How Much Do Grinds Cost in Ireland?
Published grinds prices per hour and per year from Irish grind schools, what the ESRI found about whether grinds are worth it, and cheaper things to try first.
ExamAI Team6 min read 
A private one-to-one teacher typically charges €50 an hour, per Irish Times reporting from October 2024. A weekly grind-school class in one subject costs €1,195 to €1,399 for the 2026/27 year at the two biggest Dublin grind schools, and a full-time grind-school year costs up to €11,000. Each figure below is a published rate, linked to the page it comes from.
All prices were checked on Friday 7 August 2026. Grind schools change their fees each year, so check the linked page before you budget.
One-to-one grinds by the hour
For a private teacher working with one student, the Irish Times reported a rate of €50 an hour in its October 2024 piece on the grinds industry. That article put the whole sector at €30 to €40 million a year.
Rates move with the teacher and the county. An experienced teacher who marks for the State Examinations Commission asks more than a college student in second year. We could not find a published national average from a source worth citing. Treat €50 as one reported figure for private one-to-one work, not a ceiling or a floor.
At €50 an hour, one grind a week for the 30 or so teaching weeks from September to June comes to about €1,500 in a single subject.
Grind school weekly classes
Grind schools run a class of students rather than one-to-one. The Institute of Education publishes its fees for 6th Year Weekly Grinds on the course page. As of 7 August 2026 the rates for the 2026/27 year are:
| Subjects | Fee |
|---|---|
| 1 subject | €1,195 |
| 2 subjects | €1,795 |
| 3 subjects | €2,395 |
| Each subject after that | €600 |
That fee buys 29 weekly classes of 75 minutes each. The same page offers the first subject at €146 a month. Divide €1,195 by 29 classes and each class works out at about €41, or roughly €33 an hour of teaching. That is cheaper per hour than €50 one-to-one, and you are one of a class rather than the only student in the room.
All-in yearly plans
The newer model sells the whole year in one payment. The Dublin Academy of Education prices its 6th Year Grinds+ plan at €1,399 paid in full, marked down from €1,599, covering August 2026 to June 2027 with up to seven subjects, weekly classes, and revision courses. Their own FAQ on that page states that a single 6th year subject elsewhere costs roughly €1,199 a year.
Grinds360 charges €1,399 a year, according to the Irish Times in June 2025. The same article reported the sector at €60 to €80 million.
At the top end, full-time grind schools replace your school entirely. The Institute of Education charges up to €11,000 a year for a full-time place, per the Irish Times in October 2024.
Do grinds actually improve results
The Economic and Social Research Institute studied private tuition in Ireland and Germany, and the Irish Times reported the findings in September 2024. 55 per cent of final year students take grinds, mostly from higher-income families.
On results, the study found that private tuition "only appears to pay off for students with lower levels of achievement, with little if any gain for their middle and higher achieving peers".
The finding is narrower than "grinds do not work". The measured gain showed up for students who were behind and did not show up for students already doing well. A student on a H4 who cannot follow class is in a different position from a student on a H2 whose parents are buying insurance.
What a grind gives you
One-to-one works because the whole hour belongs to your specific confusion. It gets diagnosed and answered while it is still small, where a class of thirty has to move on, and in a subject like maths, falling half a step behind compounds week by week.
A good teacher also does things software cannot. They notice when you say you understand and clearly do not. Across a few months they learn your work well enough to tell you which two topics to fix first, and they mark your handwritten answers with your habits in them. A fixed hour in the week that you have to turn up for is worth something on its own.
So a grind can be money well spent. The question is whether teaching time is the thing you are short of.
The cheaper things to try first
Work through these before you pay anyone, because each one is free and each one solves a problem grinds are often bought to solve.
Ask your own teacher. They wrote your report, they know your work, and they are paid to help you. Most will go through a question at lunch or after class if you ask with the question in front of you.
Use the free papers. Leaving Cert past papers and marking schemes are free on examinations.ie, and we wrote up every place you can get them. Our past-paper finder links each paper and its scheme directly, subject by subject, including the maths papers. If you have never worked from a marking scheme, that alone changes how you answer.
Fix the method before you buy more hours. The exam asks you to write answers under time, so that is what practice has to look like. Do a question against the clock, then mark it yourself with the scheme open. We set out a routine for that in how to study with past papers.
If you try all three and you are still stuck on the same topic in November, that is a real signal, and a grind aimed at that topic is a reasonable spend.
Where the ExamAI tutor sits on this scale
The ExamAI tutor is €10 a month, or €60 once for the full year, which works out at €5 a month. Every account starts with a 7-day free trial and no card is required.
One hour with a private teacher at the reported €50 rate costs close to a full year of the tutor. That comparison is fair on price and incomplete on everything else. A human sitting with you for an hour a week does the things listed in the section above, and a chat window does none of them. Nobody at ExamAI will notice you have gone quiet in November.
What the tutor does cover is the gap in between. It is built on the real papers and marking schemes, going back to 2015, for every Leaving Cert subject. When you are on a past paper at 9pm and the third line of the solution loses you, you can ask about that line and keep going. A weekly class does not cover that moment, because the next session could be most of a week away.
We wrote more about that use in AI grinds for Leaving Cert maths and personalised tutoring.
Questions people ask
How much do grinds cost per hour in Ireland? The Irish Times reported €50 an hour for a private one-to-one teacher in October 2024. Grind school classes work out cheaper per hour, around €33 at the Institute of Education's 2026/27 rate, because you are in a class group.
How much is a year of grinds in one subject? €1,195 for 29 weekly classes at the Institute of Education, checked on 7 August 2026. The Dublin Academy of Education states that a single 6th year subject elsewhere runs to roughly €1,199 a year.
Are grinds worth it for the Leaving Cert? The ESRI research reported in September 2024 found a benefit for lower-achieving students and little if any gain for middle and higher achievers. Grinds are most likely to help when you are behind on specific content and cannot follow your class.
What is the cheapest way to get exam help? Your own teacher, then the free papers and marking schemes on examinations.ie. After that, online tools cost a fraction of hourly tuition.
Try the tutor on a past paper
Open the ExamAI tutor, pick a past paper in the subject you are worried about, and ask about the first step that trips you up. The 7-day trial needs no card, so you can find out whether the problem is teaching time or study method before you spend anything.