On Skool, free vs paid is not an either-or: you can run a community for free, charge for it, or combine both. Skool supports free groups, subscriptions with a monthly or annual price, freemium, several price tiers and one-time payments. Skool itself isn't free for you as the operator: after the trial you pay for a plan, as of September 2026 Hobby at $9 or Pro at $99 a month. A free community lowers the barrier and makes sense when you sell something else and the community is the path there. A paid community fits when the community itself is the product and you deliver continuously: calls, templates, answers. The decision depends less on price than on where your buyers actually buy, and there are five questions for that below. If you want to make money on Skool, it comes from membership fees, course sales and commissions, minus Skool's transaction fees.
I've done both. My community Claude Practitioners started free on April 28, 2026 and has been paid since mid-August. Below is why, and what a client analysis with a free and a paid area adds to the question. How I split the rest of the community work with my AI employees is in Community Management with AI Employees.
What a free Skool community means and what it doesn't
"Is Skool free?" has two answers. For members: the platform costs them nothing, they only pay what the operator charges. For operators: Skool starts with a 14-day trial, then a plan runs. According to Skool's pricing page, Hobby costs $9 a month with a 10% transaction fee and Pro $99 a month with 2.9%, as of September 2026. So a free Skool community means your members pay nothing and you pay the plan.
Skool's help center lists five pricing models:
On top of that, courses in the Classroom can be sold individually ("Buy now"). Which plan fits which model and what the fees mean in detail is covered in Skool Pricing: Hobby vs Pro and the Fees. If Skool is new to you, start with Skool: What It Is and How It Works.
My path: started free, paid since mid-August
Claude Practitioners ran free from April 28, 2026 until mid-August. On August 10 I announced in the community (translated from German): "From August 17, this community is no longer free." The reason was in the same post, and it's still my core argument: "Free = non-committal. And non-committal doesn't hire an employee."
What I meant: my community is about bringing AI employees into your own business. That's work, and the price is there to create the commitment you need to start it.
Today there are two tiers, as of September 19, 2026: Standard at $9 a month for learning on your own and Premium at $45 a month with all AI employees as ready-made, tested templates, both cancellable monthly. The community has over 90 members and a 5.0 out of 5 rating from 5 reviews. It runs in German.
Skool itself names a side effect: according to its help center, "Charging even a small fee (as low as $1/year) to join your Skool group drastically reduces spam." That's the vendor's claim, but it fits the logic that a price filters.
What a client case with a free and a paid area shows
For a coaching community from my client base with a free and a paid area, we compared buyers with non-buyers. The method is in Buyer Persona with AI from Community Data. For the free vs paid question, four patterns matter:
- Events sell, the feed doesn't. Purchase decisions clustered on event days and in the short window after. The free community alone didn't carry the sale.
- Many buyers stayed invisible in the free area. A large share of buyers were never visibly active there. Activity in the free area was not a prerequisite for buying.
- A small offer absorbs buying energy. Many who didn't buy the big offer bought the small one. A low-ticket entry is therefore not a neutral add-on; it shifts purchases.
- Free members want guidance, not delegation. The wish to have someone take the work off their hands didn't show up in their questions.
On top of that, buyers decided fast, often within a few days of their first activity. The limits belong here too: only active members were visible, and "buyer" was an approximation based on activity in the paid area, not a payment record. The patterns hold for that case; your community may look different.
My conclusion: a free community isn't a sales machine. It needs an occasion where people buy and an offer that fits the stage your members are at.
Skool free vs paid, or both: the decision as a table
No column is better. A free community is the right choice when you sell an offer outside Skool and regularly create a reason to buy. A paid community is the right choice when members pay for the ongoing work inside it. A free and paid community combined fits when you want a wide entry plus an area for those who are one stage further along.
Five questions for your decision
- What do you really sell? If the money is made with a program outside the community, the community is marketing. Then it can be free.
- Where does the buying decision happen? If your buyers buy at events, you need events. If they buy when joining, your About page has to carry that.
- What does your topic ask of members? If they have to implement something themselves, a price can create commitment. That was my reason.
- Do you have a small offer? Then check whether it pulls purchases away from the big one before you promote it.
