5-Step Guide to Making Money on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT)

Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is an online marketplace that millions of teachers use to share educational resources with each other in the form of digital downloads or printables. Many teachers use TPT as a platform for selling teaching materials they’ve created, but there are also plenty who share their resources for free on the platform.

While buyer accounts are free, you need to pay a mix of membership fees and transaction fees to make money on TPT. In addition to these fees, you may need to pay a transaction fee each time someone purchases one of your products. The exact amount you’ll pay depends on your membership plan (basic or premium).

As a teacher seller on TPT, you get your own store URL, where you can upload learning resources and create listings for products you want to sell. When someone makes a purchase from your teacher store, they’ll be able to download it and use it however they like, and you’ll get a payout through TPT at the end of the month.

Do you have to be a teacher to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers?

You do not need to be a teacher to buy or sell content on Teachers Pay Teachers. Anybody can start a TPT side hustle, regardless of their qualifications. However, being a teacher can certainly help boost your credibility, in turn helping you sell more products.

Getting started on Teachers Pay Teachers is relatively easy, but the more effort you put into launching your Teachers Pay Teachers store, the more likely you are to turn this platform into a successful side hustle. Follow these steps to start making money on Teachers Pay Teachers.

1. Choose a membership plan

Before you register as a teacher seller, you’ll need to decide whether you want a basic or premium TPT account. To help you decide, we’ve broken down the costs associated with each membership plan.

Basic vs. Premium TPT Seller Membership Plans

If your goal is to start a serious side hustle selling teaching materials on TPT, then a premium account is the way to go. Even though you’ll pay more upfront, you’ll pay less in transaction fees, meaning bigger profits in the long run if you make a lot of sales. You’ll also get access to marketing tools and other advanced features.

On the other hand, if you just want to make money off of a small number of existing teaching resources that you already have, a basic membership may be a better place to start.

You can always switch to a premium membership later if you start getting lots of sales. Just bear in mind that the sign-up fee you pay for a basic plan won’t count towards the yearly fee for a premium plan if you decide to upgrade.

2. Create a TPT seller account

Signing up for TPT is quick and easy. All you need to do is provide some basic information to create your seller account on TPT:

• Name
• Email address
• Location
• Grade levels
• Subjects

As part of their account verification process, TPT will also ask to confirm your age to ensure that you’re eligible to be a seller on the platform.

3. Set up a Hyperwallet account

In order to make money on Teachers Pay Teachers and actually get paid as a seller, you need to create an account with Hyperwallet, the platform’s third-party payment processor.

To do so, just follow these steps:

1. Log into your TPT account and click this link to get your payment key.
2. Copy your TPT key and then click “Sign up on Hyperwallet.”
3. Paste your TPT Key and then fill out the requested information to create and activate your Hyperwallet account.
4. Log in to your Hyperwallet account and click “Transfer,” then select a payment transfer method.

You can choose to get paid by direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, or wire transfer. Once you’ve got your Hyperwallet account activated, you’ll be able to receive monthly payouts from TPT for the sales you make.

4. Set up your TPT store

Once you sign up for your seller account, you’ll receive your own store page with a unique URL. Here, you’ll be able to provide information about yourself (e.g., your location, academic background, and teaching experience) and upload a profile picture.

You’ll also have the freedom to customize the visual elements of your page, including the header image. Once you’ve created some product listings, you’ll also be able to choose up to four resources to feature at the top of your store page.

Your TPT seller store isn’t just where you’ll list the teacher products you’re selling. It’s also where buyers will leave you reviews and potential buyers can ask you questions.

5. Create your first listing

One of the requirements to start selling on Teachers Pay Teachers is that your first product must be free. While it may be tempting to rush through this process so you can start earning money as a TPT seller, there’s good reason to take your time with this step and choose a high-quality product for your first listing.

Offering a freebie is not just good for the community of millions of teachers who use the TPT platform—it can also help you get sales by giving potential buyers a sneak peek into what they’d get from your paid products.

Once you’ve chosen a product to use as your Primary Free resource, upload it to your store and give it a name. Finally, to complete the listing, you’ll need to upload an image and give the product a description that details the following key features:

• Target grade level
• Academic subject
• Product type (e.g., presentation or game)
• Download format
• Length

The more detailed you can be in your descriptions and the more eye-catching your preview images are, the more likely you’ll be to sell your products.

Once you’ve created your first listing for your free product, you’ll be able to create as many listings as you want for paid products. These could be teaching resources you used in the past or products you’ve crafted specifically to sell on Teachers Pay Teachers.

In 2022, the CEO of Teachers Pay Teachers reported that the average seller on the platform made “low single-digit thousands” per year. This is consistent with what TPT sellers say online. It doesn’t seem uncommon to make $100+ per month with relatively little effort.

Of course, there are outliers. Top sellers on TPT have earned millions of dollars on the platform, whereas others may earn next to nothing. Your income from Teachers Pay Teachers ultimately depends on factors like how many sales you make, how you price individual items, the demand in your niche, and how well you market your products.

For many teachers, selling the educational materials and resources they’ve already created for their own students is a great way to generate a passive income with very little effort. And if you’re ready to start a side hustle selling teaching materials, Teachers Pay Teachers is pretty much the best platform to use.

Just bear in mind that if you don’t have a teaching background, it could be tough to build the reputation and credibility to really take off on TPT. Moreover, if you’re planning on generating a lot of products from scratch, you’ll need to be prepared to put in a fair amount of work. This may be difficult to juggle alongside a full-time job.

Before you sign up, take a look at our review of whether selling on TPT is worth it. There, we summarize the platform’s features and costs and take a deep dive into how real sellers feel about TPT.

The bottom line is that what you get out of Teachers Pay Teachers depends on where you’re starting out. If you already have teacher resources to sell, then it can be the quickest and easiest money you ever earned. For nonteachers just testing the waters, it may be as tough a side hustle as any other.