If you want to expand your offering as a trainer or coach with online courses or build it entirely around e-learnings, you will quickly start thinking about pricing. In this article, you'll learn which aspects you should take into account.
Cash, Bucks & Cents
Determining the price for a service is a difficult undertaking and causes a lot of frowning among freelancers of every kind: "How much do I need to charge to cover my effort appropriately? How high can the price be if I want to hold my own in the market? How much are potential customers willing to pay for my expertise and performance?"
We at blink.it are very often asked what price can be charged for an online course. Of course, we cannot give a blanket answer in the form of concrete figures, but after years of working with countless trainers and coaches from a wide variety of disciplines, we have collected a few ideas in this article that can help you with pricing.
Situation 1: You sell pure online courses
You offer digital courses via your website or your learning platform, such as blink.it, that are self-contained, and your only accompanying activity is answering course participants' questions. For price X, the customer receives access to the course and is then largely left to their own devices.
When it comes to pricing, anything from 0 to 1,000 euros or more is of course possible, but in market terms it will probably be somewhere between 20 and 200 euros.
When calculating your prices, you should take these 4 factors into account:
Scope of the course: How many learning units does the course have? How much effort does designing the material take? How long does the course take for participants?
Quality of the content: How much time did the research take? Where, how, and over what period was the expertise acquired?
Topic: How current is the topic? How important is the topic? How often or rarely is the topic covered?
Costs: How high are the costs for content creation, advertising, the learning platform, and payment processing?
There are also 2 psychological aspects that influence your course price:
Status as a trainer/coach: How recognized, well-known, and experienced are you as an expert in your field? Are you already "known," are you considered a leading authority in your area, are you an enthusiastic amateur, or even a complete newcomer?
Willingness to buy: Who is the target group for your courses? How much is the target group willing to pay for your courses? What value does your course have for your target group? Are you targeting private individuals who pay for the course out of their own pocket, or businesses and companies that can deduct the course costs for tax purposes?
You can determine the price for the above factors based on an hourly rate that you imagine or want as income. However, the two psychological aspects determine how realistic the final course price will be, meaning: will the target group actually buy your course at this price?
Tip 1: Put yourself in your target group's shoes and figure out how much you yourself would be willing to pay for your course. Also ask friends and acquaintances who meet your target group criteria.
Tip 2: Prices for online courses are generally publicly visible. Research the prices of other trainers and coaches and browse platforms that specialize in selling e-learnings. That way you can get an idea of what the current market has to offer.
Always remember: You want to generate revenue or income with your online courses, so you should be absolutely clear about your actual market value as a trainer or coach. Setting a fancy imaginary price does you no good if you're then left holding the bag.
Situation 2: You offer blended learning
You want to expand your existing in-person offering with online support as a trainer or coach: In the form of blended learning, you combine classic workshops, coaching sessions, or seminars with the many advantages of flexibly completed e-learnings.
How you calculate the price for the online portion of your blended learning can be found in the above Situation 1. You should also decide in what form you design your blended learning:
Springer principle: alternating several in-person and digital units
Heron principle: several in-person units followed by a final online course
Sandwich principle: start with an in-person unit at the beginning, an online course in the middle, and a final in-person unit at the end
3 pricing models for blended learning
1. Daily rate as a basis
Most trainers and coaches work with their own daily rate. This is a good starting point for explaining to the customer an additional charge for the extra online course: depending on how large the online course share is in the overall coaching or training, you add a percentage to your daily rate that reflects your extra effort and the additional costs for the online course.
2. Replace in-person with online
With this model, the price stays the same because you reduce your in-person offering and replace it with online units. This has a certain appeal for your customer because they can pay the usual price but receive a new, modern, and flexible course offering that they can conveniently complete via a learning platform like blink.it. Of course, this only works if you can sensibly replace some in-person units with e-learning in your blended learning.
3. In-person "on top"
The third model is especially interesting for trainers and coaches who are already well established in their market and can sell themselves confidently. Here you offer your customer an individual package: for example, a fixed price per online course, and from 10 online courses onward, one in-person day with you is included for free.
