Straight answer

What do online chess classes for kids cost?

At ChessCubs, $59 a month: two live 45-minute classes every week, with the same coach, in a group of no more than six children. That is about $6.81 a class, or roughly $9.08 an hour of live coaching. All seven of our levels cost the same, there is nothing to upgrade to, and you can cancel yourself in one click.

Below: what actually drives the price of online chess classes, the questions worth asking before you pay anyone, and an honest answer to “what is the cheapest good option”.

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Four things decide the price

Advertised prices for online chess classes vary by more than five times, and very little of that is quality. It is these four.

1

How many children share the coach

The biggest single factor. A class of twenty costs less per child than a class of six, and a class of six costs far less than one-to-one. What changes is not the hour, it is whether the coach knows your child's games. Ours are capped at six, and it is a hard cap rather than a target.

2

Whether the price rises as your child improves

Plenty of academies price by level, so the better your child gets, the more you pay. Ours does not. All seven levels, beginner through Master Cub, cost the same $59, and the price you join at is the price you keep.

3

Per class, per month, or per term

Per-class pricing looks cheaper and usually is not, because the classes a child actually needs add up. Term fees look larger and lock you in. A monthly subscription you can cancel yourself is the only one of the three where the advertised number is what you end up paying.

4

What the fee does and does not include

Coach-marked homework, game reviews, tournaments, app access and a weekly parent report are separate purchases in some places. Here they are not add-ons. There is one price and nothing to upgrade to later.

Eight questions to ask before you pay anyone

Take this list to any academy you are considering, including this one. Our answers are in the right-hand column.

AskChessCubs
What is the hard cap on class size?Six students. A cap, not an average.
Does the price change as my child moves up levels?No. All seven levels are $59 a month.
Who teaches, and are they background-checked?FIDE-rated coaches, screened and background-verified.
Same coach every week?Yes, every time.
How do I cancel?One click in your parent dashboard. No call, no reason needed.
Is there a charge to try it?No. The trial class is free and takes no card.
What if you cancel a class?A make-up class, or a refund or credit.
Sibling discount?Ten per cent off the total for two or more children.

Cost questions, answered plainly

At ChessCubs, $59 a month. That covers two live 45-minute classes every week, which works out at about $6.81 a class, or roughly $9.08 for an hour of live coaching in a group capped at six. Across the wider market, live small-group classes are usually billed monthly and private one-to-one coaching by the hour, which is why per-hour and per-month figures are hard to compare directly. Ask for the monthly total and the class-size cap and the comparison becomes simple.
Cheap and good are different questions, and the honest answer to "cheapest" is usually a recorded course or a free app, neither of which is a class. Among live classes with a real coach, ChessCubs is $59 a month with groups capped at six and every level included. The thing to settle before comparing prices is what you are comparing: a $30 class of twenty children and a $59 month of classes of six are not the same product.
Yes. ChessCubs is a single $59 a month subscription. No tiers, no add-ons, no upgrade to buy later and no contract. You cancel yourself from the billing page in your parent dashboard, and the month you have paid for runs to the end of its cycle.
Usually, yes. Online removes travel and room costs, and it removes the constraint that a good coach has to live near you. The saving is real, but it is not the main reason to choose online: the wider choice of coach matters more than the money.
Not here. Our seven levels all cost $59 a month, so getting stronger never makes chess more expensive. Worth asking anywhere you look, because level-based pricing is common and two or three years of progress can add up substantially.
Two live classes a week with the same coach, groups capped at six, coach-marked homework, full app access with daily puzzles and game reviews, tournaments, and a weekly parent report in plain language. There is nothing to upgrade to.
Yes, one real class with a real coach and no card required. Afterwards you get a written report and your child's placement on our seven-level map.

Still deciding? The trial class is free and needs no card: book one and watch a real class before you pay for anything.