Can You Still Make $2000 a Month with VIPKID?

By David Unwin •  Updated: 01/06/23 •  Teach Online

VIPTEACHER (formerly VIPKID) is still in business and a viable option for anyone looking to make a part-time income by teaching online. But can you make $2000 a month with VIPKID like you used to do in the past? Unfortunately, no you can not make $2000 a month now with VIPKID.

The main reason is that it’s now impossible to get enough hours to earn $2000 a month:

vipkid hours

Currently, you can teach two hours a day, every day, with VIPKID if you get fully booked (which you are not guaranteed). This results in 14 hours a week of teaching. For reference, before China’s online teaching ban, you could get 4-6 hours a day of teaching without issue.

You can only teach 14 hours a week max if you teach every single day, which results in 56 hours a month max. A more realistic schedule, however, is to teach four days a week, which is 8 hours a week or 32 hours a month.

Payment per hour

The starting pay is now 7$ an hour for new teachers + incentive pay. The incentive pay kicks in after you teach a certain amount of classes and is also based on your tier. Teachers who’ve been teaching with VIPKID for years and have thousands and thousands of classes have a high tier and higher bonus pay.

But new teachers, your starting tier is tier 1:

vipkid tier
Tier 5 example.

This chart shows how much bonus pay you get once you teach a certain amount of classes. If you teach every day, you’ll teach 28 classes a week, 112 classes a month. This is unrealistic; you should expect to be in the 61-90 class range.

In this range, the average bonus is around $1.70 to $1.80 per class. So, a base pay of $7+ is this incentive pay.

How much money per month can you make with VIPKID?

If you teach a reasonable 32 hours a week and are paid roughly $15 per hour ($7.70 per class, two classes in an hour), you can make around $480-500 a month teaching with VIPKID.

What about referrals?

VIPKID used to have a great referral program where if you referred new teachers and they taught a single class, you would get $100 per referral. Some VIPKID teachers like Nancy Taylor could make $10,000-$50,000 a month simply from referrals.

But VIPKID has done away with the referral program for new teachers and is instead paying out teachers who can drive new students to the platform. You now get $10 when your student referral becomes a paying customer.

At best, the highest-earning teachers earn $300 monthly from student referrals. So if we take our $500 monthly pay and $300 on top, you’re looking at $800 max.

No, you can’t make $2000 a month with VIPKID anymore.

While we still love and highly recommend VIPKID, it’s a different opportunity than it used to be. New teachers can expect to make roughly $14-15 an hour, and at best, you’ll be earning an extra $500 a month. Not bad if you need extra cash, but it’s less lucrative than it used to be.

Instead, we highly suggest you teach on Fiverr or teach on iTalki.

David Unwin

I've taught as an ESL teacher in Thailand for 5+ years at all levels of education, from elementary to University. I was also one of the first 1000 VIPKID teachers. Here I create content on teaching abroad, online and helpful tips for the classroom. Learn more.

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