It's mainly a supply and demand thing. There are in total 3232 teachers and tutors on italki that teach English. 2001 of them are native speakers. 704 of them are community tutors. 306 of them are from the US, 147 of them are from the UK. 177 US-American tutors charge up to 13/14 $ (I used 12€ as a filter in my search), while 75 UK tutors charge up to 13/14$. So, there are plenty of choices and as community tutors don't need any special qualifications apart from being able to speak the language and as they basically would just need to listen to my ramblings and I can't expect them to prepare much for the sessions, I wouldn't see a point to pay more just because they're native speakers. It is difficult to determine anyway, if someone is a native speaker and I've seen enough teachers/tutors/users here claiming to be native speakers or on C2 level when they actually weren't.

What's more important to me is proficiency (and there are non-native teachers who are more proficient than native teachers because they know the grammar inside out) and if the teacher has something to offer that I need. If I'd take conversational classes in English then 12$ might be my limit. For a teacher who could offer some special courses, I'd pay more because if I look for a UK professional teacher, who's a native speaker and can help me with CPE preparation for instance, there's simply no one who provides that for 12$. Also, if I look for a teacher who could teach me Icelandic, there are only five registered on Italki (all are community tutors), four of them are native speakers. They charge between 20 and 39 $ and as there aren't many alternatives, I'd save up a bit, maybe only take a class once every two weeks and pay that price.

I expect to pay more for a professional teacher and think $15 - 25 an hour is reasonable for native French speaker. If the teacher has significant experience, I would pay more. For a community tutor, I would not pay more than $15 an hour. I do not know what the rate is for a professional teacher that is a native English speaker but from what I see, the rates are too low. It would not be worth it to me to teach on iTalki, as I could make significantly more an hour just offering homework help in my community. The only way it might be worth it to teach English on iTalki is if I lived abroad in a country where the cost of living is more inexpensive.

I'm not learning English but in general what I'd pay depends on what I'm getting. Is it specialised or is it free talk. For a professional structured class, I'd expect to pay more than for free talk. My budget is maxed out at $20USD because that is nearly $30AUD right now, so the conversion rate tends to affect my budget.

This would merit different responses. I have native speakers as my co-workers ever since and I remember that someone told me that you must rate yourself depending on your worth which I agree. Some people set a rate of $30/hour or $15 per 30 minutes.

Some as low as $2 per 30 minutes.

When it comes to rate Alice this is a tricky question. It is given that native speakers usually should have a higher rate. However, a higher rate does not always mean that the teacher is of good quality. There are native speakers who are good and native speakers who are awful. It is the same with Non-native. So the pricing is always a tricky thing because I had students who tried expensive ones who do not even have an idea what the IELTS is about.

It is also good to note that no matter how good you are, you are only as good as what a student can pay you.

So if you are worth $25 an hour but a student can only afford $10 an hour then of course that is the answer to that question.. Students who can afford $20-$30 an hour is not enough.

It has declined over the years, even as a Non-native, my rate in another company is $15 - 20 an hour (1.7 to 2 rmb per minute) because I know I am worth more than my current rate here (especially that I specialize in exam prep like IELTS) , that is a reasonable rate suppose to be with experienced teachers who are good. The question is how many students can afford with the current global economic meltdown. Ideally, IELTS teachers should have a rate of $20 and above especially teachers who can really bring results.

This is not just with Chinese economy but I am talking on a global scale.

Looking forward to the responses of learners.

I study the trend and I am part of different ESL groups, the rate is a usual topic. The thing about rate is you must know your market. There are teachers who got away with $25 per hour as top teachers for a few months in other companies that I work for but it was a very short lived few months. The reason is that ESL companies are saturated and competition is high. Nevertheless, it is important to study what people can afford and also know what rate other companies charge.