Price your first online course by working out what it costs you to deliver, estimating what the result is worth to the learner, and choosing a format that matches how you teach. Set a price between those two points that you can explain with confidence, use limited launch offers instead of permanent discounts, and review the price once your first group of students has finished.
Start with your real costs
Your price has a floor, and it is higher than many new course creators assume. List everything the course costs you, not just the obvious items:
- Your time to plan, record, edit and update the course, and to answer student questions.
- Time for live sessions, doubt-clearing calls or assignment feedback, if you include them.
- Software and hosting, including your course platform subscription and any platform fee on sales.
- Payment gateway charges and applicable taxes.
- Marketing costs, such as advertising or promotional material.
- Staff or assistant time, if others help run the course.
Divide your expected monthly costs by a realistic number of students, not an optimistic one. The result is the minimum you can charge without losing money. It is rarely the right price, but it tells you where the line is.
Estimate the value to the learner
The ceiling is set by what your course is worth to the person taking it. Value depends on the outcome, not the number of hours of video. A focused course that helps someone pass an exam, change a habit or learn a skill for work can reasonably be priced above a longer course with a vague promise.
Ask yourself: what does the learner gain, how soon, and what would they otherwise spend to get the same result? Compare with what you charge for similar teaching in person or one-to-one. Online delivery can be priced differently, but it should still reflect the value of your expertise.
Think about who is paying, too. A working professional paying for their own career skills weighs price differently from a parent paying for a child's tuition or a company paying for staff training. Your price, and the way you present it, should make sense to the person who actually approves the payment.
Choose the format before the number
The same material can be sold in very different ways, and each suits a different kind of learner and a different kind of business.
- One-off course: a single payment for lifetime or fixed-period access. Simple to understand and suited to self-paced skills with a clear end point.
- Membership: a recurring fee for ongoing access to a growing library, regular live sessions or a community. Suits subjects where learning never really finishes, such as fitness, language practice or professional development.
- Live batch or cohort: a fixed group that starts and finishes together, with scheduled classes. It can justify a higher price because of the live contact and accountability.
- One-to-one coaching: the most personal and usually the highest-priced option, limited by your own time.
Many academies combine these, for example a recorded course at an accessible price with an optional live batch for students who want more support. For longer programmes, consider whether instalments would make the fee easier to manage without lowering the total.
Setting and testing the number
Pick a price between your floor and your ceiling that you can say out loud without apologising. If you cannot explain why the course costs what it costs, learners will not understand it either. Write a short explanation of what is included, who the course is for and what they will be able to do at the end.
Avoid pricing purely by copying others. Their costs, audience and results are not yours. Instead, launch at your chosen price to a first group, watch how enquiries turn into enrolments, and listen to the questions people ask before they buy. Objections about price are useful information, but so is the absence of any objection.
Use coupons, trials and referrals with a purpose
Offers work best when they have a clear reason and a clear end date:
- Launch coupons: a limited early discount rewards your first students and gives people a reason to decide now.
- Trial classes: a free or low-cost trial lets hesitant learners experience your teaching before committing to a full batch.
- Referral rewards: students who recommend you to friends can earn a benefit, which rewards the people already happy with your teaching rather than discounting for everyone.
Avoid permanent discounts. If the course is always on offer, the offer price becomes the real price in learners' minds. When you do raise prices later, give existing students notice and honour what they have already paid for.
Where MBSGuru fits
MBSGuru supports these pricing formats in one place: courses, memberships, live batches and one-to-one sessions, with coupon offers, trial classes and referral rewards. For MBSGuru's own plan costs and platform fees, which belong in your cost calculation, see the current figures on our pricing page.
