How to use the course pricing calculator

This course pricing calculator is a simple and effective tool to help you figure out how to price your online course based on your income goals, course creation costs, and audience size. Below, we’ll walk through the process step-by-step, helping you input the right information and get the most accurate price for your course.

We’ll also share some real-life examples to show how different inputs—like income goals and conversion rates—affect your pricing strategy.

What is a course income goal?

Your course income goal is the amount of money you want to earn from selling your course. It’s the profit you want after covering all costs. This number can depend on many factors—whether it’s a part-time income or you want to make a full-time living from your course.

Let’s say you want to make $10,000 from your course. That’s your income goal. You’ll enter this number into the calculator to help figure out the right price for your course.

Some tips:

• A good starting point for many online course creators is to aim for $5,000 to $15,000 in revenue from their first course.
• Think about how much time and effort you’re putting into this project. Are you doing this as a side hustle, or do you want this to be your main source of income?

What is course creation cost?

This is the total amount you spend to create and launch your course. It includes everything from hiring a designer for course materials to paying for marketing and webinar software.

If you’re using platforms like Teachable or Kajabi, those subscriptions should be part of your creation cost too.

Example of course creation cost:

Let’s say you spend:

• $500 on recording equipment
• $300 on design work for your slides and materials
• $200 on ads for Facebook or Instagram to promote your courseYour total course creation cost would be $1,000.

Tips for lowering course creation costs:

• You can start with free tools or less expensive software if you’re on a tight budget.
• Platforms like Canva offer free designs, and you can record course videos with a smartphone.

Now, your goal is to make sure that when you sell your course, you make back this creation cost and meet your income goal.

What is audience size?

Your audience size is the number of people you can reach with your course promotion. This includes your email list, social media followers, or people attending your webinars.

If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about having thousands of people on your list. You can always grow your audience with time.

If you have:

• 500 people on your email list
• 300 Instagram followers
• 200 attendees in your webinars

Your audience size would be 1,000 people. Enter this number into the calculator to estimate how many of these people will actually purchase your course.

You don’t need a massive audience to succeed. With a solid marketing plan, even a small, targeted audience can generate a good number of sales.

What is an expected conversion rate?

The conversion rate is the percentage of people from your audience who will buy your course. Not everyone who sees your promotion will buy your course, and that’s normal.

A good conversion rate is typically around 1% to 5%, depending on how warm your audience is. If you’re getting traffic from paid ads like Facebook or Instagram, the conversion rate might be lower because people are less familiar with you.

• If you have 1,000 people in your audience and expect a conversion rate of 2%, you can expect 20 people to purchase your course.
• If your course price is $200, those 20 sales would generate $4,000 in revenue.

• Run webinars to engage directly with your audience.
• Offer discounts or limited-time bonuses to encourage quick action.
• Focus on nurturing relationships with your audience through email and social media to build trust.

What is cost per sale?

Cost per sale includes any extra costs you have to pay every time you sell a course. This could include Facebook ads, payment processing fees (like Stripe or PayPal), or affiliate commissions if you’re working with influencers to promote your course.

Let’s say you’re spending:

• $20 per sale on Facebook ads
• $3 per sale in payment fees

Your total cost per sale would be $23.

How to estimate cost per sale:

• If you’re running Facebook ads, start with small test campaigns. Track how much you’re spending and how many people buy your course from the ads.
• If you’re paying affiliates, the industry standard is about 10-30% of the course price per sale.

Once you know your cost per sale, you can add this into the calculator, and it will be factored into the course price.

How it all works together?

The course pricing calculator adds up your income goal and course creation cost. It then divides this total by your expected number of sales, which is based on your audience size and conversion rate.

Here’s how the calculation works:

Add your income goal and course creation cost together. This gives you the total revenue you need from your course.

Example:

• Income goal: $5,000
• Creation cost: $1,000

Total = $6,000

Estimate the number of sales by multiplying your audience size by the conversion rate.

Example:

• Audience size: 1,000 people
• Conversion rate: 2%
• Sales = 1,000 × 0.02 = 20 sales

Now, divide the total revenue by the expected number of sales.

Example:

• Total needed: $6,000
• Sales: 20
• Price per course = $6,000 ÷ 20 = $300 per course

Finally, factor in your cost per sale to make sure each sale covers the cost of ads or transaction fees. Add this to the price per course for the final figure.

Real-life benefits of using the course pricing calculator

• Accurate pricing: This tool ensures you won’t underprice your course and will still cover all your costs, including marketing and sales expenses.
• Goal-oriented planning: You’ll know exactly how many sales you need to meet your income goals, giving you clear targets for your marketing and outreach efforts.
• Optimizing conversion: By entering different conversion rates, you can experiment with pricing scenarios to see how changes in your audience or marketing strategy impact your revenue.

Final thoughts

Setting the right price for your course doesn’t have to be complicated. With the course pricing calculator, you can confidently price your course to ensure it covers your costs, meets your income goals, and provides value to your audience.

Whether you’re promoting your course through Facebook ads, running webinars, or using email marketing, the tool helps you make informed decisions based on real numbers.

Start by entering your details, adjust the inputs, and find the perfect course price today!

This revised content structure with H2 and H3 headings, using sentence case, will improve SEO and readability while being engaging for the audience. It ensures users understand both the technical aspects of entering data and the benefits of using the calculator.