A private tutor in Australia usually costs between $55 and $85 an hour, and senior specialists for Year 11 and 12 charge $95 to $140 or more. Weekly sessions in one subject from February to the final exams add up to somewhere between $1,650 and $4,200 a year. This guide shows where those numbers come from, what a session actually pays for, and which parts of it you can now get for far less.
We build AusGrader, which does part of what a tutor does, so read this knowing where we stand. We do not sell tutoring, and we say plainly below when a tutor is the right choice. Tutoring prices are quoted from the providers themselves, with the date we checked them.
1. What Tutors Charge
Tutoring has no standard price list, and most large providers no longer publish one. The most specific public figures come from Tutero, an online tutoring company, in its 2026 guide to maths tutoring costs (checked October 2026):
| Type of tutor | Typical hourly rate |
|---|---|
| Unvetted marketplace tutor | Under $55 |
| University student or online provider | $55 to $85 |
| Experienced teacher or ATAR specialist | $95 to $140+ |
| Group session at a tutoring centre | Around $40 per student |
Tutero says online tutoring is usually $10 to $25 an hour cheaper than in person, and charges $65 an hour itself. Cluey Learning, one of the largest online providers, does not list prices: you get a quote after answering questions about your child. Coaching colleges such as Matrix Education sell term courses rather than single hours, and prices vary by subject and campus.
Year 11 and 12 sit at the expensive end. Tutors who know the senior syllabus and the way the exams are marked are in short supply, and they charge for it.
2. What a Year Costs
Hourly rates hide the real number. Year 12 runs from late January to final exams in October and November, so a weekly session during school terms is roughly 30 sessions. Using the rates above, for one subject:
- $55 to $85 an hour: about $1,650 to $2,550 a year
- $95 to $140 an hour: about $2,850 to $4,200 a year
Two subjects doubles it. These are illustrations, not quotes: many families tutor for part of the year, and some add extra sessions before exams.
3. What You Are Paying For
A good Year 12 tutoring session usually does four different jobs. It helps to separate them, because they are not equally hard to replace.
- Explaining content your child has not understood in class.
- Marking practice answers, usually past exam questions, and showing where marks were lost.
- Finding the gaps: working out which topics and which kinds of questions are costing marks, so the time goes where it counts.
- Keeping them on track: a fixed weekly time and someone who expects the work to be done.
In the last months before exams, most of a senior session is jobs 2 and 3. Students generally know the content by then. What they cannot do on their own is mark a written answer the way an exam marker would, or see the pattern in where their marks go. Final exams test exactly that: full written answers, under time pressure, marked against the board's marking guide.
4. The Marking and Feedback, Without the Hourly Rate
AusGrader does jobs 2 and 3. Your child answers real past exam questions from their board (QCAA, VCAA, NESA or SCSA), typed or handwritten and photographed, and gets:
- A mark against the official marking guide, the same criteria the exam markers use.
- Written feedback on every answer: what earned marks, what lost them, and what a full-marks answer needed.
- As many marked answers as they want, at any hour, rather than the handful a tutor can mark in an hour.
Analytics that show where the marks go
Every marked answer feeds a breakdown of your child's results by unit, topic and individual syllabus point, by question type (multiple choice, short answer, extended response), by difficulty and by command word (explain, analyse, evaluate). Each one is compared with the average of every student practising that subject. That is the diagnosis a good tutor spends the first few sessions working out, and it updates every time your child practises. It lives in your child's account, so the easiest way to see it is to ask them to show you.
The cost: the first 10 marked answers are free. After that, a 2027 pass is a one-time $150, covering every subject, with unlimited marking through to 31 December 2027 and no auto-renewal. That is roughly the price of two tutoring sessions, for the whole year.
5. When a Tutor Is Worth the Money
Marked practice does not replace a person in every case. A tutor is worth paying for when:
- Your child does not understand the content yet. If they cannot start the questions, marking them will not help. Someone needs to teach it first.
- They will not work without someone expecting it. A booked weekly session is accountability that no app provides.
- They have a specific learning need that benefits from someone who can adapt in real time.
If your child understands the work in class but their marks do not reflect it, the gap is usually in turning knowledge into marks on the page. That is a practice and feedback problem, and it is the expensive part of tutoring to buy by the hour.
The two also work together. Plenty of families keep a tutor for explanation and use marked practice in between sessions, which makes each paid hour count for more. Free resources cover a lot of the explaining too: your child's school notes, the board's own materials, and free video lessons on YouTube and Khan Academy.
6. Questions to Ask Before You Pay a Tutor
If you do hire one, these questions separate a tutor who knows the senior exams from one who does not:
- Which past exam papers from our board will you use, and how often?
- Will you mark my child's answers against the official marking guide?
- How will you decide which topics to spend time on?
- How will I know whether it is working, and by when?
- What is the minimum commitment, and what happens if we stop?
For a sense of what the exams actually ask for, our guide to exam command words explains what markers expect from words like "explain" and "evaluate".
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a tutor cost per hour in Australia?
Usually $55 to $85 an hour for a university student or online provider, and $95 to $140 or more for an experienced teacher or ATAR specialist, according to Tutero's 2026 figures. Group sessions at a centre are around $40 per student. Online is usually cheaper than in person.
Is a tutor worth it for Year 12?
It depends on what your child is missing. If they do not understand the content, or need someone to keep them working, a tutor is worth it. If they understand the work but lose marks in tests, the fix is marked practice on past exam questions with feedback, which costs far less than weekly tutoring.
What is a cheaper alternative to tutoring?
Free resources (school notes, board materials, YouTube and Khan Academy) for understanding content, plus AusGrader for marked practice on real past exam questions. AusGrader marks typed or handwritten answers against the official marking guide, gives feedback on each one, and shows which topics are costing marks. The first 10 answers are free, then a 2027 pass is a one-time $150.
Can AusGrader replace a tutor completely?
Not for every student. It replaces the marking, feedback and gap-finding part of tutoring. It does not teach content from scratch or provide a person to keep your child accountable. Many families use both, with marked practice between sessions.
Try 10 Marked Answers Before You Book a Tutor
Ten marked answers on real past exam questions will show you and your child where the marks are going. That is worth knowing whether you hire a tutor or not. No credit card required.
- QCE, VCE, HSC and WACE questions from official past papers.
- Marked against the official marking guide, typed or handwritten.
- Feedback and analytics on every answer, compared with the subject average.
- $150 one-time for 2027, every subject, no auto-renewal. Web, iOS and Android.
The Bottom Line
A year of weekly Year 12 tutoring in one subject costs roughly $1,650 to $4,200. Part of that pays for things only a person can do: teaching content from scratch and keeping a student on track. Much of it, especially close to exams, pays for marking practice answers and finding the gaps. That part now costs $150 for the year.
Start with the free marked answers. If your child's problem turns out to be content or motivation, you will know a tutor is worth it. If it is turning what they know into marks, you may not need to book one.