The advantage of pricing blended learning compared with pure online courses is that you can make your customers an individual offer. You decide flexibly which course model is best for you, your customer, and the course topic, and which pricing structure is most likely to be accepted by your customer or target group.
Situation 3: You are an e-learning beginner
You are either completely new to the world of training and want to offer e-learnings right away, or you are already established as a trainer and want additional passive income through online courses. Your lack of experience with digital education triggers a voice in your head that whispers: "Are my courses really any good? Do I understand enough about didactics to build them properly? Shouldn't I offer my courses really cheaply at first? Or even for free and see what happens?"
We have a few arguments to counter these doubts:
No matter what service you want to sell: you need a certain amount of confidence in the quality of your work in order to succeed as a freelancer. Anyone who is not sure of themselves will project that too, and customers pick up on it unconsciously and respond by not trusting the offer. So: if you doubt the quality of your work, you should first work on your mindset before entering the marketplace.
Everyone is only cooking with water: Who knows whether the online courses of other trainers and coaches are really as perfectly polished didactically as all that. Focus on your knowledge, your experience, and your performance, and be willing to take criticism of your work from time to time. In the end, you can only learn from it and improve.
Beware of beginner prices or special offers: Once the low price is there, you won't be able to raise it anymore. Your potential customers probably don't know that you're a beginner and assume that the low price for your online course is appropriate and in line with the market. If you want to raise it later, once you no longer see yourself as a beginner, your customers won't understand and will leave.
Warning: dumping! Remember that your prices should be in line with the market, so as not to cause general dumping: low prices are also noticed by other providers in your industry, who may then be forced to lower their prices as well if it turns out that you are stealing customers from them with your cheap offer. In the long run, you are only cutting your own throat.
What costs nothing is worth nothing: That is at least how free offers are often perceived. The potential customers of your online courses want good performance from you right from the start and will not give you a head start of goodwill just because you are only starting this business. Your courses should be about teaching the learning content sustainably. If you don't set a price for that, it quickly gives the impression that there is no real learning transfer at all and that participation in the course is probably a complete waste of time. But: you can of course offer a free course as advertising - but you should make it clear that it is a limited-time promotion and that the course normally has a certain price.
Conclusion: We wish you every success!
Anyone who calculates the price of their online course strategically instead of setting it on the fly lays the foundation for a sustainable and economically stable business model.
Pricing is not an annoying side issue, but a central part of your offering. Whether it is a pure online course, blended learning, or an entry into the digital world: your price must fit your effort, your target group, and your positioning.
What matters is that you take both economic factors and psychological aspects into account. Market prices can provide orientation, but what ultimately matters is the specific value your offer has for your target group and how you communicate that value.
If you set your prices consciously and review them regularly, you create security for yourself and clarity for your customers. That is exactly what creates long-term success with digital course offerings.
Frequently asked questions and answers
How do I calculate the price for an online course?
The price of an online course should be derived from effort, costs, target group, and perceived benefit. Take into account content creation, your working time, platform costs, marketing, and support. In addition, you should check what value your course has for the target group and whether the price is understandable in the market.
Which factors influence the price of an online course?
Important factors are scope, quality of the content, topic, target group, cost structure, and your status as a trainer or coach. The target group's willingness to buy also plays a major role. A course for private individuals is often priced differently than an offer for companies or professional development.
How does pricing differ in blended learning?
In blended learning, the online portion is combined with in-person or live elements. This means the price can be calculated on the basis of a daily rate, an additional surcharge, or an individual package. The personal support increases the perceived value and should be taken into account in pricing.
Why are very low introductory prices for online courses problematic?
Very low prices can weaken the perceived value of your course and are difficult to increase later. Customers quickly get used to a low price and perceive it as in line with the market. Therefore, even an introductory price should be calculated deliberately and not set too low out of uncertainty.
Updated on 26.02.2026
