Teaching On Cambly: What You Need To Know

With the plethora of online platforms offering English language lessons to learners, and teaching positions to English teachers and tutors, it is difficult to know which online teaching companies are legit.

We’re going to get to the bottom of this by asking those who know best: the teachers themselves. 

In this series, we’ll talk to teachers currently teaching online in 2025 and ask them the important questions.

Meet Thelma, a Cambly tutor

Thelma is 56 years old. She has followed a bunch of different career paths, from commerce to catering. When COVID happened, she made the decision to start something a little less stressful so she would have more control over her time.

She did a  Level 5 TEFL certification with The TEFL Academy and two years after that acquired an IELTS Certification to be qualified to prepare students for the IELTS exam. 

She looked into teaching English online, applied to Cambly and Preply and was lucky enough to be accepted by both. 

What are the Cambly tutor requirements? Does Cambly accept anyone?

To be accepted on Cambly as a tutor, you aren’t required to have either a degree or a TEFL certification as it’s sold to students as a conversation-based learning experience.

Who are your students on Cambly?

My students vary in age. Cambly does have a dedicated platform called Cambly Kids, but I don’t tutor on that. Almost all my students are adults, barring a 10-year-old, who is the daughter of one of my regular students. 

All my lessons are one-on-one classes, but Cambly does offer the opportunity of Group Lessons to selected tutors. 

I prefer one-on-one lessons because it gives me the opportunity to get to know my students better and focus my attention on their needs. I tutor students from A2 to C1 level.

I have taught students from about 80 countries worldwide. Now I mostly tutor regular students.

What are your students like?

I tutor both male and female students, most of whom are around B1 to B2 level.

Find out more about the CEFR levels for English language learners in our Knowledge Base.

Most of my students want to improve their English for either business or studies. For my IELTS students, their main goal is usually to achieve the required score for the IELTS test for university entry abroad. 

 I have the flexibility to choose to do Priority Hours and meet new students whenever I want. 

Priority Hours are one-hour slots where you are logged onto their system and students can randomly select a tutor of their choice. This gives you the opportunity to pick up new regular students if you’re a good match, as well as meet a varied selection of people.

You can book as many Priority Hours as you want, depending on availability—the better your rating, the more hours available to you.

Was it easy to find students?

As far as I know, Cambly has tens of thousands of students, and I’ve never had problems getting bookings. 

On my first day, I booked two two-hour slots of Priority Hours and within 10 minutes I was speaking to my first student. 

That day, I think I met about six students, some of whom I tutored for as long as two years after that.

Does Cambly provide teaching materials?

Cambly provides lesson materials for those who choose to use it. I prefer to prepare my own materials for some of my students, especially because I focus mostly on tutoring students for their IELTS examinations.

Other than that, there are a lot of pure conversation lessons.

Why did you choose Cambly?

I preferred the structure of how Cambly worked and focussed my energy on working online there. I think what I like most about Cambly is that you are provided with students. 

How long have you been teaching on Cambly and what’s your experience so far?

Today marks my 4th year Cambliversary as it’s called on the platform, meaning I have been tutoring on the platform for four years today. 

“I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoy working on the platform, and the flexibility of choosing when and how much I want to tutor.”

I was lucky to achieve Super Tutor status in a relatively short period of time—about 12 months. 

How do you become a Cambly tutor?

To become a tutor on Cambly, you need to submit a CV, a photograph of yourself and a two-minute self-introduction video The CV is not made public on the platform but the photograph and the video are used on your profile page. 

Once you’re accepted on the platform, you’re expected to read their rules and regulations. Furthermore, you need to pass an internet connection test every time you log onto the platform. 

Does the platform allocate students to you or do the students choose the teacher?

The students choose which tutor they want to work with. They can browse through profiles, watch the self-introduction videos, and choose a tutor based on their skills and interests.

It’s advisable to start working on the platform by booking Priority Hours and pick up students from there. As mentioned before, I mostly tutor regular students. If for some reason one of my students ends their Cambly subscription, it’s very easy to open up a couple of Priority Hours and find more students.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My schedule now looks very different to when I started. Then, I worked seven days a week. I was still building up a portfolio of students, so I spent more time in front of my computer – sometimes without a single student calling in. 

Now, I work five days a week and keep my weekends free. Occasionally, because I know my students so well, I will make up a lesson on the weekend if they have reason to have to skip their scheduled lesson during the week. 

I generally work about six hours a day and don’t need to spend too much time preparing for lessons, as there is a glut of materials one can source on the internet. Furthermore, there are the Cambly-prepared lessons. 

Other than your own personal notes, which are optional but helpful when working with numerous students, there is no paperwork that needs to be done.

How does the student feedback system work?

After every lesson, except Free Trial lessons, students are prompted to answer a few questions about their lesson and their tutor. These ratings affect your tutor rating. The higher your rating, the more Priority Hours are available for you to book. 

If you have a low rating, you can still make yourself available to new students. But I find that you pick up more new students through Priority Hours, rather than just going visible. 

Once you start you have a three-month window in which your rating is listed as high and student ratings do not affect your visible rating or your PH availability. 

 

Have you experienced any technical issues?

I can happily say that I don’t believe that Cambly has a lot of down-time due to technical problems. There was a shortish period of intermittent problems when they were doing a lot of upgrades to their system. However, these are exceptionally infrequent.

Living in South Africa, and experiencing load shedding in the beginning, I scheduled my lessons around the load-shedding schedule. Thankfully, for me, they stuck to that schedule. 

I did purchase a UPS inverter, which keeps my internet and laptop running should there be a power issue. However, with solar this is a rarity.

 Does the platform offer support to teachers?

There are lessons available for use during your lessons, but no training is provided. The tutoring process is left in your hands, but the Cambly system is extremely simple to navigate. 

There is a Facebook community for tutors and there are always tutors willing to help if you have any problems or questions. Furthermore, the Cambly HQ Tutor Support is also very helpful, and, when you run into problems, very understanding.

How much does Cambly pay teachers? Is it worth it to teach on Cambly?

Cambly works on a flat rate of $10.20 per hour tutored. Almost all my lessons are 30-minute lessons, so I make $5.10 per lesson. 

Sometimes Cambly offers a bonus for tutoring during peak periods, which is always based on Priority Hours, so you would need to work these hours to achieve these bonuses. 

Recently, they had a Repeat Lesson bonus which was based on how many repeat lessons you had with students.

I feel that the payment is adequate for the amount of work one is required to put in. Having said that, it hasn’t been increased since I started, so I feel that’s something Cambly could address.

Is teaching on Cambly sustainable as a full-time job?

That is totally dependent on the amount of time you put in, where you live, and your personal circumstances. I am lucky enough to have it as my only job since I live in a dual-income household. 

“There are many nomadic tutors on Cambly who travel and work from “cheaper” countries and say that it adequately sustains their lifestyle.”

Would you recommend Cambly as a teaching platform?

I often recommend Cambly to other potential tutors! 

I enjoy the set-up, the tutor camaraderie on the Facebook group, the flexibility and, most of all, my students. I don’t see myself stepping away from Cambly in the foreseeable future.