Skillshare Help Center

Earn From Your Teaching

As a teacher on Skillshare, you can earn revenue from members watching and engaging with your classes each month. As of June 2026, we’re updating what qualifies you to earn royalties each month.

In this article:

Updates to our Teacher Earning Policy as of June 2026

For the past few years, we've tied our identity to the size of our catalogue. That came with tradeoffs. Over time, Skillshare accumulated a large volume of inactive and lightly engaged-with content, making it harder for members to discover great classes and challenging for active teachers to reach new audiences and grow.

We've reached a point where we need to make a deliberate decision about which teachers and content we can meaningfully support. Skillshare should be a place where you can experiment and find your creative voice – and we want that to remain true. But in a challenging economic climate, a sprawling catalog means weaker payouts for everyone. Established teachers see diluted earnings while niche and upcoming teachers struggle to make meaningful income from their work. Rather than continue with a model that quietly underserves both groups, we're consolidating around the categories and teachers that drive the most value for students. You can read more about this decision at Update to Skillshare Teacher Earnings. 

Starting July 16th, teachers will need to have met the following criteria to qualify for royalty payments. 

  • Follower count: You must have 50 followers on Skillshare at the end of the month, in order to qualify for a teacher payment for that month.
  • Minutes Watched & Publishing Activity:  You must hit one of the following criteria in order to receive a payment for that month:
    • You have published at least one new quality class within the previous 18 months AND exceed 400 minutes watched by members on an active subscription  OR
    • You have not published in the last 18 months but exceed 650 total minutes watched by members on an active subscription
    • In both cases, trailer minutes do not count toward your monthly payment as all class trailers are available to watch for free.
  • Minutes watched by students through a free access link or during a free trial do not count toward your payment

How We Calculate Your Teacher Earnings

Skillshare operates under a subscription model. Members pay an annual or monthly fee for a Skillshare membership, which includes unlimited access to our entire catalog of classes and other membership benefits like hands-on projects, teacher feedback, and offline viewing through our mobile app. View the full benefits of a Skillshare membership here.

Each month, a portion of Skillshare’s total subscription revenue is allocated to teacher payments. Teachers will be paid out from this share of revenue based on the following metrics:

Minutes Watched

When calculating how much you will get paid for minutes watched, we calculate your share of that month’s total minutes watched as compared to other earning teachers. We also take into account several factors tied to the member that watched your class, including things like the geography of the member watching, if a member is using a free trial or the nature of their paid subscription (we only pay for minutes watched by members who ultimately begin and continue a paid subscription). This enables us to align teacher earnings with actual sales revenue.

Follower count: You must have 50 followers on Skillshare at the end of the month, in order to qualify for a teacher payment for that month.

Engagement

A small share of the Skillshare Teacher Fund each month goes toward paying teachers for meaningful engagement with members. Members tell us they desire more teacher engagement, and teachers who do are more successful overall on the platform, so we are going to reward teachers directly who engage meaningfully with their students. 

Engagement earnings are calculated and distributed in the following way:

  • The monthly engagement reward will be based on positive student reviews (a rating of “met” or “exceeded” expectations).
  • Active members of our Top Teacher and Rising Teacher programs have been selected to be eligible for these earnings. If you are a member of one of these programs on the last day of a calendar month, you will be considered active in that program for that earning month.
  • Eligible teachers in those programs who receive at least two (2) new positive student reviews in any of their classes by 11:59pm ET on the last day of that calendar month will automatically receive a reward of $100 on their next monthly payment. If you earned a monthly engagement reward, a confirmation email will be sent to you between the end of the earning month and the next payment.

Please note that negative reviews (rating of “somewhat” or “not really”) do not have any impact on monthly engagement earnings, and that earning engagement rewards will be subject to our usual Terms and payment requirements. For more information on how reviews work, head to Receive Student Reviews.

If you are not yet a member of one of these eligible programs, and aspire to level up your teaching success on Skillshare and unlock this phase of engagement earnings, we invite you to explore this article about our teacher programs and take advantage of the many resources in our Teacher Help Center about quality and engaging teaching. Regardless, you can continue to earn each month for minutes watched in your classes and referrals; for more information, refer to the current article Earn From Your Teaching, as well as Earn From Your Referrals.

What You Can Expect About Monthly Earnings

We send your monthly payment for earnings from the Skillshare Teacher Fund and referrals (see Earn From Your Referrals) on the 16th of each month through Tipalti. If the 16th of the month falls on a weekend or holiday, Skillshare will send your monthly payment on the closest preceding business day. Review our article When and how do I receive payments from Skillshare? to learn more about Tipalti, payment options, and processing times.

We are not able to share an estimation of your upcoming earnings. 

Your share of the total minutes on the platform is calculated based on the performance of your classes relative to the performance of other teachers’ classes, in addition to adjustments based on member data, such as price differences by markets, if the member is using a free trial or a paid subscriber, and other variations in user behavior.

Our Trust & Safety team regularly conducts fraud investigations among users that may occasionally result in changes to your minutes watched, and thereby, your share of total minutes. To learn more about these fraud investigations and their potential effect on your minutes watched, review the article Why did my minutes watch decrease?

Tracking Your Earnings

Your Teacher Stats dashboard is an overview of activity and earnings for your teaching on Skillshare. Visit Where can I find information on my class performance and earnings? for a detailed breakdown of the information displayed on this dashboard.

  • Engagement rewards: will be paid to eligible teachers each month as a manual payment on top of earnings for minutes watched and referrals. This payment will show up on your Teacher Stats dashboard under Adjustments for that payment month.
  • Partnership revenue: if you qualify for a payment from partnership opportunities, you’ll see it appear under Adjustments on your Teacher Stats dashboard, and it will be included in your next payment from Tipalti. For more information, please see our article Understanding Partnership Revenue. 

For questions around adjustments, please check our FAQ, I received a reward or bonus on my monthly payment. How do I track that? and reach out to teach@skillshare.com with any questions.

Resources



Was this article helpful?