Which Learning Platform Pays the Most? Real Numbers and Surprises

Trying to figure out which online learning platform pays the most can feel like looking for snacks in a dark kitchen—every site makes a lot of noise, but the real money is often stashed where you least expect it. Let's cut straight to what matters: how much cash actually lands in your bank account.

If you're a teacher, freelancer, or just someone with a skill to share, you’ve probably heard names like Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, and Coursera thrown around. The thing is, their payment models are wildly different. Some pay per signup, others pay per minute watched, and a few let you set your own prices—so your take-home pay changes a lot depending on how you teach and who signs up.

It’s not just about big brands, either. What really matters is how your content fits with a platform's rules. Want to be hands-off and just upload your lessons? Cool, but you'll probably split your earnings with the house. Prefer controlling everything from pricing to emails? There’s a platform for that too, but it takes more work.

We'll dig into the biggest platforms, real numbers from instructors, sneaky fees, and smart ways to earn more. Forget guessing. You’ll see which e-learning site actually pays the most—without hiding behind fuzzy math or too-good-to-be-true promises.

• The Big Players: Who’s Competing for Your Courses?
• Breaking Down the Money: How Do Payments Work?
• Highest Earning Potential: Real Instructor Case Studies
• Hidden Costs and Surprises
• Tips for Maximizing Your Earnings
• Which Platform Should You Pick? Pros and Cons

The Big Players: Who’s Competing for Your Courses?

If you’re serious about making cash from online teaching, you really need to know who’s at the top of the e-learning game right now. Some platforms work a lot like marketplaces, blasting your course out to tons of people, while others put you in total control, almost like running your own little online school.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the giants you’re likely to bump into:

• Udemy: Probably the first name that pops up when people think “online courses.” Udemy is huge, with over 70,000 instructors and 200 million enrollments globally as of 2025. Here, you upload your course, set the basic details, and Udemy handles the marketing—though they decide the discounts and prices more than you do.
• Skillshare: If you’re into creative skills—think design, photography, or writing—Skillshare is massive. They have a subscription model, so students pay monthly and instructors earn based on watch time. Skillshare is stronger in the US, UK, and Canada, but is catching on in more countries.
• Teachable: This one is all about control. You build your own branded school, set prices, and keep a bigger piece of every sale, but you do your own promotion. Teachable is super popular with folks who already have an audience, like bloggers or YouTubers.
• Coursera and edX: These focus on academic and professional learning, often in partnership with universities. If you’ve got the right credentials and want your course alongside real college classes, these two are worth a look. They’re much harder to break into unless you’re working directly with an institution.

There are others—Thinkific, LinkedIn Learning, Podia—but the big four above usually come up in every conversation about learning platform earnings. Each one has its own crowd and payment style, which totally changes how much you can make. Knowing where your skills fit is half the battle. Pick carefully, and you set yourself up for the best shot at some serious payout.

Breaking Down the Money: How Do Payments Work?

Here’s where things get real. Every platform has its own way of paying out—some people love the simplicity, others hate the fine print. Let’s break down the payment rules for the biggest names in the game so you can keep more of what you earn.

First, you’ve got platforms like Udemy. They look attractive but take a big chunk of your sales: Udemy keeps a 63% cut if a student finds your course through their ads or website, and you keep 97% if the sale comes through your own coupon link. Payouts land in your bank or PayPal monthly, once you’ve cleared their 30-day guarantee window. Average course prices sit around $13-20 thanks to constant discounting, so high volume matters.

Skillshare plays it differently. You get paid a piece of Skillshare’s monthly membership pool. The more minutes students watch your courses, the bigger your slice. It sounds fair, but unless your classes are binge-worthy, the money can feel low. In 2025, the average instructor with a couple of solid classes makes about $200–$500/month, but top teachers with viral lessons can earn thousands.

Then there’s Teachable. This is for folks who want maximum control. You set the price, design the course, and Teachable just handles the checkout and hosting. They take a small fee (and payment fee) per sale, but all the marketing is up to you. If you’ve built up your own audience, the sky’s the limit. Some creators clear five or six figures a year here. But if nobody knows you? It’s crickets.

