Online Course Profitability Planner
What your course really earns after the platform, payments, ads, people and production.
Try before you buy.
- Free preview: the net profit for the year in full, with the first rows of each table (up to 3) and watermarked charts; every other figure is hidden.
- Locked until you unlock it: download and copy.
- Unlock: Pro pass, ₹179 for 30 days or ₹79 for 1 week, a one-time payment that never renews. Unlock: Pro pass, $5.99 for 30 days or $2.99 for 1 week, a one-time payment that never renews.
Ways to unlock shows how to get the full result.
Printing this result is locked in the free preview.
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One cohort’s seats: the costs, then profit
- Pays the costs
- Profit
The first twelve months
| Line | Amount | Of revenue |
|---|
One student
| Line | Amount |
|---|
Price and enrolment scenarios: the year’s profit
Your plan is the middle cell; columns are list prices, rows the students in the year.
Cash month by month
- The month’s cash in
- The month’s cash out
- Running total
| Month | Students | Revenue | Platform | Team, ads, tools | Production | Profit | Cash so far |
|---|
The same course on other platforms
| Platform | Platform and payment costs | Net profit |
|---|
Everything else unchanged. To compare more platforms with their crossover points, use the Digital Download Platform Fee Comparator.
Locked in the free preview. Opens the ways to unlock this result.
Locked in the free preview. Batch runs unlock with a pass.
Locked in the free preview. Query results unlock with a pass.
Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
How this tool is checked
- Based on
- the method set out under ‘How the profit is worked out’.
- Sources
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This guide cites 8 sources, among them:
- Tests
- 17 automated tests check its results.
- Found an error?
- Report a problem or write to support@mysmartcopilot.com, with what you entered and the result you expected.
About the Online Course Profitability Planner
Plan an online course as a business: what it earns once everyone who takes a share is paid. Enter the price and the average discount, how you run it (cohorts a year with their seats, or an evergreen course with students a month and their growth), and the platform: its published plan price, platform fee and payment fees come in, ready to edit. Then add what the course costs you: refunds, affiliates, an instructor’s share or fee, teaching assistants and support, materials, advertising (a budget, or what a student from ads costs), the production and your monthly tools.
The plan shows the net profit for the year, the profit and loss line by line, what one student contributes, the break-even (students a year and a cohort, and the price that breaks even), a seat map of one cohort, the month-by-month plan with the cash and the month the production is paid back, price and enrolment scenarios, and the same course on other course platforms, Indian ones included (Graphy, TagMango, Exly).
Without a pass, the free preview shows the net profit for the year in full, with the first rows of each table and the charts marked; the other figures, the whole tables, the PDF plan, the CSV and the copied summary need a Pro pass.
How to use it
- Type the course’s price (pick its currency) and the average discount your students get from launch offers and coupons.
- Choose Cohorts (launches a year and students in each) or Evergreen (students in the first month and the growth a month), and plan 12 or 24 months.
- Pick the platform and how its plan is billed; Edit fees changes any figure, and Add a platform types in one of your own, a marketplace’s revenue share among them.
- Open the sections for students and tax, the team, marketing and production, and fill in what applies to you; the rest stays at zero.
- Read the net profit, the break-even and the seat map, then the scenarios, the months and the other platforms; with a pass, or after unlocking this result, use Download plan (PDF), Download CSV or Copy summary.
Examples
Revenue 150 × ₹2,999 = ₹4,49,850 · TagMango 10% = ₹44,985 Net profit for the year ₹4,49,850 − ₹44,985 − ₹60,000 − ₹90,000 = ₹2,54,865 Break-even: ₹1,50,000 of fixed costs ÷ ₹2,699.10 a student = 56 students a year, 19 a cohort
The first cohort’s ₹1,49,950 pays for the production and its ads at once: the course is cash-positive in month 1.
Break-even price at 150 students: ₹1,50,000 ÷ (150 × 90%) = ₹1,111.11
Below that price the year makes a loss with these costs, however the seats fill.
How the profit is worked out
- Price paid = list price × (1 − average discount); the platform’s tax handling and your GST or VAT registration decide what part of it is revenue.
- Platform and payment fees, refunds and affiliate commission come from the platform’s published fees, worked out sale by sale (the fee engine of the Digital Download Platform Fee Comparator), with the plan price billed monthly or yearly and payout fees.
