Payment Plan & Installment Price Calculator for Edupreneurs

By Jeff Cobb.  Last Updated on September 12, 2026
Free Tool by Jeff Cobb

Payment Plan Price Calculator

Find out what to charge per installment so a payment plan nets the same as your one-time price, once you price in the customers who stop paying partway through.

Dropout rates below are commonly cited planning ranges, not a guarantee for your audience. Your own plan’s completion rate depends on your niche, price point, and how you collect payment, so watch your actual numbers and adjust from there.

Pick your expected dropout risk

This is the share of plan value you’re likely to lose to customers who stop paying before the plan finishes.

Established audience
~5% dropout
Mixed audience
~10% dropout
New or cold audience
~20% dropout
Per-installment price
$0
Total plan price
$0
Extra vs one-time
$0
Per-installment price on a $1,000 course, by plan length and dropout risk
PlanEstablished (5%)Mixed (10%)Cold (20%)

How this calculator works

Plan total needed = One-time price ÷ (1 − Dropout rate)
Per-installment price = Plan total needed ÷ Number of installments

A payment plan priced at the same total as your one-time offer quietly loses money, because a share of buyers stop paying before they finish. If you charge $1,000 across three payments and 10% of buyers vanish after the first one, you didn’t collect $1,000, you collected closer to $700. This calculator grosses the plan price up so the expected collected total, after typical dropout, lands back at what the one-time price would have paid you.

Why the gap widens with more installments

A 2-payment plan carries less dropout risk than a 6-payment plan, since there’s less time and fewer charge dates for a customer’s card to fail or their circumstances to change. Longer plans need a bigger markup to compensate, which is part of why many creators cap plans at 3 payments rather than stretching them to 6 or 12.

Example

A $1,000 course sold as 3 payments to a mixed audience (10% dropout) should price each installment at about $370.37, for a $1,111.11 total plan price, $111.11 more than the one-time price.

Each installment is also its own transaction fee. Beyond dropout risk, every separate charge on a payment plan triggers its own processing fee, unlike a single one-time charge. On a 6-payment plan that can add up to a few extra dollars in fees compared to one lump-sum transaction, small next to dropout risk but worth knowing about if you’re pricing tightly.

What affects the right payment plan price

  • Audience trust level: a warm, established audience defaults far less often than a cold one buying on impulse
  • Number of installments: more payments mean more chances for a card decline or a change of heart
  • Price point: higher-ticket plans often see lower dropout in percentage terms, since buyers have already committed more upfront
  • Payment recovery process: automated dunning emails and card-updater tools recover a meaningful share of failed payments and can lower your real dropout rate over time
  • What happens on default: plans that revoke access immediately on a failed payment tend to see fewer people intentionally stop paying than plans with no consequence

Payment plan price calculator: frequently asked questions

How much should I mark up a payment plan compared to one-time price?
A common range is 10% to 25% depending on your dropout risk and number of installments, though a warm, trusted audience on a short 2 or 3-payment plan can often get away with a smaller markup.
What dropout rate should I assume if I’ve never offered a payment plan before?
Start with the “Mixed audience” preset at 10% unless you have a strong reason to expect better, then adjust based on your actual completion rate once you have a few plans’ worth of real data.
Should I ever offer payment plans at the same price as one-time?
Some creators do this deliberately to remove friction and boost overall conversion, accepting the dropout loss as a cost of making the offer more accessible. It’s a valid strategy, just one to choose knowingly rather than by accident.
Does a longer payment plan always mean higher dropout?
Generally yes, since a longer commitment gives more opportunities for a card to expire or a buyer’s circumstances to change. Recovery tools like automatic card updaters and dunning emails can narrow that gap significantly.
How do I actually reduce dropout instead of just pricing around it?
Automated retry logic on failed charges, card-updater services from your payment processor, and a clear policy that revokes access on non-payment all tend to lower real-world dropout more than pricing adjustments alone.
See the refund side of the equation too

The Refund Rate Cost Calculator turns your refund percentage into a concrete dollar cost, the same way this tool handles payment plan dropout.

See all free tools → Check my margin

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Head shot of Learning Revolution Founder Jeff Cobb

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.

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