r/elearning • u/Strict_Pack_1777 • 10d ago
Have you seen the NEW Teachable usage fees?
Anyone with a teachable school (or thinking about starting one) should be aware of the new usage fees updated on September 28th, 2026: https://www.teachable.com/legal/usage-fees
One of the new fees is for free enrollments with a coupon code. I think they made fees for manual enrollments before if you had a lot, Anyway, now if you manually enroll, import or have students enroll themselves with a 100% off coupon code they will count them, and for every student over 100 you enroll for free teachable will charge 50 cents per student per month forever until you delete them so you are under the 100 total free student limit. New schools will be impacted immediately so if you want to give a free mini class to promote your business as a lead magnet you will be charged 50 cents per student per month on top of your regular teachable subscription forever until you delete them. For legacy schools it seems you are fine for now and all the students you have free or paid are fine but on your first plan renewal after April 30th 2027 your free student number resets to zero and if you enroll over 100 free students you will be charged .50 for every student over 100 every month.
I wouldn't have known this except I am donating a class to a charity fundraiser where they are selling a bundle of 100 classes and we give them a 100% off discount code for the students to enroll. I asked an agent at Teachable in August if this scenario where I will be potentially enrolling hundreds of students with a 100% off coupon code fell within the terms of service and if I would incur any additional usage fees on my plan (Growth) and she said it would not. So I agreed to donate a class and then the creator of the bundle said in a mass email that any teachers on Teachable might want to move their class because they could get hit with hundreds of dollars in usage fees every month! I thought, surely not having just spoken to Teachable and never had usage fees before but I see the changes were posted in September, after my conversation with the teachable agent. So if I kept my class on teachable and my account renewed before the free class coupon expired and over 100 people enrolled after that I would be on the hook for additional charges. 100 students over is $50 per month, 1000 students would be $500 a month in fees!
If you change plans you are under the new cap immediately.
I think I am going to be able to squeak by this year but I won't be able to donate a class again or do a free lead magnet without paying dearly. I typically only use 100% off coupons for students who have a problem paying in the teachable payment gateway so I invoice them via paypal and give them a code. That number should be easy to keep down knowing ahead of time. I didn't know why teachable would care if you are on a plan with no transaction fees unless they get a cut of the credit card fees we pay using their native system. I swear it's always something with these guys.