- Instructor = their share of what the course keeps after fees, refunds and affiliates, plus their fee a cohort.
- Support = teaching assistants a cohort + support a student; materials a student; advertising = a budget a launch (cohorts) or a month (evergreen), or the cost of a student from ads × the share of students who come from ads.
- Production is counted evenly over the months you choose; the cash plan pays all of it in month 1.
- Net profit for the year = revenue − every cost of the first twelve months. Income tax is not included.
Break-even, payback and scenarios
Break-even students = the year’s fixed costs (plan, tools, cohort costs, launch ads, production) ÷ what each student contributes after their own costs; the planner finds it exactly, plan prices and volume discounts included. The break-even price is the list price at which your enrolments just cover the year. The payback month is the first month the running cash, production paid upfront, is back above zero. The scenarios move the price by 15% and 30% and the enrolments by 25% and 50% either way, all other figures unchanged.
Course platforms, India and taxes
Course platforms price differently: a plan with a fee a sale (Teachable Starter: $39 a month and 7.5%; Podia Mover: $49 and 5%), a higher plan with no fee a sale (Teachable Builder, Kajabi, Thinkific, LearnWorlds Pro Trainer), a yearly price with a share of each sale (Graphy: ₹24,999 a year and 10% or ₹10), or a commission with no plan (TagMango Basic: 10%, the Indian payment gateway included; Exly Starter: 10%). The planner sets your course on several of them with your own figures. Teachable’s plans include US sales tax, global VAT and GST handling; elsewhere the tax on your sales is yours where you are registered (18% is India’s standard GST rate). Sources: Teachable pricing, Thinkific pricing, Kajabi pricing, Podia pricing, LearnWorlds pricing, Graphy pricing, TagMango pricing and Exly pricing.
Limitations
- An estimate from the platforms’ published fees and the figures you enter, not financial or tax advice; your platform’s statements show what you are actually charged, and fees can change.
- Students in an evergreen plan grow by the same percentage every month, and every student pays in the month they enrol; instalment plans, renewals and seasonality are not modelled.
- Income tax, GST you pay out of your own pocket on costs, and the time you put in yourself are not costs here; add a salary for yourself under Other costs a month if you want it counted.
- A course marketplace that pays a share of each sale is entered as your own platform with its fee; its promotions and your share differ by sale channel.
Privacy
Looks up live data online
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Only when you ask for the latest exchange rates, it downloads the European Central Bank’s reference rates from MySmartCoPilot’s own server. Your figures stay on your device.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get without a pass?
Without a pass, Online Course Profitability Planner shows the net profit for the year in full, with the first rows of each table (up to 3) and watermarked charts; every other figure is hidden. Until you unlock it, the result can’t be downloaded or copied. A Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass, a one-time payment that never renews, unlocks the full result. The pricing page lists the passes and their prices.
How many students does my course need to break even?
The year’s fixed costs divided by what each student contributes after their own costs. A ₹2,999 course on TagMango Basic (10%) with ₹90,000 of production and ₹20,000 of ads for each of 3 launches has ₹1,50,000 of fixed costs; each student contributes ₹2,699.10, so it needs 56 students a year, 19 a cohort.
Should I spread the production cost?
For the profit of a course you will sell for years, spreading the cost over 24 or 36 months shows a fairer yearly profit; the cash plan always pays it in month 1, so the payback month shows how long the money is out of your pocket.
Which course platform keeps the most?
With few students, a platform with no plan price and a commission (TagMango Basic, Exly Starter) or a low plan with a fee a sale costs least; as students grow, a higher plan with no fee a sale wins. The planner’s platform table shows the year on each with your own figures, and the platform fee comparator finds the crossover points.
Are my figures sent anywhere?
No. Everything is worked out in your browser, and plans you save stay in this browser. The only network request the tool can make is for the latest exchange rates, and only when you ask for them.
Do I need a pass?
To see every figure of the plan (the profit and loss, one student, the break-even, the scenarios, the months and the other platforms) and to download the PDF plan or the CSV or copy the summary, yes: a Pro pass unlocks every Pro tool. Without a pass you see a free preview of your own plan: the net profit for the year in full, with the first rows of each table and the charts marked.