What Udemy Actually Is (From an Instructor's Side)
I've taught on Udemy since 2022, and the thing to understand before anything else is that Udemy is two businesses wearing one shirt. If a student finds your course through Udemy's ads, its search bar, or its endless $9.99 sitewide sales, you keep 37% of what they paid. If the student arrives through *your* coupon link or referral link - from your YouTube channel, your email list, a Reddit post - you keep 97%.
Same course. Same student. A $19.99 sale pays you $7.40 one way and $19.40 the other.
That single fact drives every decision you'll make on this platform. Udemy's 70M+ registered students and its search traffic are genuinely valuable - nothing else in the course world hands you an audience of people already searching "learn Excel" or "Python for beginners" with wallets out. But the marketplace traffic comes at the 37% rate, and Udemy's Deals Program can price your $199.99 course at $9.99 whenever a sale runs, with or without asking you (you opt in once, per course, and opting out tanks your visibility).
The Money Angle: How Instructors Actually Get Paid
The realistic playbook, from someone who's watched it work and fail:
- Validate before you record. Udemy's Marketplace Insights tool (free for instructors) shows search demand and median monthly revenue per topic. Spend a day here before spending 40 hours in front of a microphone.
- Record a course in a search-driven niche. Tech, business, data, and software skills sell best - the buyers are professionals and the demand is evergreen. K-12 tutoring and live coaching don't fit; Udemy is pre-recorded only.
- List high, sell low. Set your price at $49.99-$199.99 for perceived value. It will mostly sell at $9.99-$19.99 anyway. The list price is marketing, not income.
- Build your own traffic lane early. Every student you bring via coupon link pays 97%. The top earners on Udemy are almost all people with a YouTube channel or newsletter feeding the platform - the 37% organic sales are the floor, not the plan.
- Stack a course catalog. One course is a trickle. Five courses covering related skills (Python basics β data analysis β machine learning) cross-sell to each other inside the marketplace, and the back catalog earns for years with minimal upkeep.
The honest ceiling: the median Udemy instructor earns somewhere around $1K-$10K a year - real money, but not rent money. The instructors clearing six figures all have external audiences. Udemy is best treated as a monetization layer and a credibility signal, not a complete business.
What It Really Costs
| Item | Cost | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing / hosting | $0 | Unlimited free and paid courses, no monthly fee |
| Marketplace sale | You keep 37% | Udemy brings the buyer (ads, search, sales events) |
| Your coupon / referral link | You keep 97% | You bring the buyer - 2.6x the marketplace rate |
| Mobile app sale | You keep ~25% | Apple/Google take 30% off the top first |
| Subscription program (opt-in) | 15% instructor pool | Pooled revenue, cut 3x since 2024 |
| Connect 1:1 coaching | You keep 80% | Sell sessions at 20% platform cut |
| Refunds | Deducted from you | 30-day policy, 5-15% refund rates are typical |
| Payout | Monthly, $10 min | PayPal, Payoneer, or bank transfer |
The $9.99 problem, made concrete: 100 marketplace sales a month at $12.99 average nets you about $480. The same 100 sales through your own links nets about $1,240. Everything about succeeding on Udemy is arranging for more of the second column.
Udemy vs The Field
| Udemy | Kajabi / Teachable | Skillshare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $0 | $29-$149+ | $0 for instructors |
| Who brings students | Both (37%/97% split) | You, entirely | Nobody - royalty pool |
| Your cut | 37-97% | ~97-100% | $0.05-0.15 per watch-hour |
| Pricing control | Weak (Deals to $9.99) | Full | None |
| Student emails | Never | Yes | No |
| Best for | New instructors, search niches | Instructors with an audience | Creative casuals |
The pattern I'd tell a friend: start on Udemy if you have no audience and want real demand data for free; graduate to Kajabi or Teachable once your email list can carry sales at 100% margin; skip Skillshare unless you're doing creative content and treat it as bonus income, since its watch-time royalties pay pennies per student.
Bottom Line
Udemy is the lowest-risk on-ramp in online course selling: zero cost, real search traffic, honest demand data before you record, and a 97% rate that rewards anyone willing to build their own audience. The costs are the 37% marketplace split, constant $9.99 discounting you don't control, no access to student emails, and terms that have already been cut three times without consent. Use it to learn what sells - then keep feeding it self-referred traffic, and move the rest of your funnel to a platform you own.