How Much Does Teachable Actually Take Per Course Sale?

Quick answer

Teachable Starter charges 7.5% + processing (~10.4% + $0.30 all-in). Builder ($69/month annual) has 0% transaction fees and breaks even at $533/month in sales — above that, it saves you money.

Teachable looks simple on the surface. Pick a plan, build your course, sell it. But the fee structure has three separate layers that stack on top of each other — and most creators only discover the full picture after their first payout lands short.

Here's every fee, every hidden cost, and the exact math on what you actually keep.

What Are Teachable's Three Fee Layers?

Teachable charges a platform transaction fee, a payment processing fee, and hidden surcharges that stack on every sale. Starter plan creators pay all three layers simultaneously, while Builder and above eliminate the platform fee entirely — but processing and surcharges still apply to every transaction.

Most articles about Teachable fees talk about the platform transaction fee and stop there. But there are actually three separate costs hitting every sale.

Layer one is the Teachable platform fee — only applies on the Starter plan at 7.5% of every sale. Builder, Growth and Advanced have zero platform fees.

Layer two is payment processing — Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 on every transaction regardless of which plan you're on. PayPal charges 3.49% plus a fixed fee. These go directly to the payment processor, not Teachable, but they come out of your payout either way.

Layer three is the hidden fees nobody puts on the pricing page — a 1% international card surcharge on top of standard processing for cards issued outside the US, a $15 chargeback fee per dispute regardless of outcome, and a 2% integration fee if you connect your own Stripe account instead of using Teachable's built-in teachable:pay system.

On Starter, all three layers stack. On Builder and above, only layers two and three apply.

At What Revenue Does Teachable Builder Break Even?

Teachable Builder breaks even at approximately $533 per month in course sales when billed annually. Below that threshold, Starter's lower subscription cost wins despite the 7.5% fee. Above it, every additional dollar sold on Starter costs you more than the Builder upgrade would.

This is the number that actually matters. Starter costs $39 per month on monthly billing, $29 on annual. Builder costs $89 per month on monthly billing, $69 on annual. The difference on annual billing is $40 per month.

At 7.5% platform fee, you hit that $40 threshold at roughly $533 in monthly revenue. Every dollar above $533 per month means Starter is costing you more than Builder would.

At $1,000 per month you're paying $75 in Teachable fees on Starter. Builder would cost $40 more in subscription but save you $75 in fees — a net saving of $35 every single month.

At $2,000 per month the Starter fee alone is $150. You're paying $110 more than Builder costs. At $5,000 per month you're losing $375 in fees that Builder eliminates entirely.

Use the calculator below to see your exact numbers.

What Is Teachable's Hidden International Fee?

Teachable adds a 1% surcharge on top of standard Stripe processing for any card issued outside the United States. This raises the per-transaction processing cost from 2.9% + $0.30 to 3.9% + $0.30 — and it applies on every plan regardless of tier.

If any of your students pay with a card issued outside the US, you're paying an extra 1% processing fee on that transaction. That's 3.9% plus $0.30 instead of 2.9% plus $0.30.

This isn't on Teachable's pricing page. It's buried in the payment processing documentation.

For creators with global audiences — UK students, Australian buyers, Canadian customers — this adds up silently. A course doing $3,000 per month with 40% international buyers is losing an extra $12 per month in fees nobody warned you about.

Why Is Teachable's Custom Gateway a Trap?

Connecting your own Stripe account to Teachable adds a 2% integration fee per transaction on top of all other costs. You also lose automatic tax handling, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Buy Now Pay Later support — making it more expensive and less capable than the default teachable:pay system.

Teachable lets you connect your own Stripe account instead of using their built-in teachable:pay system. Sounds appealing — full control, your own Stripe dashboard. But it costs you a 2% integration fee per transaction on top of everything else. US creators only.

What you also lose by going custom gateway: automatic tax handling, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Buy Now Pay Later. For most creators the teachable:pay system is the better deal unless you have a very specific reason to need your own Stripe account.

How Does Teachable Handle Refund Fees?

Teachable returns all transaction fees to you when a sale is fully refunded — the refunded course costs you nothing in fees. This is meaningfully more creator-friendly than platforms like Gumroad, which keep their platform fee even after you issue a full refund to the student.

Unlike Gumroad, which keeps all platform fees when you issue a refund, Teachable explicitly returns transaction fees to you on refunds. A fully refunded sale costs you nothing in fees.

This is one of the genuinely creator-friendly policies in the space and worth knowing before you compare platforms.

What Does $5,000 per Month Look Like on Teachable?

At $5,000 per month on the Starter plan selling a $99 course, Teachable's combined fees total $533.50 — leaving you with $4,466.50 at a 10.7% effective rate. Upgrading to Builder drops total fees to $227.50 and saves you over $300 every month at this volume.

Say you sell a $99 course and hit $5,000 in gross revenue this month — about 50 transactions, on the Starter plan.

• Gross revenue: $5,000
• Platform fee (7.5%): $375
• Processing (2.9% + $0.30 per tx): 50 × $3.17 = $158.50
• Total fees: $533.50
• You keep: $4,466.50
• Effective rate: 10.7%

On the Builder plan ($69/month), the 7.5% platform fee drops to 0% — total fees fall to $227.50 and your effective rate drops to 4.6%. At $5,000/month, Starter costs you $306 more than Builder every month, while Builder's $69 subscription pays for itself five times over.

What If You Sell on Teachable and Other Platforms?

When we built Owelet's Teachable integration, we found that Teachable is one of the few platforms that returns processing fees to the creator on refunds — most platforms keep the processing fee even when you refund the customer. This makes Teachable's real effective rate slightly better than the headline numbers suggest for creators with any refund volume.

If you sell on Teachable alongside Stripe, Gumroad, or Patreon, each platform reports its own gross figure separately. None of them show your combined net after all fees are subtracted — meaning your actual take-home across everything is invisible unless you calculate it manually or use a dedicated tracker.

Most Teachable creators also sell on Stripe, Gumroad, or Patreon. Each platform shows you its own gross, not your net. None of them show you your combined net across everything after all fees are subtracted. For a side-by-side of what every platform keeps on the same sale, see best platform for digital products 2026.

That's what Owelet does. Connect all your platforms and see your real net income, fee breakdown per platform, and monthly burn in one place. Free to start at owelet.app — the financial dashboard that shows your real course income after every fee.

See also: the hidden fees most course platform sellers never calculate →

Try the Teachable fee calculator → to see your exact take-home on any course sale.

See how Teachable's real effective rate compares to all nine creator platforms →

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