and 15% were more than $10. One raise in five was exactly $5. Cuts were a little smaller: $4 at the median across the four subjects, about 16% of the old price.
What a raise is worth to you depends on your commission. A $5 raise adds $3.35 a lesson at Preply's 33% commission for your first 20 hours, and $4.10 at 18% after 400 hours. The commission calculator works it out for any rate.
Who raised, and who lowered
How often tutors changed their price barely depended on what they charged: between 46% and 56% changed it at every price level. Which way they moved did depend on it.
| Price in August | Tutors | Raised | Lowered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $20 | 572 | 43% | 13% |
| $20 to $29 | 548 | 32% | 19% |
| $30 to $39 | 355 | 31% | 18% |
| $40 to $59 | 312 | 22% | 25% |
| $60 and up | 94 | 15% | 31% |
Tutors at the cheaper end mostly went up. From $40, cuts were as common as raises, and at $60 and up, twice as common. The pattern holds in English, French and Spanish separately; Math has too few tutors above $40 to tell. For what tutors at the very top say about their prices, see Can you charge $80 an hour on Preply?
Two snapshots can't tell a tutor trying out a price from one who has settled on it. What they do show is prices moving toward the middle: up from the bottom, and down from the top at least as often as up.
Super Tutors raised more often
In all four subjects, Super Tutors raised their price more often than other tutors: 39% against 28% overall, with the clearest gaps in English (35% against 21%) and Math (49% against 31%). They lowered it a little less often (17% against 20%). The Super Tutor guide compares their prices and lessons with those of tutors with similar experience.
Experience made no consistent difference
In French, Spanish and Math, tutors with 2,000 lessons or more raised about as often as newer tutors. Only in English did they raise less often: 18%, against 33% for tutors with fewer lessons.
Were the tutors who raised busy?
Median lessons taught a month over the same two months:
| Subject | Kept their price | Raised | Lowered |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 48 | 64 | 54 |
| French | 59 | 86 | 60 |
| Spanish | 76 | 78 | 76 |
| Math | 33 | 54 | 33 |
In English, French and Math, tutors who raised taught clearly more lessons than tutors who kept their price. The gap holds among tutors who started at the same price: French tutors under $20 who raised taught a median of 104 lessons a month, against 60 for those who kept their price. In Spanish, there was no real difference. Tutors who lowered their price taught about as many lessons as those who kept it.
This shows who raises, not what a raise does. Part of these lessons were taught at the old price, to students who booked before the change, and there's no way to see how the same tutors would have done without raising. It fits how tutors charging $70 to $90 described it to us: the price goes up once the week is full.
What this means for your price
- Changing your price is common. Half the tutors near the top of the search changed theirs within two months, and a third raised it.
- Most raises are small steps. $5 at the median, about a fifth of the old price, and two raises in three were $5 or less.
- Busy tutors raise. The tutors who raised were already teaching more lessons than those who kept their price. Nothing here suggests that a raise brings lessons by itself.
- High prices get adjusted too. From $40, tutors lowered their price at least as often as they raised it, and at $60 and up, almost a third lowered it within two months.
- Know where your rate sits. The rate checker on each subject's page shows where your price falls among tutors near the top of the search: English, French, Spanish and Math.
How we measured
TutorDNA reads the tutor listings in Preply's public search results every week, about 1,000 tutors per subject. This page compares the listed hourly price of each tutor found in two scrapes about two months apart: English on 2 August and 6 October 2026, Spanish on 4 August and 6 October, Math on 7 August and 6 October, and French on 4 August and 26 September.
- Raised, lowered and kept compare the price on those two days only. A tutor who changed their price and changed it back in between counts as having kept it.
- Price levels use the price in the first scrape. Grouping by the new price would mislead: every raise would move a tutor into a higher band and every cut into a lower one.
- Who is counted. About half the tutors in the August scrapes weren't among the first 1,000 or so in the later ones, so they're left out. The figures describe tutors near the top of the list on both days; a tutor who changed their price and was further down the list the second time isn't counted. Super Tutor status and lessons taught are as shown in the second scrape.
- Lessons a month come from the change in each tutor's lesson count between the two scrapes. Tutors near the top of Preply's search are busier than tutors further down.
- Small groups. Groups of fewer than 30 tutors aren't given as percentages.
More in the methodology.
The figures are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with a credit to TutorDNA and a link to this page.