Skool Pricing 2026: Hobby vs Pro and the Full Fee Math

Skool costs $9 per month on Hobby or $99 per month on Pro. Both plans include a 14-day trial. The fee on member payments usually decides which plan costs less: Hobby charges 10% + $0.30 per payment. Pro charges 2.9% + $0.30 on payments up to $899, with a higher rate for larger charges.

Start with Hobby for a free group or an unproven paid offer. Consider Pro when lower fees cover its extra $90 monthly subscription, or when you need its operational features.

Prices are in USD. These monthly subscriptions are separate from what you charge your members. Growth Boost commissions can apply on top of payment fees.

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Skool's monthly plans include the same unlimited-member and unlimited-course allowance. The practical differences are transaction costs and Pro features.

What You Get With Skool Hobby

Hobby provides the core community, course, and event experience for $9 per month. Members can join discussions and work through your learning material. The small fixed bill suits free groups and early paid memberships. Its 10% transaction fee becomes expensive when sales grow, so review the plan as revenue changes.

Both public plans include unlimited members, courses, videos, and live calls. You are not buying a small member allowance that forces an upgrade after the first successful launch.

The limitations concern how you operate the group. Hobby supports one admin. A custom Skool URL, member affiliates, and useful plugins such as Zapier require Pro. Check those requirements before choosing purely on price.

Say you want a free discussion group around your newsletter. There are no member payments for Skool to process. Hobby's fixed cost can stay at $9 per month, provided its features cover the job. A paid offer elsewhere has its own fees.

What Skool Pro Adds

Pro costs $99 per month and reduces the percentage taken from member payments. It also supports extra admins and a member affiliate program. Those features can justify Pro before its lower transaction rate does. Choose around the work your group needs, especially when another person will help manage it.

Useful Pro capabilities include:

• More than one admin, so a teammate can share management.
• A custom group URL on skool.com, rather than your own domain.
• Member affiliate commissions for people who refer buyers to your group.
• Zapier and selected onboarding, tracking, and invitation plugins.
• Group ownership transfer, subject to Skool's transfer and billing rules.

Skool's plugin documentation identifies which features require Pro. Its custom URL terms include the first change, with later changes costing $100 each.

For example, a community billing $800 monthly might still need Pro because two people manage it. That is a feature decision. It does not mean Pro is the cheapest payment plan at $800.

Skool Transaction Fees: Include the 30 Cents

Skool deducts a percentage and a fixed $0.30 from each member payment. The fixed fee matters most on low-priced memberships. Pro's percentage rises for larger individual charges. These are payment fees; you do not add another standard Stripe processing fee to the same Skool transaction.

The Skool Payments FAQ lists 2.9% + $0.30 for Pro payments up to $899. It lists 3.9% + $0.30 above $900. For a price right on that boundary, confirm the rate in your account.

Here is what a single direct sale leaves before the owner's subscription cost:

Figures are rounded to cents. They exclude acquisition commissions, taxes, refunds, and the fixed platform subscription.

That $0.30 represents another 3.33% of a $9 payment, but only 0.6% of a $50 payment. A low advertised percentage can therefore disguise a meaningful cost on small purchases.

The Hobby vs Pro Break-Even Point

For monthly plans and member charges up to $899, Pro becomes cheaper at about $1,268 in monthly processed sales. Its subscription costs $90 more, while its percentage fee is 7.1 points lower. The equal $0.30 payment fee cancels when comparing the plans, but still belongs in your budget.

The calculation is $90 ÷ 0.071 = $1,267.61. At a $50 membership price, the 26th paying member takes monthly sales above that point.

Totals include the monthly plan, percentage fee, and $0.30 for every payment. All members pay once in the month. These are illustrative direct-sales scenarios, not reported community results.

Higher-Priced Offers Change the Crossover

If all payments incur Pro's 3.9% rate, the monthly crossover rises to about $1,475. The fee difference is then 6.1 percentage points. This matters when members pay a large annual bill or buy an expensive course, even if its monthly equivalent looks inexpensive.

The calculation becomes $90 ÷ 0.061 = $1,475.41.

Consider a $999 annual membership. The fee follows the $999 charge, not its $83.25 monthly equivalent. Two such payments in one month put $1,998 through the higher tier. Months without renewals have a different cash-flow picture.

For a mixture of payment sizes, calculate the Pro fee saving as 7.1% of lower-tier sales + 6.1% of higher-tier sales. On monthly billing, Pro covers its extra subscription when that saving exceeds $90.

Use the Skool fee calculator for your own member count and price. Choose the billing frequency and enter the amount members actually pay per charge.

