Ask five Brisbane tutoring providers what they charge and you'll get five structures that are hard to compare: per hour, per session, per term, per "program". This guide lays out what the market actually charges in 2026, what drives the differences, and how to judge whether a price is good value rather than just low.
What Brisbane tutoring costs in 2026
Pulling together published Australian cost guides and marketplace data, the picture looks like this:
| Format | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Private 1-on-1, Brisbane overall | $40-80 per hour |
| Private 1-on-1 with a qualified teacher | $50-100+ per hour |
| University student tutors | $30-60 per hour |
| Small group classes (2-5 students) | $20-50 per hour, per student |
| Larger group classes (6+ students) | $15-30 per hour, per student |
For context, Learnmate, one of the larger national tutoring marketplaces, reported an average booked rate of $64 per hour across all its 2025 lessons: about $39 per hour for primary students, $57 for Years 7-10, and $66 for Years 11-12. National guides put in-person tutoring 10-20% above online rates, and specialist senior tutors (think IB, high-demand Year 12 subjects, exam specialists) can run well past $100 per hour.
These are market snapshots, not fixed prices. Treat them as a sanity check: if a quote sits far outside these ranges in either direction, ask why.
What actually drives the price
Four factors explain most of the spread:
- Who is teaching. A registered teacher or subject specialist costs more than a university student. Sometimes that premium is worth it; sometimes a sharp recent high-achiever is exactly the right fit. What matters is that you know which one you're paying for.
- Group size. Group tutoring divides the teacher's time and cost across students. Per hour of teaching, a small group is dramatically cheaper than 1-on-1, and for most students the structured group format works just as well.
- Year level and subject. Senior subjects cost more than primary. Specialist subjects like Chemistry and high-level Maths sit at the top of the range.
- Overheads. Franchise fees, marketing spend, and travel time all end up in the hourly rate. None of them help your child learn.
Questions to ask before you pay
How our pricing works
For transparency, here is exactly what Lee Excellence charges at our Mansfield and Stretton campuses, as listed on our pricing page:
- Primary group classes (Years 1-6): $70 for a 2-hour session, which works out to $35 per hour.
- High school group classes (Years 7-12): $70 for a 2-hour session, or $100 for a 3-hour session (about $33 per hour).
- Dr Lee's Chemistry (Years 11-12): $60 for a 1.5-hour specialist session.
- Private tutoring: from $85 per hour 1-on-1, or from $60 per hour each for a 1-on-2 arrangement.
Billing is term by term, in advance, with no ongoing contract: continue, pause, or switch programs each term. With 24 hours' notice we organise a make-up class for missed lessons. Students who enrol with friends each take $5 off per session, and sibling arrangements are worked out case by case.
Against the market table above, our group rates sit at the affordable end of the small-group range while being taught in a structured, campus-based program. That's deliberate: group classes are our core format precisely because they make sustained, long-term tutoring affordable.
When cheap tutoring is expensive
The cheapest option is not the cheapest if it doesn't work. Three common ways families lose money on low headline rates:
- Unstructured sessions. An untrained tutor who works through whatever homework the student brings is cheap per hour and slow per outcome. Progress needs a program, not just presence.
- Oversized classes sold as "group tutoring". Past a certain size, a class stops being tutoring and becomes a second classroom. If your child can hide in it, it's too big.
- Churn. Marketplaces make it easy to start cheap and easy for tutors to disappear mid-term. Every tutor change costs weeks of momentum.
The measure that matters is cost per unit of actual progress. A $35-per-hour structured class that lifts a grade over two terms beats a $25-per-hour arrangement that drifts for a year.
Where to from here
If you're comparing options, start with our pricing page for the full details, then enrol or book a visit to either campus. We'd rather you see a class in action than take any price table's word for it, including ours.
Written by the tutors and teachers at Lee Excellence Education. Market figures reflect published Australian tutoring cost guides and marketplace data as of 2025-26 and will drift over time; our own prices are current at publication. Questions? Email us.