George’s Intro
A sensible yoga class price should cover your costs, value all your working time and survive contact with real attendance.
I’m George, a BWY yoga teacher, creator of the Online Yoga Lesson Planner, yoga card deck maker and enthusiastic sticky-note doodler.
There is a traditional pricing method used by many new yoga teachers. Look at three nearby classes, become mildly confused, choose the middle number and hope nobody asks how you arrived at it. It is less a pricing strategy and more financial pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.
The free Yoga Class Pricing Calculator gives you a clearer starting point. It uses the costs and time behind your class, the pay you want, the number of students who are likely to attend and a modest profit buffer.
Jump to the free pricing calculator ↓
8 Steps To Discover How Much To Charge For Your Yoga Class
Work through the decisions in order.
The first six steps gather honest inputs. Step seven does the arithmetic. Step eight checks whether the calculated price makes sense in the real world.
On This Page
1. Why Copying Another Yoga Teacher’s Price Does Not Work
Another teacher’s price tells you about the market, not what your class needs to earn.
She might own her studio. You might pay £35 every time you unlock the village hall. She might teach twenty students. You might keep your class to eight because you enjoy knowing everybody’s name and noticing when Derek’s left shoulder has quietly migrated towards his ear.
She might live two minutes from the venue. You might spend forty minutes travelling, fifteen minutes arranging mats and another twenty minutes replying to messages asking, “Do I need to be able to touch my toes?”
Competitor prices still matter. Business Wales recommends considering the cost of providing a service, the market, competitors and the value offered. Use nearby prices as a reality check after you understand your own figures.
2. Add Up Your Cash Costs
List every cash cost connected with running one class.
- Venue hire
- Travel and parking
- Equipment, cleaning and consumables
- Booking and payment fees
- A fair per-class share of marketing and administration
- Any other direct class cost
Do not leave out small costs because they look harmless on their own. Small costs have a habit of forming a committee.
If venue hire makes the calculation uncomfortable, try these ideas for finding a free or low-cost yoga class venue.
3. Count All Your Working Time
Count the invisible work around the class.
You plan the sequence, travel, open the venue, arrange equipment, welcome students, teach, pack away, take payments and answer messages. The calculator separates teaching time from preparation, travel and administration.
Unpaid work is still work. It does not become leisure merely because you completed it while drinking tea.
The Online Yoga Lesson Planner can shorten some preparation, but the time you genuinely spend running the class should still be counted.
4. Choose Your Target Hourly Pay
Decide what each hour of your work should earn.
Your target hourly pay covers teaching and the invisible hours around it. It is separate from venue hire and other business costs.
In the calculator’s example, two hours of total work at £30 per hour creates £60 of time pay. If you would not cheerfully work for £8 an hour in somebody else’s business, your own business should not be allowed to sneak that arrangement past you while wearing leggings.
5. Use a Realistic Number of Paying Students
Use likely average attendance, not the room’s maximum capacity.
A hall might hold twelve people. If your class normally attracts eight paying students, calculate the price using eight. Pricing around twelve imaginary students produces very encouraging figures and rather less encouraging bank statements.
To improve the real number, see my marketing guide for new yoga teachers and these ten yoga marketing tactics.
6. Add a Profit Buffer
Add a modest cushion after costs and time pay.
A business needs room for an unexpectedly quiet week, a replacement prop and future improvements. The calculator starts with a 10% profit buffer, but the yellow input cell is editable.
This buffer is not your wage. Your target hourly pay compensates you for working. The buffer belongs to the business.
7. Calculate and Round the Price
Do the arithmetic in the same order every time.
The example in the calculator uses £39 in cash costs, two hours of work at £30 per hour, a 10% profit buffer and eight paying students.
A £14 Worked Example
Here is the calculation one line at a time:
- Costs + time pay: £39 + £60 = £99
- Add the 10% buffer: £99 × 1.10 = £108.90 required class revenue
- Divide by eight students: £108.90 ÷ 8 = £13.61 per student
- Round up to the nearest 50p: £14 per student
The rounded result is a useful starting point instead of £13.6125. Students tend to become suspicious when asked to bring four decimal places.
Download the Yoga Class Pricing Calculator
Use the Excel version or the LibreOffice version.
Choose Your Calculator
Both files contain the same one-sheet calculator and worked example. Change the pale-yellow input cells and the calculation updates automatically.
One editable worksheet · Automatic suggested price · No email required
8. Check the Price Against the Real World
The spreadsheet does not get the final vote.
- Check the local market. Compare genuinely similar classes without blindly copying them.
- Check the value of your offer. Experience, specialist knowledge, individual attention, venue quality and a well-structured class all affect value.
- Check the numbers regularly. Venue hire, fees, travel costs and attendance change. Reopen the calculator whenever something material changes.
The calculated £14 might become a final price of £13.50, £14 or £15 after these checks. That is fine. You are now making an informed decision instead of borrowing Sandra’s number and hoping her spreadsheet has excellent karma.
Pricing Sources
Business Wales: Costs, Price and ValueWhy cost, market, competitors and customer value all matter.
Business Wales: Understanding CostsWhy a price needs to cover costs and leave a profit.
George’s Conclusion
A good class price is not copied, guessed or discovered during Savasana. It is built from honest costs, honest time and honest attendance, then checked against the market and the value you provide.
Use the calculator, test the result and review it when your costs or attendance change. Sandra can remain a perfectly lovely yoga teacher without being put in charge of your spreadsheet.
