Tutoring rates by level in France

A private tutoring rate depends first on the student's level: an hour of primary-school help and an hour of prépa coaching are not billed at the same price, and the gap often runs from single to triple. Before you quote a family, it helps to know what each level usually costs and why.

Why the level pushes the price up

The further a student has gone, the more the lesson asks of the tutor. Three reasons come back:

• The content is more technical. Explaining long division in primary school and an integral in the final year of lycée call for different skills.
• Preparation takes longer. A specialty lesson in lycée or prépa has to be prepared, sometimes for as long as it lasts.
• Qualified tutors are scarcer. Few people can coach a science prépa student, so that hour costs more.

Stakes matter too: as the brevet, the bac or a competitive exam gets close, families accept a higher rate for a clear result. The same tutor can hold two rates at once, a lower one for younger students and a higher one for exam years, and most do.

Typical rate brackets by level

These are cautious brackets seen across France. They move with the region, the subject and the tutor's experience, but they give a realistic starting point:

On average, a private lesson is billed between €15 and €60 an hour in France. Level explains much of that spread; subject and location explain the rest.

To set your base price before adjusting it by level, see our guide on how much to charge for private lessons.

What matters as much as the level

The level sets the bracket, but four things decide where you sit inside it:

• The subject. Maths, physics and philosophy in the final year often pay more than low-demand subjects.
• Your profile. A degree, the agrégation or years of experience justify the top of the bracket.
• The area. Big cities, Paris first, pull prices up; a small town pulls them down.
• The format. An at-home lesson includes your travel; an online lesson saves that time and sometimes bills a little less.

The tax credit changes the real price

For a lesson given at the family's home, the family gets half of what it pays back. The French services-à-la-personne tax credit is 50% of the expense, capped at €12,000 per year, a maximum benefit of €6,000, raised by €1,500 per dependent child without passing €15,000. Academic support given at home qualifies.

In practice, a lesson priced at €30 an hour costs the family €15 after the tax credit. Put another way, the real price the parent pays is half the sticker price, which is worth saying out loud when you announce your rates.

One limit: online-only lessons usually do not qualify for this credit, which covers services delivered at the home. Kadrella does not produce tax certificates; to hand one to your families in January, use the free tax certificate generator.

How to set your own rate

1. Start from the bracket for your main level.
2. Adjust for subject, experience and area.
3. Think in net terms: after social contributions and costs, the sticker rate is not what you keep.
4. Review your prices once a year, ideally at the start of the school year.

A clear rate card, one line per level, saves you from inventing a number on the phone and makes a rate rise easier to explain later.

Once the rate is set, the hard part is applying it to every lesson and tracking who has paid. That is the work Kadrella handles: the invoice goes out after the lesson at the right rate, and the payment reconciles itself against your bank statement. See Kadrella pricing to start for free.

Sources

• Tax credit for employing a home-based worker - service-public.gouv.fr
• Emploi à domicile - impots.gouv.fr
• Comment bénéficier du crédit d'impôt pour l'emploi d'un salarié à domicile - impots.gouv.fr