- How do people find you? Organically through your website, referrals and Skool's directory, or through ads? At a low price, paid ads are hard to carry: in my $9 test, one paying new member cost €100.86 in ad spend. More in Running Meta Ads to a Skool Community.
If you start paid, a lot is decided in the first days after joining. How to shape them is in Skool Onboarding: The First Seven Days.
How to make money on Skool: how the money flows
Making money on Skool means members pay you fees, tiers or one-time purchases, and Skool keeps a transaction fee. According to Skool, that's 10% plus 30 cents per transaction on Hobby, and on Pro 2.9% plus 30 cents up to $899 and 3.9% plus 30 cents above that. Skool's own example: at $9 a month, $8.40 remains after fees on Pro and $7.80 on Hobby. Prices run in US dollars, Skool adds VAT at checkout for members in the EU, and payouts reach your bank account every Wednesday in your local currency, in Germany through Skool's newer payout system.
Two items get overlooked. First, Growth Boost: if Skool brings you a paying member through its own network, you pay a commission on it, 30% by default according to Skool, on top of the transaction fee, for as long as the subscription runs. Since late August 2026 you can raise the rate in stages up to 70%; according to Skool, a higher rate brings more traffic, and existing members keep their old rate. What the stages mean for your margin is in Skool Growth Boost: Bidding Up to 70%. It's on by default and can be switched off in the settings under Discovery. Second, affiliates: on the Pro plan you can give members a share when they refer new members. In my community, members have earned 20% since August 21, 2026. Separately, Skool says you earn 40% of its plan fee when someone creates their own group through your referral link.
Skool's competition for owners, the Skool Games, ranked by monthly revenue growth; according to the official rules, the prizes are open only to residents of the US and Canada, and Germany is explicitly on the excluded list. That round ended on June 28, 2026, according to Skool; new leaderboards have been running since July, while the official rules on skool.com still show the old version (as of September 2026). How much you keep depends on price, cancellations and acquisition costs. I don't make promises about that. The fees in detail are in Skool Pricing: Hobby vs Pro and the Fees.
Susi reads the numbers, I set the price
Susi is my AI employee for Meta ads, and in my business she also analyzes the metrics Skool's admin dashboard shows: About page visits, joins, conversion, retention, sources. She also reads the answers to the membership questions. From both she prepares what makes a pricing or tier question decidable, such as where joins come from and what buyers write in their membership answers. She also ran the analysis in the client case with the free and paid area.
What she doesn't do: change prices, create tiers or switch anything in Skool. She prepares, I decide, and her campaigns start paused in the ad account by design.
Frequently asked questions
Is Skool free?
For members, yes: they only pay the price the operator sets, and nothing in free communities. For operators, no: after a 14-day trial a plan runs, according to Skool Hobby at $9 or Pro at $99 a month, as of September 2026. So a free Skool community still costs you the plan.
Can I run a free and a paid Skool community at the same time?
Yes. Skool offers freemium for this, meaning a free and a paid plan in the same group; tiers, by contrast, are paid levels only. You can also run two separate groups. What matters is that each area has a clear job: the free one is the entry, the paid one delivers depth for members who are one stage further along.
How do you make money on Skool?
Through membership fees, price tiers, one-time payments and individual course sales, plus commissions when you refer others to Skool. Skool keeps a transaction fee per payment, and for members from the Skool network the Growth Boost commission on top, 30% by default and selectable up to 70%, for as long as their subscription runs. What's left depends on price, cancellations and acquisition costs.
Should I start with a free community?
If you sell an offer outside the community, a free start makes sense, provided you regularly create occasions to buy. If the community itself is the product, a price from day one makes more sense. I started free and switched after about three and a half months, with the reason: "Free = non-committal."
Is a paid community less work?
Not automatically. According to Skool, even a small fee drastically reduces spam, which can save moderation. In return, paying members expect something ongoing: calls, answers, new content. The work shifts from sorting to delivering. How I hand part of it to AI employees is in Community Management with AI Employees.
Where to go from here
Answer the five questions above in writing, one sentence each. If question 1 says "program outside the community" and question 2 says "at events", a lot points to free with clear buying occasions. If both point to the community itself, set a price. How I built my community and how Susi reads the numbers there, you can see in Claude Practitioners. You can post your pricing question there; usually someone has already made the same decision.
