Skool for an AI course or community: Hobby or Pro?

What Skool costs at each level of sales

Skool’s fee on sales matters more than the plan price once a community earns. Skool’s Help Center (updated 29 September 2026) gives the full fee: 10% + 30¢ a payment on Hobby, and 2.9% + 30¢ on Pro for payments up to $899, 3.9% + 30¢ above $900.

The 30 cents falls on both plans alike, so the break-even holds while every payment is under $900. The table adds the plan price to the percentage fee at five monthly sales figures, at the monthly list prices of 2 October 2026.

The last row uses the monthly recurring revenue AI Video Bootcamp’s co-founder gave on a recorded members-only live call in late June 2026: $180,000, his own figure. At that level the 7.1-point fee gap is worth about $12,700 a month.

The 30 cents adds the same amount to both columns. At $9 a payment, $180,000 is about 20,000 payments, or about $6,000 more on each plan.

Billed yearly, Hobby costs $7.50 and Pro $82 a month, so Pro becomes the cheaper plan from about $1,049 a month in sales.

What you get on Skool for an AI course

Skool gives each community four parts: a feed, a classroom, a calendar for live calls and a members list with a leaderboard. Members earn points from likes on their posts and comments, and owners can lock courses until a member reaches a level.

The classroom takes video lessons, text and attached files. AI Video Bootcamp is one example: 122 lessons and 92 PDF guides over 11 phases, with eight level courses that open as members earn points.

Skool’s discovery page lists communities by category with their member count, rating and price. Its Trending tab on 2 October 2026 showed AI and ad courses side by side.

Three Trending communities on 2 October 2026 show the range of prices Skool supports:

• Meta Ads Mastery, 641 members, 5.0 from 63 reviews, $249 a month
• AI Video Bootcamp, 28.8k members, 5.0 from 248 reviews, $9 a month
• Maker School: AI Automation, 2.5k members, 5.0 from 102 reviews, $184 a month

What Pro adds besides the lower fee on sales

Pro adds two items on the pricing page. One is a custom URL. The other is an affiliate programme of your own, so members can refer others for a commission you set. SchoolMaker, which sells a rival platform, lists more for Pro: up to 30 admins against one on Hobby, hidden suggested communities, extra analytics and community transfer. Skool’s pricing page lists no admin counts.

AI Video Bootcamp runs its own referral programme and lists 8 admins, both Pro items by those two sources. Its programme pays members 50% recurring, which the course calls “the maximum Skool allows”.

Skool also runs an affiliate programme for its own plans, separate from yours. It pays “40% of recurring revenue” for life on communities you refer, and it pays us for the Skool link on this page.

Is Skool legit? What owners and members report

Owners report fast setup and engagement that works. SkoolPrep’s roundup (15 August 2026) of Reddit, G2, Trustpilot and YouTube reports quotes like “It’s the first platform I didn’t have to wrestle with” and “The gamification actually works”.

The same roundup lists the complaints owners and members repeat:

• Basic course features next to a dedicated course platform, weak for complex curricula
• Analytics without cohort or lifetime-value reports
• A phone app that lags the web version
• Search that struggles to find old posts in large communities
• Notification settings that give either too much or too little

SkillScouter’s review (13 July 2026) adds no native email marketing, no funnel or sales-page builder and limited design control. A course that sells through email sequences needs a separate email tool.

Skool’s Trustpilot profile on the skool.com domain is listed under the name “Skool Safe Search for Kids”. It held 53 reviews on 2 October 2026, 79% of them one star. The reviews we read come from members of communities hosted on Skool, about recurring charges, cancelled trials that still billed and refunds the community owner did not grant. For an owner, they point to one practice: state the price, the renewal and the refund terms on the about page.

How does Skool’s cost compare with Kajabi and Circle?

At $3,000 a month in sales, Skool Pro costs the least of the plans whose payment fees are shown in full, and Kajabi is the only one with email, landing pages and funnels in every plan. The table compares each entry plan at $3,000 a month in sales, made of 60 payments of $50, on each vendor’s pricing page of 2 October 2026.

Kajabi’s pricing page says it takes no revenue share and lists US card processing at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic. Circle’s pricing page shows Professional at $89 a month billed yearly with a 2% transaction fee, and does not show its card processing rate.

Who Skool suits

Skool suits a creator or agency selling AI video or ad skills as a monthly membership with a course and a community in one place.

Best for:

• A course with a community and live calls, priced monthly, where members help each other
• Creators who want buyers from Skool’s discovery page as well as their own audience
• Communities past $1,268 a month in sales, on Pro

Skip it if:

• You sell one-off courses through email funnels: Skool has no native email marketing or sales pages
• You need quizzes or cohort and lifetime-value analytics
• You need design control: SkillScouter reports limited design control, and Pro adds a custom URL only

Start a Skool community Paid link on Hobby at $9 a month, and move to Pro when sales pass $1,268 a month.

Questions about Skool

How much does Skool cost?

Hobby costs $9 a month plus 10% of sales, and Pro $99 a month plus 2.9%. Paid yearly, they cost $7.50 and $82 a month.

Is Skool Hobby or Pro better?

Hobby costs less below $1,268 a month in sales and Pro above it. Pro also adds a custom URL and your own affiliate programme.

Does Skool have a free plan?

No. Both plans start with a free trial (14 days in SchoolMaker’s guide), then bill monthly or yearly.

Can you sell an AI course on Skool?

Yes. AI Video Bootcamp had 28.8k members at $9 a month on 2 October 2026.