How to price an online course: a method for finding your number

Pricing is the part of making a course that most creators put off until the last minute. The lectures are recorded, the course page is ready, and then the question sits there: how much? Many people pick a number that feels safe, usually low, and hope for the best.

There is no correct price that someone can hand you. A course on bookkeeping for small firms and a course on drawing for fun are sold to different people, for different reasons. What you can do is follow a method, so the number you land on has reasons behind it and you know what to change if it doesn't work.

Start from the result, not from the hours of video

The most common mistake is to price by length. "It's six hours of content, so it should cost about this much." Students don't buy hours. They buy a change: a skill they can use, a problem that goes away, time they save, money they make or stop losing.

Write down in one sentence what the student can do after the course that they couldn't do before. Then ask what that is worth to them. For a business audience, the answer is often tied to money or time at work. For a hobby audience, it is about enjoyment, confidence and progress. Both are real, but they lead to different prices.

A short course that solves an expensive problem can be worth more than a long one that covers a topic in general. If you find it hard to write that one sentence, the course itself may need a tighter focus. Our guide on how to structure an online course can help with that.

Look at what your audience already pays for

Your students are already spending money to solve this problem in other ways. They might buy books, hire a consultant, pay for one-to-one lessons, attend a workshop, or simply spend hours figuring it out alone. Make a list of those alternatives and what each one costs them, in money and in time.

Your course sits somewhere on that list. It is usually cheaper than personal help and more focused than free material online. Placing it honestly between the alternatives gives you a range that makes sense to the buyer, without guessing.

It also helps to look at other courses in your field, not to copy their price, but to see what your audience is used to. If similar courses come with live sessions or personal feedback and yours doesn't, that difference should show in the price, in either direction.

Know your floor

Before you think about the top of the range, work out the bottom. Add up what the course costs you to run each month: the platform, the payment page fees, any tools, ads if you plan to run them, and your time answering student questions. Then ask how many students you can realistically reach in a month.

Divide one by the other and you have the price below which the course loses money. This is not your price. It's the line you don't cross. If the floor already looks high for your audience, the issue is usually reach, not price, and that is worth knowing before launch.

Decide what is in the package

The same lectures can be sold at very different prices depending on what comes with them. Some things that change the value of a course:

• Live sessions or group calls alongside the recorded lectures.
• Personal feedback on exercises or projects.
• Files and templates the student can use straight away.
• A certificate the student can show to others.
• How long the student keeps access.

Be careful with adding extras just to justify a higher price. Each one is a promise you have to keep, and personal feedback in particular takes time that grows with every student. Add what helps students get the result, and leave out what only looks good on the sales page.

One price or a few

A single price is easier to explain and easier to sell. Two or three versions can work when there is a real difference between them, for example the recorded course alone, and the same course with a few live group sessions. The difference should be something the student can feel, not a renamed bonus.

If you are just starting, one price is usually enough. You can add a second version once you know what students ask for.

Test before you commit

The price you choose on paper is a guess with good reasons. The way to check it is to sell.

1. Pick a price inside the range you found, closer to the value than to the floor.
2. Offer it to a small group first: your mailing list, past clients, people who came to a webinar on the topic.
3. Watch what happens. Do people ask questions and buy, or do they say it sounds great and disappear?
4. Listen to the objections. "It's too expensive" sometimes means the value isn't clear yet, which is a sales page problem, not a price problem.
5. Adjust, and test again with the next group.

A free webinar is a good place to test. You teach part of the material, you see who stays to the end, and you offer the course at the end. If you want to build that into a routine, see how to turn a webinar into a course.

Discounts and launch prices

A lower price for the first students is common and makes sense: they take a chance on a new course, and in return you get feedback and testimonials. Say clearly that it is a launch price and when it ends, and keep to it.

Constant discounts work against you. If the course is always on sale, students learn to wait, and the full price stops meaning anything. It's better to have a fair price most of the time and a few real occasions for a lower one.

When to raise the price

Signs that the price may be low: people buy without asking anything, nobody mentions cost as a concern, and students tell you the course was worth much more. Signs that the value isn't coming across: lots of interest and few purchases, or many people asking whether it's right for them.

Raise the price in steps, and tell your audience before it happens. Students who already bought at the old price will not mind, and some who were waiting will decide. For more on getting the course in front of buyers, read how to sell an online course.

Try it without committing

On Kolcast you can build a free course with up to three lectures, so you can test the format before you set a price. When you start selling, students pay on your own payment page, Stripe or any page that can send a notice, and Kolcast takes no fee on sales. The courses page explains how it works, and the plans and prices page lists what each plan includes.