Coursera and edX are more academic. These usually work with universities, so individuals can’t just upload a class and start making money. You’d have to be hired by a partner institution to get paid—usually by salary or a per-course contract.

Here’s a quick look at the typical payment breakdowns in 2025:

What catches newbies off guard? Those platform cuts sneak up fast and can eat into your dreams of passive income. If you don’t have your own audience, you’re tied to what the platform hands you.

• Read all payout details before choosing where to host your course—do the math for average enrollments and refunds.
• Watch for minimum payout thresholds and payout delays. Not every platform sends cash instantly.
• If building a personal brand, platforms like Teachable give you more leverage in the long run.

So, when you hear someone bragging about their learning platform earnings, remember the backstage truth: the numbers depend a lot on how you play the system.

Highest Earning Potential: Real Instructor Case Studies

People always ask: How much can you actually make with an online course? The short answer—it’s all over the place. But let’s get specific and look at the real-life stories from teachers who cashed in using the big learning platform names.

On Udemy, a popular coding instructor named Rob Percival has famously earned over $2.8 million since 2014, just by selling beginner-friendly coding courses. Keep in mind, Udemy keeps about 50% of revenue from sales made through their marketplace, but lets you keep up to 97% if students enroll using your personal discount link. The catch: you still need solid sales and good reviews to rank high.

Skillshare pays out based on watch time. In 2024, top teachers like Aaron Palabyab regularly pull in $2,000 to $4,000 each month, mostly from courses in design and photography. Skillshare shares a pool of 30% of their subscription revenue with teachers, and your cut depends on how much of your content gets watched. For new instructors, most monthly payouts start between $100-$300, but if you build a solid audience, it can go way up.

In contrast, Teachable flips the model—here, you own your school and set your price. Instructors like Pat Flynn (from Smart Passive Income) have surpassed $1 million just from their Teachable school—though it’s worth noting that requires a big email list and ongoing marketing. Teachable only takes a small cut if you’re on the Basic plan (5% plus processing fees).

From these stories, it’s clear that if you’ve got an audience and can market yourself, Teachable and similar "self-hosted" sites have the highest ceiling. But if you want a steady flow of users without worrying about promotion, Udemy and Skillshare make it super easy to get started (as long as you’re okay with sharing a chunk of your earnings).

• If you’re starting from scratch, Udemy takes care of marketing and drives traffic, but you’ll share more of the profits.
• If you can bring your own email list or social following, running your own courses on Teachable lets you keep much more.
• Skillshare is perfect for folks who love teaching arts, crafts, and design, where creators routinely get paid for content that stays popular over time.

No matter where you begin, your actual earnings depend on course quality, niche, and how willing you are to promote. But one thing's for sure: there are real people raking in real money—sometimes more than a comfy 9-to-5.

Hidden Costs and Surprises

It’s easy to get caught up in bold payout numbers, but every learning platform has its fine print and costs that can catch you off guard. Some fees are obvious, like platform commissions, but others are sneakier and show up when you least expect them. To really know what you earn, you have to look at the whole money flow, not just the top headline.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the not-so-obvious costs you might run into:

• Revenue splits—On Udemy, you usually keep 37% to 50% of each sale, unless you bring your own students, then it can jump to 97%. Skillshare isn’t even per sale: it’s a royalty pool based on minutes watched, and you split the pot with thousands of instructors.
• Transaction and payout fees—Payment processors (like PayPal or Stripe) typically take another 2-5%. Some platforms charge extra for international transfers.
• Subscription or hosting fees—Teachable, for example, charges a monthly fee starting at $39 (cheaper if billed annually), even if you make $0 in sales one month. Thinkific also charges, with the free tier being pretty bare bones.
• Marketing costs—Platforms like Teachable or Kajabi don’t bring traffic for you. You’ll likely spend on ads or email marketing tools, and those add up fast.
• Refund policies—Udemy offers a 30-day no-questions-asked guarantee. If a student refunds, say goodbye to your payout, even if you already answered their questions.

