The rate
You set it.
No platform floor or ceiling — your rate, your call.
The match
Direct.
Parents browse, message, and book you. No dispatcher queue.
The window
5–9am IST.
US kids after school. Evenings India, mornings US.
Apna vs the rest
- ✓Apna pays in dollars — the others pay in rupees. Parents are American. Money arrives in USD. What you earn is whatever rate you set — at ₹83/$, every $10 is about ₹830.
- ✓You set your own rate — most platforms price your time for you. Charge what you’re worth. Raise it whenever you like.
- ✓Apna shows your profile to parents — most platforms queue you in a dispatcher. Parents browse, message, book you directly. No auto-assignment.
- ✓Apna is small — the others are huge. You'll know the founder by first name.
Why this exists
A small platform, for a specific kind of teaching.
Apna Tutor was built by one NRI parent who couldn't find a good tutor in India for his own kids. Not a dispatcher. Not a content mill. A marketplace where parents browse, and where the teacher shows up as a person — bio, subjects, rates, and a short demo video.
We don't teach you a curriculum. You list what you already teach well — Hindi reading, Devanagari, early math, phonics, homework help, whatever fits. Parents who need that find you.
Three levers that move your earnings.
Typical online-tutor pay in India sits around ₹250–400/hr. On Apna, three things are different — and they stack.
Paid in USD
₹83 per $1.
Parents are American. A $20 session lands at ~₹1,660 in your account — before you've touched your rate.
You set the rate
No floor. No ceiling.
Most platforms price your time for you. Apna doesn't. Charge what you're worth — raise it whenever you like.
Repeat parents
Long relationships.
When a fit clicks, parents book weekly for a school year or longer. Earnings compound — you don't have to keep hunting new students.
₹83/$ used for illustrative conversions. Actual FX depends on your bank / transfer provider.
How it works
From "tell me more" to your first paid session.
Your profile is live the moment you publish. No interview, no waiting weeks. Edit it any time.
Sign up.
Fill out a short profile — subjects you teach, your rate, a photo, a two-minute demo video, your website or LinkedIn. Twenty minutes.
Publish your profile.
You’re searchable the moment you publish. Parents browse, message you, and arrange a session over WhatsApp.
Get paid.
After each session, you and the parent settle directly (Zelle, Wise personal, UPI — whatever works). Platform-handled USD payouts via Wise are on the roadmap; you’ll see the exact fee breakdown before they apply.
Self-serve. No interview, no waiting on us — your profile is your pitch. We do retroactively de-list profiles that get parent complaints, so the platform stays clean for everyone.
Ready when you are.
A few things worth knowing first.
Demand varies by subject. If you teach a slower category, you may have weeks with no bookings. That's real. We tell every tutor up front so nobody's surprised.
The hours are tight. US school ends around 3–6pm their time, which is 12:30–4:30am IST east coast, 5:30–9:30am IST west coast. Most of our working window is 5–9am IST. If early mornings don't fit your life, this isn't the right platform yet.
Payment is direct today. Every session settles directly between you and the parent — Zelle, Wise personal, bank transfer, whatever you agree on. Platform-handled card payment is on the roadmap; when it ships you'll see the fee breakdown before it applies to any session.
You’re live the moment you publish. No upfront interview, no review queue. We do retroactively de-list profiles that draw complaints — so the platform stays clean for the tutors and parents who care about their reputations.
Questions tutors ask us.
How much do Apna tutors actually earn?
You set your own rate — there’s no platform floor or ceiling. Typical online-tutor pay in India sits around ₹250–400/hr on most Indian platforms; on Apna, parents pay in USD, so at ~₹83/$ even a modest $10 session lands at roughly ₹830 in your account. Whatever rate you name is what you earn, minus any bank or transfer fee if a parent pays via card. Three sessions a week, ten a week, whatever rate — do the math for your own life. We don’t publish averages because we don’t have enough data yet.
I went live but no parent has messaged me in two weeks. Did I do something wrong?
Probably not. Demand varies by subject — supply sometimes runs ahead for a given category. If you’re in a slower one (say, fifth-grade math when most parents are looking for Hindi reading), you’ll wait. We tell every tutor this up front. If a month goes by with zero messages, we’ll personally reach out and help — either with profile tweaks or by flagging your listing to new parents.
Do I have to work 5–9am IST? Can I do evenings India time?
The majority of our parents are in the US Pacific and Eastern time zones, which means 5–9am IST is where the demand is. A few families on the US east coast book evening IST slots (their after-dinner time is your late evening), but those are rare. If mornings don’t work for your household for three or more sessions a week, we’ll probably ask you to come back when we’ve grown into more time zones. We’d rather say that than waste your time.
I already teach on Vedantu / UrbanPro / Preply. Can I also be on Apna?
Yes. Apna is non-exclusive. Many of our tutors also have listings elsewhere. We only ask that when you’re teaching an Apna parent’s kid, your availability is real — don’t double-book a slot you promised us. Most tutors who join find Apna replaces one or two low-paying platforms over time, not all of them.
How do I actually get paid, and in what currency?
Today, every session settles directly — you and the parent agree on a method (Zelle, Wise personal, bank transfer, UPI if the parent’s routing through one, whatever works). Platform-handled card payment is on the roadmap; when it ships, you’ll see the exact fee breakdown before it applies to any session.
What if a parent cancels, or doesn’t pay?
For offline sessions, our cancellation norm is 24 hours notice — parents can reschedule freely, but last-minute cancels should be paid at half rate. We make this clear to parents at booking. For no-shows and non-payers: report it through your dashboard and we’ll investigate by hand. Because we’re small, these cases are handled by a human within 24 hours, not a ticket queue. No arbitration forms.
We're always looking for great tutors.
Twenty minutes to publish. You're searchable as soon as you save. Your first session is probably this week.