What private tutoring costs in Europe

The three price bands, and what sits in each

At the bottom, roughly €20–45 an hour, you are usually buying a student or recent graduate through a volume marketplace. Identity is typically checked; deeper verification typically is not. iTutorOnline, for example, publicly advertises lessons in the €20–45 range with a flat €5 per hour platform fee included in the displayed price, and positions that as around 30% below agency pricing of €37–40.

The middle band, roughly €45–80, is where qualified teachers and experienced subject specialists sit. You are paying for someone who has taught a syllabus repeatedly and knows where students predictably fail.

Above €80, you are paying for scarcity: current or former examiners, specialists in a narrow admissions test, or tutors with a reputation that sustains a waiting list. Rates here are set by demand, not by cost, and the relationship between price and effectiveness becomes weakest precisely where the numbers are largest.

• €20–45 — students, recent graduates, volume marketplaces
• €45–80 — qualified teachers, experienced subject specialists
• €80–150 — examiners, admissions-test specialists, scarce reputations
• Agency rates sit above the tutor's own rate by the agency's margin

Who takes a cut, and how it reaches your invoice

Three models dominate, and they produce very different economics. Commission marketplaces take a percentage of every lesson, typically 15–30%, for the life of the relationship. Flat-fee platforms add a fixed amount per hour — iTutorOnline's €5 per hour is an example — which is proportionally heavier on cheap lessons and lighter on expensive ones. Directories charge the tutor once and take nothing per lesson.

The model matters over time. On a commission marketplace, a €60 lesson taken weekly for two years transfers something in the region of €900–1,800 to the platform. That money comes from somewhere: either the tutor raises their rate to absorb it, or accepts less, or both parties move the arrangement off-platform — which is common, and which removes whatever protections the platform offered.

TutorDeluxe runs the third model deliberately. Tutors pay a one-time €199 verification fee; students and parents pay nothing; no commission is taken on any lesson. The rate a tutor advertises is the rate you pay.

Why the same subject costs different amounts

Four variables explain most of the variation, and none of them is "quality" in a general sense.

Level is the largest. Postgraduate and professional-level teaching commands a premium because the pool of people who can do it is small. Specialised admissions preparation — UCAT, BMAT-successor tests, Oxbridge interviews — prices similarly for the same reason.

Geography still matters even for online lessons, because tutors price against their local cost of living. A tutor in Zurich and a tutor in Porto teaching identical IB Chemistry will not converge on a single rate. Scarcity of the specific combination matters too: IB Mathematics Analysis and Approaches at Higher Level has far fewer competent teachers than GCSE-level maths, and the price reflects it.

Finally, verification costs money. A platform that reads diplomas, contacts referees and checks identity manually is absorbing real labour per tutor. A platform that runs automated ID matching alone is not. Where that cost lands — on the tutor once, on you per lesson, or nowhere because the work is not done — is a fair question to ask.

Reading a rate honestly

A high rate is a claim, not evidence. The useful test is whether the tutor can name what justifies it in checkable terms: a specific examining role, a named qualification, years teaching a named syllabus, references you can call.

Equally, a low rate is not automatically a bargain. If a tutor charges €22 an hour and needs three sessions to cover what a €60 tutor covers in one, the cheaper option costs more and takes longer. The relevant unit is cost per unit of progress, which nobody advertises and everybody should estimate.

TutorDeluxe sets a €40 per hour floor for listed tutors. That is a positioning decision rather than a claim about the market: below that level it becomes difficult to sustain the preparation time that the verification standard assumes.

Hidden costs worth asking about before you book

The advertised hourly rate is frequently not the total. Ask directly about each of these before the first lesson, and get the answer in writing.

• Cancellation window — how many hours' notice, and what is charged inside it
• Materials, past papers and licensed resources — included or billed separately
• Marking and feedback between sessions — paid time or not
• Travel charges for in-person lessons, and whether travel time is billable
• Minimum commitment — is a block required, and is it refundable