Teachable review 2026: fees, payouts and who it suits

Teachable’s $39 Starter plan takes 7.5% of every sale, so on $1,000 of $10 course sales you keep about $827 after processing and the plan. Move to the $89 Builder plan and the fee drops to 0%, which leaves about $852 on the same sales. That makes Starter the wrong plan for anyone selling more than about $667 a month, and Builder one of the better deals among course platforms.

How much does Teachable take?

Teachable takes 7.5% on the Starter plan and 0% on Builder, Growth and Custom as of October 2026. Card processing is separate, and through Teachable Payments it costs 2.9% + $0.30 per US card.

Teachable’s fee guide says the Starter fee applies to all sales, including schools that connect their own Stripe account through a custom payment gateway.

Teachable Payments charges a base card rate plus bundle fees. Every school starts on the Standard bundle, which adds 0.5% to sales where tax is assessed and 0.7% to recurring subscription charges. The optional Go Global bundle adds 2.8% to all transactions, waives those two fees and adds author and affiliate payouts, more than 35 local payment methods and Adaptive Pricing.

Teachable’s pricing page still shows international cards at 3.9% + $0.30 and PayPal at 3.49% + $0.49 for US payments. The September 2026 fee guide lists 4.4% + $0.30 for international cards, so check your dashboard before pricing for a foreign audience.

Here is the arithmetic on published fees for 100 one-time sales of a $10 course on Starter. Teachable takes $75. Processing takes $59. The plan costs $39. You keep $827. On Builder the same month leaves $852, because the $50 higher price is smaller than the $75 fee it removes. The two plans cost the same at about $667 a month in sales.

How do Teachable payouts work?

Teachable Payments pays out daily, about 2 business days after each sale, straight to your bank. A Tuesday sale pays out on Thursday, and a Friday sale pays out the following Tuesday.

Teachable Payments replaced teachable:pay during 2026. It runs on Stripe, settles in your local currency in 41 supported countries and charges creators no foreign exchange fee, because Adaptive Pricing passes conversion costs to the buyer. Teachable said it would move teachable:pay schools over in waves through the third quarter of 2026.

The bigger change is the reserve. Teachable:pay held a standard 10% of earnings for 45 days to cover refunds. Teachable Payments holds no reserve. Refunds and disputes now come out of your Teachable Payments balance, and if that balance is short, Teachable debits your bank account.

There are a few waits to plan for. New accounts can take 4 to 6 weeks to receive a first payout while Stripe verifies them. Teachable holds payouts once earnings pass $500 until the required tax forms are filed. After a payout leaves, banks take another 1 to 2 business days.

Schools still on the old teachable:pay terms could pick daily payouts, weekly payouts every Thursday, or monthly payouts on the first business day of the month. The legacy Monthly Payment Gateway, which pays once a month, is closed to new schools, and existing sales on it keep their old terms. Schools on a custom payment gateway are paid by Stripe directly on their own schedule.

How do you make money on Teachable?

Teachable sells courses, coaching, digital downloads and memberships on every plan, and communities from Builder up. There are no audience thresholds. Any school in a supported country can sell once Teachable Payments is set up.

Starter includes AI course creation tools, iOS and Android student apps, upsells, cart recovery and global payments and taxes. Builder adds an affiliate program and real-time support. Growth adds course certificates, imported students, custom admin permissions, free subtitles and translations, and removes Teachable branding.

Teachable Payments supports one-time prices, subscriptions and payment plans. Teachable says it calculates, collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST on every sale across more than 45 countries, and it now issues a tax-compliant PDF invoice for every transaction.

The 2026 switch removed a few sales tools. Post-purchase and thank-you page upsells, gifting and the student referral program are gone, while checkout upsells rose from 3 to 10.

Who is Teachable best for?

Teachable is best for course creators selling more than about $700 a month who want a dedicated course host without Kajabi’s price. Builder at $89 gives the same 0% fee as Kajabi’s $179 Basic plan, and the same 2.9% + $0.30 card rate.

Starter only makes sense while you are testing an idea with small sales. Once sales pass about $667 a month, the 7.5% fee costs more than the upgrade to Builder.

Skip Teachable if you mainly sell one or two downloads, because the product caps and monthly fee buy course features you will not use. Skip it too if you sell mostly subscriptions to a non-US audience, where the 0.7% subscription fee and higher international card rate add up.

Teachable alternatives

Kajabi bundles email, website and community tools but starts at $179 a month. Our Kajabi vs Teachable comparison sets them side by side.

Podia costs $49 a month with a 5% fee on its entry plan and includes a website, email and community.

Payhip is free to start with a 5% fee and suits creators selling downloads alongside a small course. See our best platforms for educators for a ranked list.