Skool Pricing (2026): Hobby vs Pro, Every Fee and the Break-Even

Skool plans and fees at a glance

Skool has two plans for group owners: Hobby at $9 a month and Pro at $99 a month. Both include unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. They differ on the transaction fee and on a set of features only Pro includes.

Prices as of October 2026, from Skool's pricing page and help center. Sources at the end of this page.

Skool's transaction fee already includes card processing. Every payment runs through Skool's own merchant account, so you can't connect your own Stripe or PayPal, and the payments FAQ lists no separate surcharge for international cards or subscriptions.

How Skool's transaction fees work

Hobby takes 10% + 30¢ of each payment. Pro takes 2.9% + 30¢, rising to 3.9% + 30¢ on any single charge above $900. On a $49 monthly membership, that's $5.20 per charge on Hobby and $1.72 on Pro.

Fees per charge as of October 2026, US cards, plan prices not included. Sources at the end of this page.

The Whop column uses Whop's published rates: 2.7% + 30¢ per domestic card payment, plus 0.5% billing on recurring charges. Per charge, Skool Pro beats Whop on a $49 membership by 15¢. Pro's real cost sits in the $99 plan fee, which is why the monthly totals further down tell a different story.

The 3.9% rule above $900

The higher Pro rate depends on the size of each payment, not on your monthly revenue. A $49 membership pays 2.9% + 30¢ whether 20 people or 2,000 people are paying it.

The line matters for annual plans and one-time programs. An $899 charge costs $26.37 in fees and a $901 charge costs $35.44, so a price just above the line nets you about $7 less than $899 does. Skool also caps any single charge at $100,000.

Growth Boost: 30% of recurring charges from members Skool finds

Growth Boost is on by default. When Skool brings you a paying member, it takes 30% of that member's recurring charges, on top of the transaction fee, for as long as their subscription stays active.

Skool's Discovery FAQ says that with Growth Boost on, your group is shown in Discovery results and in Skool's off-site ads, and that you pay the commission only when Skool gets you a member. On a $49 membership, each Growth Boost member on Pro costs you $14.70 plus $1.72 a month, so you keep $32.58 instead of $47.28. On Hobby you keep $29.10.

Members you bring in yourself pay only the transaction fee. You can switch Growth Boost off under SETTINGS > Discovery. Changing the percentage doesn't affect existing members, who stay at the rate they joined at. Skool's help center also says Growth Boost isn't recommended for high-ticket offers closed on sales calls or through funnels.

Hobby vs Pro: where Pro starts saving money

Pro becomes cheaper than Hobby once your group sells about $1,268 a month, or about $1,056 a month if you pay for Pro yearly.

Here's the math. Hobby costs $9 plus 10% of sales, and Pro costs $99 plus 2.9% of sales. The 30¢ per charge is the same on both plans, so it cancels out. Divide the $90 gap in plan price by the 7.1-point gap in fee rate and you get $1,268.

Monthly cost on a $49 membership, US cards, plans billed monthly. Prices as of October 2026.

Below the break-even, Pro can still be worth paying for. It's the only plan with more than one admin or moderator, a custom URL, member affiliates, Zapier and webhooks, webinars, the option to hide suggested communities, and ownership transfer, which you need if you ever sell or hand off the group.

Downgrading costs money. Skool's downgrade screen says moving from Pro to Hobby takes effect immediately, you lose the remaining time on your plan, and it isn't refundable. Skool suggests downgrading close to your renewal date.

What Skool costs at $1,000, $10,000 and $50,000 a month

On a $49 membership, Skool Pro costs $134, $450 and $1,855 a month at those revenue levels, and Hobby costs $115, $1,070 and $5,315. Whop costs $38, $381 and $1,906 for the same sales.

Prices as of October 2026. US cards, $49/month membership, plans billed monthly. Sources at the end of this page.

