The 2026 UK rate card, by level
KS2 / 11+ entrance prep: £30-£50 online, £40-£60 in-person. 11+ specialists targeting Westminster, KCS, Tiffin, Sutton Grammar, Henrietta Barnett or independent prep entry charge £55-£90. The premium is for tutors who’ve been to those schools, marked their entrance papers, or coached enough students through to know each school’s quirks (Tiffin’s verbal reasoning style differs from Sutton’s).
GCSE Maths (AQA, Edexcel, OCR): £25-£50 online for graduate tutors. Qualified teachers £45-£65. Ex-examiners £55-£75. The grade-9 push (a “9” is roughly the top 5% of entries) often justifies the premium because it’s pure exam technique on the harder calculator paper questions.
A-Level Maths and Further Maths: £40-£80 for A-Level, £50-£100 for Further Maths. STEP and MAT prep specialists (for Cambridge maths, Imperial, Warwick) charge £75-£150. Most STEP-prep tutors are ex-Cambridge mathmos who’ve sat the papers themselves.
University maths tutoring (first and second year, statistics, linear algebra, real analysis): £40-£80, with subject specialism mattering more than seniority. A second-year PhD student at UCL doing measure theory can tutor undergraduate analysis for £45/hour and outperform a £90 generalist.
What each price tier actually buys
Under £30: usually current undergraduates, often very strong on content because they sat the exam two years ago. Limited mark-scheme literacy. Fine for KS3 confidence, GCSE rescue work, basic A-Level support. Don’t expect detailed exam-strategy coaching.
£30-£50: the working-tutor band. Recent graduates, postgrads, some PGCE students or NQTs moonlighting. The right level for most GCSE students aiming for grades 5-7. Expect structured sessions, homework, past-paper drilling.
£50-£75: experienced tutors, often qualified teachers with current or past school experience, or ex-examiners. Right for grade-8-9 GCSE pushes, A-Level work, Further Maths, students with confidence issues that need pedagogical experience to unpick. Worth the premium for outcomes-driven students.
£75-£120: specialist territory. Oxbridge graduates, STEP/MAT/PAT coaches, top independent-school subject leads doing private work. Right for entrance exam prep, scholarship pushes, A* in Further Maths. Rates over £100 typically come with waiting lists.
£120-£150+: rare and reputational. Tutors with named track records (e.g. Cambridge maths success rates), often ex-Olympiad coaches or Oxbridge admissions interviewers. You’re paying for outcome guarantees and pipeline access — these tutors are full and selective.
The pitfalls — three real cases
A parent in Sevenoaks paid £85/hour for an Oxbridge graduate to tutor her son for GCSE Maths. He went from grade 6 to grade 7. Same family had spent £30/hour the previous year with a postgrad tutor and got him from grade 4 to grade 6. The expensive tutor was overqualified for the gap; the cheap tutor was perfect for it. Lesson: match tutor level to gap, not to ambition.
A Manchester student preparing for STEP II booked a generalist £55/hour A-Level Maths tutor. He could explain everything but had never sat STEP himself. After three months the student’s STEP mock score hadn’t moved. Switched to an ex-Cambridge maths tutor at £95 — STEP I went from grade 3 to grade 1 in eight sessions. Lesson: STEP, MAT, BMO are different beasts; pay for the specialism.
A London family on Tutorful paid the listed £45/hour for nine months. Their tutor was excellent. The tutor mentioned the platform took 22% — he saw £35. They moved to TheTutorLink at the same £45 rate; the tutor kept £42.75. Same tutor, same student, same outcome, an extra £7.75 per session in the tutor’s pocket. Over 25 sessions, that’s £193 — enough to fund a couple of Easter intensives.
What you actually pay across a year
Realistic 2026 totals for a full academic year of weekly tutoring:
GCSE Maths Year 11 (October-May, 28 sessions at £40 online): £1,120. Add a four-session Easter intensive at £160: £1,280 total. For a student moving from grade 5 to grade 7, that’s around £640 per grade — cheaper than any private school’s exam-rescue programme.
A-Level Maths Year 13 (September-May, 25 sessions at £55 online): £1,375. Add five past-paper marathons in April-May at £80 each: £1,775 total. Worth it if it secures a Russell Group offer or moves an A to A*.
11+ Year 5/6 prep (September-November, 30 sessions at £45 online): £1,350. Many parents add a second tutor in different subject (English/VR), doubling the budget. For grammar and top-independent entry the spend is rational; for non-selective state secondary it isn’t.
Most platforms let you start with a free trial session. TheTutorLink’s 5% commission means the tutor’s hourly rate is what they actually want to charge — there’s no inflation to absorb a 25% platform haircut. If you’re choosing a tutor, the price is one input. The track record, the rapport, the student’s willingness to do the homework — those matter more. Budget enough for 25 sessions; if it works, you’ll know by week six.