How Much Does a Tutor Cost? Private Tutor Prices in the UK

A private tutor in the UK typically costs around £35 to £40 an hour: Tutorful, a UK tutoring marketplace, publishes average prices of £37.45 an hour for online tutoring and £40.54 an hour for face-to-face sessions. What a family actually pays moves up or down from that average with the tutor's qualifications and experience, the subject and level, the session length and whether the tutor is booked directly, through a marketplace or through an agency.

Taylor Tuition's fees start from £50 per 50-minute session and depend on tutor level and subject, with no registration fee and a free initial consultation.

Average tutor prices by level

Tutorful's published averages rise with the level of study, from primary through to A-Level:

• Primary: £33.01 an hour
• Key Stage 3: £34.47 an hour
• GCSE: £35.86 an hour
• A-Level: £41.88 an hour

These are averages across every subject on one marketplace, so individual tutors sit well above and below them. They are a reference point for comparing quotes, and the factors below explain why one tutor's price differs from another's.

Average tutor prices by subject

Subject makes a difference too, with Tutorful's averages running from £36.12 an hour for maths and £37.51 for English to £39.03 for biology, £39.49 for chemistry, £43.04 for physics and £49.95 for economics.

What affects the cost of a tutor?

These factors shape what an individual tutor charges.

• Qualifications and experience: a university student usually charges less than a qualified teacher, an exam-board examiner or a subject specialist with years of teaching
• Level and subject: A-Level teaching costs more on average than primary or GCSE, and physics and economics cost more than maths or English
• Online or in person: in-person sessions usually cost a little more, partly because the tutor's travel time is priced in
• Session length: some tutors price by the hour and others by a shorter session, so comparing quotes means converting them to the same length
• How the tutor is booked: a tutor booked directly, through a marketplace that takes a commission, or through an agency that vets and matches tutors will price differently, and each includes different things

Does tutoring include VAT?

Private tuition given by an individual tutor working on their own account, in a subject ordinarily taught in a school or university, is exempt from VAT under HMRC's rules on education. The exemption does not extend to tuition supplied by a limited company, so a VAT-registered company includes VAT in its price, and checking whether a quote includes VAT keeps comparisons like for like.

How much does tutoring cost per month?

The monthly cost follows from the price per session and how often sessions run. One session a week means four or five sessions in a month, and a second weekly session in the months before exams doubles that.

At Tutorful's online average of £37.45 an hour, one hour a week comes to about £150 over four weeks. With Taylor Tuition, one 50-minute session a week costs from £200 over four weeks, depending on tutor level and subject.

Is a tutoring agency more expensive than finding a tutor directly?

It often is, since an agency's price covers the work around the sessions as well as the teaching: checking qualifications and DBS status, matching a tutor to the child, re-matching if the fit is wrong, and reporting on progress. Booking a tutor directly or through a marketplace tends to cost less, with the family doing the vetting and matching itself.

At Taylor Tuition, every placement begins with an introductory session with the matched tutor, and we re-match at no extra cost if the fit is wrong. Tutors who work with children hold an enhanced DBS check, and most are registered on the DBS Update Service.

Questions to ask before booking a tutor

Asking the same questions of every tutor or agency makes quotes comparable.

• How long is each session, and what is the price per session?
• Is there a registration fee or a minimum number of sessions?
• Does the price include VAT?
• What happens if the first tutor is not the right fit?
• How is progress reported, and to whom?
• What notice is needed to cancel or move a session?

Taylor Tuition fees

Fees start from £50 per 50-minute session and depend on tutor level and subject, since tutors are tiered by qualifications and teaching experience, which is what sets the fee for a given tutor. There is no registration fee and the initial consultation is free. Sessions run online for families across the UK and internationally, and in person in central London, where fees are quoted on enquiry; the fees and pricing page sets out the detail.

More than half of our tutors hold Qualified Teacher Status and around three in five hold a master's degree or doctorate, and the tutor pool includes former heads of department and school leaders, experienced exam-board examiners, and teachers from independent and boarding schools. Families receive progress reports after sessions and have a dedicated point of contact at Taylor Tuition.

Tutor profiles show who is available. Send an enquiry and we reply with tutor recommendations, or ask for a call back to talk it through first.

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• GCSE tutoring
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