Tutor.com: Poor Pay, Bad Environment for Tutors

What is Tutor.com?

Tutor.com is an online tutoring platform that enlists freelance tutors to teach students ranging from kindergardeners to adults.

How it works

If you want to sign up to tutor here, you must live in the U.S., have a valid Social Security number and authorization to work here. You’ll also need either a bachelor’s degree or be well into the process of receiving one, and be able to commit to tutoring at least five hours a week.

In addition to that, you’ll need Window’s software, a decent computer, high speed internet and a webcam. Finally, you’ll need to take a timed proficiency exam in whatever subject you want to tutor and complete an online interview with a Tutor.com representative.

Assuming you pass through that gauntlet, you’ll be able to sign on to the platform and take tutoring assignments.

Tutor.com Review:

Given the detailed sign up process, you would think that Tutor.com was a great-paying opportunity. But you’d be wrong.

The site skirts direct questions about tutor salaries, saying only that your pay varies based on the subject you teach. However, tutors say that they start at $10 or $11 an hour and then get raises as they move up the ladder.

Tutors are ranked by level, with starting tutors earning the least, and seasoned tutors earning more. But Tutor.com’s starting pay is considerably less than what you’d earn with other tutoring platforms.

Indeed, ZipRecruiter estimates that the site’s California tutors earn between $8 and $32 hourly. (Notably, California’s minimum wage is currently $16.50.) Indeed estimates average hourly pay at $20.

Poor comparatives

With some types of side hustles, earning $20 per hour would be par for the course. But tutors set their own rates and earn considerably more with sites like Wyzant and TutorOcean. Moreover, Tutor.com has a wide array of rules that you must strictly adhere to in order to tutor on the platform. Some of the rules make sense, according to tutors. Others seem designed to give them reasons to keep you from getting a raise.

The process

There are three ways to tutor here. You can essentially tutor on demand, signing onto the site and simply taking whatever assignments are available when you’re there. Or, you want work on a-synchronistic questions, where a student presents a paper or project that you can review and comment on. Or you can tutor based on an appointment schedule.

Mentors

Each tutor has a “mentor,” who is supposed to provide help and advice. But that mentor also rates you. If your mentor is a jerk, which isn’t rare according to tutor reviews, you get bad ratings and have a miserable experience.

On-demand

Tutor.com says the tutor-on-demand option is the site’s backbone. So that’s likely to be where you can find the most opportunity. This may be handy for people with unpredictable schedules, who like the idea of signing on whenever they have time, without the need to commit to a schedule.

That said, the on-demand tutoring is paid by the minute, usually in 20-minute increments. So you don’t necessarily get paid for the whole time you’re online. The site does pay something in return for you taking “on-demand” hours, but it’s a token — about half your normal tutoring pay and considerably less than minimum wage.

Stay active

Additionally, you need to work at least 5 hours a week to maintain “active status” on the platform, according to Tutor.com’s terms and conditions. This may explain why tutors are willing to sit by their machines waiting for an assignment.

There are also copious complaints about the site’s technology.

Given the relatively low pay and the frequent complaints about virtually every aspect of this platform, it’s probably not surprising that we don’t recommend Tutor.com.

Pay

Tutor.com pays tutors once a month via direct deposit.

Recommendations

Better tutoring platforms include Varsity Tutors, Wyzant and TutorOcean.

Or read our blog post about a dozen better tutoring platforms.

What their users say: (from Indeed)

If you are looking for secure part time job with a guaranteed amount of hours, this is not that job. But if you want to pick up a few hours, here and there on the side, its great. Onboarding can be very slow. There are two types of hours, scheduled and floating., depending on student availability. Scheduled hours are hard to get. You will only be paid half, if no student shows. You are not paid for floating time, if no students are available.

I was offered minimum wage to work at tutor.com, which involved several different session formats they never prepared me for. They provided “mentor reviews” during my orientation. These reviews were difficult to find and they provided poor scores with no helpful feedback. I helped several students and they were grateful for the help. Still, Tutor.com terminated my account due to “quality concerns” and not meeting the 5 hours of minimum work each week. In my personal tutoring business, I get paid four times the rate Tutor.com pays.

Rotten pay; picky mentors

They’ll hire at minimum pay –i.e. 10 or $11 an hour then once you reached level 1 tutor they increase pay $2-3 depending on your subject. You get a $2-3 raise with every increased tutoring level.

Management’s expectations are ridiculous. They basically want Magical Instant Teaching Faeries at fast-food pay. The software sucks. Still, it’s pocket money.

You can do a great job 99% of the time, but your “mentor” will dig out and nitpick the few times where you say or do anything inexact or wrong. For slightly above minimum wage pay, they expect you to do a better job than tenured college professors.

They are very specific as to what you should be doing and there is a sense of being watched as you get reviewed every 7-9 days. I find it’s hard to remember all of their many rules and so far I haven’t had many classes and it’s been hard to get scheduled time.

Pay by the minute

Tutor.com pays by the minute and wait time is at $5.50 an hour. If you get just a 20-minute session, you get $4.33 if you make $13 an hour.

Obviously, tutors are underpaid. But for a flexible part-time job you can do in your pajamas, it’s a trade-off. The goal is to obtain scheduled hours, in which you’re paid for a full 60 minutes of your time, whether or not students need you. However, in practice, obtaining scheduled hours is next to impossible. Weeks might go by before you’re able to grab one. What they really want is for you to “float”–or set yourself as online and wait at your computer, unpaid until a student might need you. Then you’re paid by the minute until your interaction with them is finished. Rinse and repeat.

You’re also micro-managed. Your every interaction with a student is analyzed and often critiqued by a “mentor.” This means you essentially have someone breathing down your neck after the fact, reading your every word and finding any possible flaw in your technique.

Updated 2/11/2025