Growth Boost: A Separate Cost of Acquiring Members

Growth Boost is an acquisition service, so its commission belongs beside payment fees in your margin calculation. Skool's documentation uses a 30% example, but owners can adjust the commission. Processing still applies. Existing customers keep the commission rate they joined under, including their recurring payments.

On a $50 Pro membership at the standard 2.9% processing rate:

These figures come before the fixed subscription and your delivery costs. Substitute your actual commission, and check Skool's Growth Boost and attribution rules before changing the setting.

Skool says Growth Boost is on by default and can be turned off under Settings → Discovery. Check that setting before launch. A new customer can be valuable at a 30% commission, but the membership must leave enough money to deliver what you promised.

Skool Annual Pricing and the Commitment

Skool annual billing costs $90 for Hobby or $990 for Pro. Those yearly charges equal $7.50 and $82.50 per month. Both save about 16.7% against 12 monthly payments. The trade-off is commitment: owner subscription fees remain non-refundable for unused full or partial billing periods.

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The yearly pricing view displays $7.50 per month for Hobby and rounds Pro down to $82. Pro's actual $990 yearly charge equals $82.50 per month, paid annually.

For annual plans, the subscription gap is $900 a year, or $75 per month. On an averaged monthly basis, Pro breaks even at about $1,056 of lower-tier sales or $1,230 of higher-tier sales. Compare a full year's expected payment mix when choosing an annual plan.

For a new offer, monthly billing buys flexibility. Consider an annual commitment once the group has a clear purpose, a sustainable delivery schedule, and enough demand to keep it open. The subscription saving is small compared with paying for an unused year.

Trial, Cancellation, Refunds, and Payouts

Both owner plans begin with a 14-day trial and then renew as paid subscriptions. Cancellation stops future renewals, while access lasts through the paid period. Owner subscription refunds differ from refunds you give community members. Keep those two relationships separate when writing your own group's billing policy.

The owner payment terms say the group becomes read-only after the paid period ends. They also state that owner subscriptions are non-refundable. Cancel before the trial ends if you do not want the first charge.

Our Skool trial guide covers the evaluation window. The cancellation walkthrough covers the exit steps. Canceling a subscription and deleting the account are separate actions.

For member purchases, creators can offer refunds at their discretion, and Skool may intervene. Skool keeps its processing fee on refunded transactions. Budget that cost when offering a money-back policy.

Available creator balances are paid on Wednesdays. The first payout can take up to 14 days. See the Skool payout guide for the timing and bank-account requirements.

Is Skool Free? Hosting vs Joining

You can join a free Skool community without paying a membership charge. Hosting your own community requires a paid owner plan after the trial. A community owner chooses what members pay, so its listed price is separate from Skool's $9 or $99 platform subscription.

Our September 5, 2026 Skool community research covers 1,000 English-language Trending Discovery listings. Among 868 cards with monthly prices, the median listed price was $39 per month. That describes advertised entry prices in this sample, not what every member pays or how much an owner earns.

Existing members can keep an earlier price, including free access. A public member count multiplied by the latest membership price is therefore not verified revenue.

Member subscriptions are charged in USD. Applicable VAT or sales tax can be added to the listed price. A buyer's bank may also apply currency-conversion charges. Owners outside the US receive supported local-currency payouts, so budget using the amount that reaches your bank.

Is Skool Cheaper Than Circle or Whop?

Skool has a low fixed entry cost, but the lowest subscription does not guarantee the lowest total bill. Circle charges a subscription plus platform and Stripe fees. Whop has no standard monthly subscription and itemizes payment services. The right comparison uses the same sales, payment methods, and required features.

• Circle: its Professional plan starts at $89 per month billed annually. Recurring card payments can include Circle, Stripe Payments, and Stripe Billing fees. See the Skool vs Circle cost comparison.
• Whop: domestic card processing starts at 2.7% + $0.30, with other services and payout fees potentially adding to the bill. See Whop vs Skool.
• A broader shortlist: the Skool alternatives guide compares different community and creator-business models.

If you are still deciding whether Skool suits your product, read the research-based Skool review. Price only becomes useful once the platform can deliver the experience your members are paying for.

Which Skool Plan Should You Choose?

Choose Hobby when its features cover the job and the low fixed bill matters most. Choose Pro when required tools or lower payment fees justify its subscription. For monthly plans, start with the $1,268 lower-ticket crossover, then adjust for larger charges, acquisition commissions, and the way members actually pay.

• Hobby: a free community, one admin, or a paid offer still finding demand.
• Pro: enough processed sales to cover the fee difference, or an immediate need for extra admins, affiliates, or integrations.
• Another platform: a custom domain, complex member spaces, or a broader digital-product storefront is essential to the offer.

The useful first step is a small trial with one lesson, one event, and a clear membership offer. Check the plan, renewal date, Growth Boost setting, and payment margin before asking customers to join.