Selling a course has never been easier, and the numbers prove it. One survey-sized chunk of the internet now learns new skills from independent teachers, and platforms pay out millions every month to regular people who packaged what they know. The catch? Pick the wrong platform and you’ll hand over 63% of your revenue.
That’s not a typo. Udemy keeps up to 63% of your course sales if students find you through its own marketplace. Meanwhile, other platforms charge $29 a month and let you keep almost everything.
So which one’s right for you? It depends on your audience, your topic, and how much you want AI to do the heavy lifting. I compared the six biggest options, with real fees and their actual AI features, so you can sell online courses with AI instead of fighting your platform.
The quick comparison
Here’s the whole field in one view, because where you sell online courses with AI matters as much as what you teach. All pricing was checked in October 2026.
| Platform | Cost to you | Revenue cut | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Udemy | Free to publish | 3% (your coupons) to 63% (their traffic) | First course, built-in audience |
| Skillshare | Free to create | Royalties by minutes watched | Creative skills, short video classes |
| Teachable | $39/mo + 7.5% fees | You keep 92.5% | Building a real course business |
| Podia | $49/mo + 5% fees | You keep 95% | Courses plus downloads and coaching |
| LearnWorlds | $29/mo + $5 per sale | You keep almost all | Polish and AI-powered course building |
| Kajabi | From $179/mo | 0% transaction fees | Course business with full marketing stack |
Now the part that actually matters: what each one does well, and where it hurts.
Udemy: the marketplace with millions of students
Udemy is the closest thing online teaching has to a shopping mall. Students already browse there with credit cards out, which solves the hardest problem when you sell online courses with AI: nobody knows you exist yet.
The money math works like this. Publishing is free for courses under two hours of video. When a student buys through your own coupon or link, Udemy takes just 3%. When Udemy’s own search and recommendations drive the sale, it takes 63%.
That 63% stings, but it buys you something real. Udemy’s marketplace insights show you what topics are in demand before you record anything, and their guided creation flow walks you through structuring lessons. Assessments and hands-on assignments are supported better here than anywhere else on this list.
The play: use Udemy to learn what sells and build your first audience. Treat the revenue cut as tuition. Browse the catalog at udemy.com to see how your topic stacks up.
Skillshare: free to start, paid by minutes watched
Skillshare works completely differently. There’s no price tag on your class. Instead, you get paid from a royalty pool based on how many minutes premium members spend watching your content, plus $10 for every premium membership referral you bring in.
Setup is genuinely fast. Classes need three things: video lessons, a project for students to complete, and some community discussion. That’s it. If your topic is creative (illustration, writing, design, photography), you’re exactly who this platform was built for.
Newer options sweeten the deal. Skillshare now lets you sell downloadable digital products and one-to-one coaching alongside your classes, and it takes a 10% cut of those sales.
The limits are real though. Video is mandatory, there’s no support for quizzes or assessments, and discovery favors teachers who publish consistently. Think of Skillshare as a playlist you grow, not a product you launch.
Teachable: AI features that actually help
Teachable sits in the middle of the pricing field at $39 a month for the Starter plan, with 7.5% transaction fees on top. You get five courses, unlimited students, and a serious set of marketing tools.
What makes it interesting right now is the AI. Teachable’s generative AI builds a course outline, drafts lesson content, writes quizzes, and generates section summaries. Zapier’s reviewer called the output good enough to serve as a solid starting point, which is exactly what you want from AI: structure first, polish after.
Beyond that, you get a native email marketing tool that can message students based on what they do (enrolled, redeemed a coupon, completed a course), plus a custom-code course editor if you want full control of how things look.
The downside: only three design templates. Your course will look like other Teachable courses unless you edit code.
If you’re selling AI-assisted lessons and want the platform to carry real marketing weight, this is a strong pick. Start at teachable.com.
Podia: simple selling for digital products of every kind
Podia keeps things refreshingly plain. The Mover plan runs $49 a month billed annually with a 5% transaction fee, and you can sell courses, digital downloads, coaching sessions, and memberships from one storefront.
The builder is simple on purpose. Course outlines are clean and quick to assemble. Storefront templates look similar across creators, which is either boring or a relief, depending on how much you enjoy fiddling with design.
Where Podia earns its fee is the bundle play. Many creators pair a cheap download with a premium course and a monthly membership, all sold from the same page. Podia handles that mix without add-ons, and membership perks like private communities are built in.
It’s not the prettiest platform. It might be the fastest one to get selling on.
LearnWorlds: granular control plus helpful AI
LearnWorlds starts at $29 a month plus $5 per course sale, with unlimited paid courses and up to 1,000 monthly active learners on the Starter plan. That per-sale fee sounds annoying until you compare it with Teachable’s percentage: on a cheap course, LearnWorlds costs you less. On premium pricing, Teachable wins. Inexpensive courses favor LearnWorlds.
Two things set it apart. First, customization goes deep: you can adjust nearly everything visually without touching code. Second, Zapier’s testing flagged its generative AI as one of the most useful they tried, with options to guide and customize the generated content instead of accepting one generic output.
There’s one odd limitation: no text-only lessons. Everything needs some media attached.
For creators who want their school to look exactly right and like AI that takes direction, LearnWorlds earns its price.
Kajabi: the everything-included business in a box
Kajabi is the expensive option, and it doesn’t apologize for it. The Basic plan starts at $179 a month for one website, five products, and 2,500 contacts. Growth runs $249 a month.
What you’re buying is the whole machine. Kajabi includes native email marketing with open tracking, page templates for every kind of funnel, and AI features that go further than most: it can create AI agents that act as your sales rep or teaching assistant. Zero transaction fees on everything.
Pricing has climbed hard in recent years, and that’s the honest knock. If courses are your full business (not a side project), the marketing stack can pay for itself. If you’re testing an idea, $179 a month before your first sale is a rough place to start.
How to actually use AI in your course workflow
Whichever platform you pick, AI can carry more of the load than most beginners realize. Your platform choice shapes how smoothly you can sell online courses with AI, so test the AI features during any free trial. Here’s a workflow that works in 2026:
- Find the topic. Ask ChatGPT to list common problems your skills can solve, then cross-check demand using Udemy’s free marketplace insights (you can browse them without publishing).
- Build the outline. Use your platform’s AI (Teachable and LearnWorlds both do this well) or Claude to draft modules and lessons. Edit ruthlessly. The outline is where quality lives or dies.
- Draft lessons. Generate first drafts of scripts or slide text with AI, then record in your own voice. Students pay for you, not for a text-to-speech bot.
- Create the extras. AI writes quizzes, summaries, and workbook pages in minutes. Review every one, because these are the pieces students actually finish.
- Automate the marketing. Connect your platform to email and social tools so enrollment emails, reminders, and posts go out on schedule. Our guide on how to automate ChatGPT with Zapier shows the no-code version of this.
One honest warning. AI speeds up production, but it doesn’t save a boring course. Record a quick outline and show it to five people before you build all of it.
The takeaway
The best way to sell online courses with AI is to match the platform to your stage. Testing an idea? Udemy’s free publishing and built-in audience cost nothing upfront. Ready to build a business? LearnWorlds at $29 a month or Teachable at $39 give you AI course-building with fees you can live with. Going all-in? Kajabi replaces five tools, if the price doesn’t scare you off. Whatever you choose, let AI draft the structure and keep your own voice in the lessons. For more ways to turn AI into income, see our guide to making money with AI on X and these AI side hustles you can start this week.
