The Online Course Pricing Calculator computes the optimal price per student needed to hit a target net revenue, accounting for production cost (your time and tools), expected enrollment, and platform fee (varies dramatically: Teachable 10%, Udemy 50–63% on platform-driven sales, Kajabi 0% beyond subscription, Gumroad 10%, Thinkific 0% on annual plans, self-hosted via WordPress essentially 0% but adds technical overhead). Formula: Gross Needed = (Target Revenue + Production Cost) ÷ (1 − Platform Fee%); Price per Student = Gross Needed ÷ Expected Students.
Production cost includes: your hours invested at fair hourly rate (typical course takes 80–200 hours total to produce), video equipment ($500–3,000 for camera + microphone + lighting), software (Camtasia, ScreenFlow, Adobe $50–100/month), course platform setup time, and any contractor work (video editing $30–60/hour, graphic design $50–80/hour). Most first courses understate this — a 'hobby' course that consumes 200 hours of your time at fair $50/hour is $10,000 in opportunity cost, not free.
Expected enrollment is the hardest variable. Indie creators with small email lists (under 5,000) typically convert 0.5–2% to paid course = 25–100 sales at typical pricing. Established creators (50,000+ list, podcast, YouTube channel) can hit 5–10% conversion = 2,500–5,000 sales. Marketplace platforms (Udemy) drive students automatically but at deep discounts ($10–30 per course) and high platform fee. Self-promoted via your audience: smaller scale but premium pricing ($100–500) and full revenue retention.
Pricing strategy: most successful indie courses price $200–600 sweet spot — high enough to feel valuable and serious, low enough to skip enterprise sales process. Premium ($1,000–3,000) requires established creator brand or specialized professional content. Cohort courses (live group experience like Maven, Wes Kao) command $500–3,000 vs evergreen self-paced ($100–500). Charge by value created, not hours: a course teaching $50k salary increase has different value than a hobby course. Strong launches use limited-time enrollment with founder-discount tier to create urgency.
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