How we calculated it: monthly cost = plan price + (fee % × sales) + (30¢ × charges), where charges = sales ÷ $49. Whop's plan price is $0 and its rate on recurring charges is 2.7% processing plus 0.5% billing. The table assumes US cards, no Growth Boost members, no payout fees and no currency conversion, rounded to whole dollars.

Whop costs less than Skool Pro until about $33,000 a month in sales. Past that point, Pro's lower percentage outweighs its $99 plan fee. Against Hobby, Whop costs less at every revenue level. These four things move the Pro crossover:

• Paying for Pro yearly ($82.50 a month) moves it down to about $27,500.
• Whop adds 1.5% on non-US cards and Skool lists no international surcharge. If 20% of your members pay with non-US cards, the crossover drops to about $16,500.
• Whop's fee page also lists Radar fraud screening at $0.07 per transaction, which our calculator leaves out. Counting it on a $49 price moves the crossover to about $22,400.
• Every Growth Boost member raises your Skool cost by 30% of what they pay, which pushes the crossover higher.

Run your own price and member count through the fee calculator, and see every Whop fee explained for payout costs and optional add-ons.

Payouts, refunds and other money rules

Skool pays you once a week, limits refunds to your available balance, and stops paying out when your group is archived. These rules matter most when you're planning to leave.

• Payouts go out every Wednesday. After your first sale, money takes about 8 to 14 days to become available; from the second payout on, they run every 7 days.
• Your group's Skool subscription has to be active. Skool says archived groups and groups with a payment error don't trigger a payout.
• You can't use an existing Stripe account. Skool sets up a new Stripe Express account for your payouts.
• You can't refund more than your available Skool balance. A full refund returns Skool's network fee and any VAT, but refunding a charge doesn't cancel the member's subscription.

Taxes and currency: what Skool handles for you

Skool is the merchant of record, so it collects and pays the sales tax and VAT on your sales. Its payments FAQ says sales tax collection, filing and payment are Skool's responsibility, not yours. If you sell to many EU members, that alone can be a reason to stay.

• EU members pay VAT on top of your listed price, and Skool collects and remits it.
• Every Skool price is in USD and members pay in USD. Your payouts arrive in your local currency.
• On Whop, tax on direct sales is your job unless you turn on Whop Tax Service for 2% per transaction. Whop then either collects and remits for you (US, UK and EU) or calculates and collects while you remit. Whop handles tax itself on sales made through its Discover marketplace.

This page explains published fees. It isn't financial or tax advice.

How Skool's pricing has changed

Skool sold a single $99 plan until July 2025, then split it into Hobby and Pro, and added Growth Boost in 2026.

• Until July 2025, Skool had one plan at $99 a month with 2.9% + 30¢ per charge (3.9% above $900), according to an archived copy of its payments FAQ from July 20, 2025.
• In July 2025 the $9 Hobby plan with a 10% fee appeared next to the $99 plan, which became Pro (archived pricing page, July 21, 2025).
• Growth Boost isn't in the archived payments FAQ from September 15, 2025, and is in the copy from July 2026.

Is Skool worth it?

Skool Pro is good value if your members respond to points and leaderboards, most of them pay with US cards, and you want someone else to handle sales tax. Hobby stops making sense once you pass about $1,268 a month in sales.

Skool gets expensive through the 10% Hobby fee, the $99 Pro fee at lower revenue, and Growth Boost's 30% on members Skool brings in. It also has hard limits: prices in USD only, no PayPal listed at checkout, and no way to bring your own payment processor.

If those limits bite, compare your options in our Skool alternatives roundup, read the full Whop vs Skool comparison, or, if you also sell courses with email funnels, see Kajabi vs Skool vs Whop. Circle uses yet another model, a plan fee plus a percentage on top of Stripe, which we break down in our Circle and Whop fee comparison.

Already decided to move? The Skool to Whop migration plan covers exporting members and keeping them through the switch.

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