To see how this plays out in real numbers, check out the side-by-side table for three major sites. These numbers are from instructor reports and official platform FAQs as of early 2025.

Here’s a tip: before picking a learning platform, add up everything you might pay in fees, especially if you don’t already have a following. A platform that looks cheap at first can eat into your profits once those hidden costs stack up.

Tips for Maximizing Your Earnings

So you’re set on making real money from your courses—but here’s where most people trip up. Even on the highest-paying platform, you need some smart moves to really cash in. Here are practical, proven tactics you can use right away.

• Learning platform algorithms push courses that get quick engagement. Get students active early—add a discussion question or a tiny assignment in the first lesson to boost those numbers.
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Many top instructors in 2025 upload their courses on Udemy and Skillshare. According to a survey by Course Creator HQ, 53% of six-figure earners published on at least two platforms.
• Ramp up your profile and course graphics. Eye-catching thumbnails and clear, short promo videos actually double click-through rates compared to generic photos, based on Udemy’s published data.
• Don’t ignore email marketing. Platforms like Teachable let you collect student emails, so you can pitch new courses or private coaching later. It’s free advertising you completely control.
• Run flash sales or bundle offers. Most big platforms let you set discounts. Instructors who joined Udemy’s seasonal sale program saw a 33% jump in monthly payouts, on average, in 2024.
• Stay updated on platform policies—payout percentages and rules do change. In January 2025, Skillshare dropped its royalty share for niche categories while boosting payouts for trending topics like AI and productivity, so agile instructors quickly switched focus and kept earnings steady.

Want the proof in numbers? Here’s a quick breakdown that shows how these tactics can play out by platform:

Bottom line—focus on what you control. Keep your content fresh, promote outside the platform, and always track what students react to. The most successful instructors in 2025 aren’t just great teachers—they’re also smart about how, where, and when they sell their knowledge.

Which Platform Should You Pick? Pros and Cons

So, you’re eyeing the big names and wondering where to sign up. It really comes down to your goals and teaching style. Here’s what you actually need to know to choose the right spot for your learning platform hustle.

• Udemy: Easiest for beginners. You upload your course, set a price, and let their marketing do the heavy lifting. But, Udemy usually takes a 50% cut unless you bring in your own students through coupons (then you keep about 97%). They have lots of traffic, but actually making over $1,000 a month there is rare unless you’re in a hot niche like coding or business skills.
• Skillshare: Pays by the minute watched, not by enrollments. Good if your content keeps people coming back, but payouts can be low if you don’t have lots of students. Skillshare teachers report an average monthly income of $200–$400, but the top ones make $2,000+—usually by pumping out a lot of short, bingeable classes.
• Teachable and Thinkific: Great if you want control. You set your price, own your student data, and keep nearly all your sales after a small fee (Teachable takes about 5% if you’re on the basic plan). The catch? You have to bring in your own audience, because these sites don’t do the marketing for you. Big following = big potential payday. No following? Might be a slow grind.
• Coursera and edX: More for universities and big institutions, but if you get in as a partner or guest instructor, you can earn serious money—sometimes tens of thousands per course launch. But getting in is tough and you basically need academic credentials or to be part of a bigger organization.
• Hotmart and Gumroad: Not exactly course platforms—more like online marketplaces. If you have an email list or an audience, these let you sell courses with little to no cuts taken out. Downside: you’re on your own for everything from refunds to support.

If you want hands-off income, Udemy is the easiest but pays less per student. Want total control and higher profits? Teachable and Thinkific shine, but only if you can do your own marketing. Skillshare fits hustlers willing to crank out lots of quick, engaging content. Coursera is out of reach for most, but huge if you get in. And marketplaces like Gumroad suit creators who play the long game and build their own fanbase.

The smartest move? Try a mix for your first few courses. See what clicks and double down on what fits your skills—don’t just follow the crowd.