Terms of Service

Learn Now is a tutor-matching platform operated by Beacon Lab Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. We connect families and learners with independent tutors; tutors on the platform are independent professionals, not our employees.

You must provide accurate information when creating an account. Parent accounts may create student logins for their children or other learners they manage; student accounts are view-only and cannot make payments. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure.

Browsing and matching are free and never gated. Search ranking is never sold — no tutor can pay to appear above another. Reviews are shown only when they come from real, completed lessons and carry no reward of any kind.

Reviews. Only a parent who has had a completed lesson with a tutor can review them, once for each class. A review should be honest and about the teaching. It must not include anyone’s personal details or offensive language, and it must not accuse anyone of a crime. If you are worried about a child’s safety, tell us instead, and the child-safety process below applies. We do not check whether a review is true, we do not edit reviews, and we do not take sides when a tutor and a parent disagree about one. Anyone can report a review from the tutor’s profile. We look at every report, keep a record of what we decided, and take down a review that breaks these rules or that the law requires us to remove. A tutor can post one public reply to each review. A review stays on the tutor’s profile, shown as written by “A parent”, after the parent closes their account.

All payments run through Stripe, which holds the money and releases it to tutors only after a lesson takes place and a 48-hour issue window passes. Our full money rules, including your refund rights, are in the Refund Policy — it forms part of these terms.

The platform’s matching fee on 1-on-1 arrangements is the trial lesson with each tutor new to the family, which the platform retains as a placement fee when the family chooses that tutor. Every 1-on-1 arrangement starts with a trial, including where the family already knows the tutor through Learn Now. A request runs for at most 23 days: tutors may quote for the first 14; the trials the family books are taught by day 21; and the family then has until day 23 to choose one tutor, or none — though they may choose at any time before. A family may trial several tutors for one request; each trial is charged separately, and a tutor is not told whether they are the only one being trialled. A trial lesson is at least 1.5 hours and is priced at the tutor’s quoted hourly rate multiplied by its length. Later lessons are of whatever length the parent and tutor agree (30 minutes to 3 hours, in half-hours) and are priced the same way. From the second lesson onward the tutor receives the lesson price less the platform fee and our provider’s payout cost (see Payment processing below).

Changing the rate. The hourly rate for an arrangement is the rate the tutor quoted and the family accepted. Once an arrangement has run for three months, the tutor may propose a different rate — higher or lower — through the platform, naming the date from which it would apply. The new rate applies only if the family accepts it on the platform, and only to lessons on or after that date; a lesson already paid for is never repriced. A proposal the family has not answered within seven days lapses and the rate stays as it was. We ask tutors to discuss a change with the family before proposing it, and a family who does not accept a change may end the arrangement in the ordinary way.

Changing when lessons happen. The time of every lesson is agreed between the family and the tutor on the platform, and a change applies only when the other side accepts it there. There are two kinds of change. To move a single lesson, either side proposes a new date and time for that lesson; if the other side accepts, only that lesson moves, keeping its length and price, and the weekly time stays as it was. A lesson can be moved this way until 48 hours before it is due to start; after that, the cancellation rules in the Refund Policy apply. To change the weekly time, either side proposes the new time and the date it starts from, at least 48 hours ahead; if the other side accepts, the lessons from that date, including any already paid for, move in order to the new time, each keeping its length and price, and lessons before that date stay as they are. A proposal the other side does not answer within 48 hours lapses and nothing changes. A lesson that has been marked completed is never moved or changed: its date, time and amount stay on record as they were.

The lesson record. The family and the tutor can both see the record of every lesson in a class: when it was paid for, any change to its time and who asked for and agreed it, any cancellation or issue and how it ended, when it took place and was marked completed, and when the payment was released or refunded.

Ending an arrangement. Either the family or the tutor may end an ongoing arrangement at any time from their console, after telling us briefly why. Lessons already taught are settled in the ordinary way. Lessons paid for but not yet taught are returned to the family as Learn Now Credits at once. A lesson on which an issue has been raised is settled first, and the arrangement ends when it is.

What happens to each trial when the family decides. The trial of the tutor the family chooses, if that tutor was new to them, is the placement fee. A tutor the family did not choose is paid half of their trial fee for the lesson they taught. A tutor the family had already worked with through Learn Now keeps their trial fee, less the platform fee, whether chosen or not. A tutor who was not chosen is paid once the family has decided, and never sooner than 48 hours after the trial was taught, so that the family keeps its full time to raise an issue about it. A trial that has not happened when the family decides is refunded to the family’s credits, unless it is due to start within 48 hours, in which case it stands and is paid on the same terms once it is taught. If the family has not chosen by day 23, the request closes with no tutor chosen and every trial is settled as above. This is between the platform and the tutors and does not change what the family paid. If the family later engages a tutor they did not choose, by any route, the platform retains half of the first lesson of that new arrangement as its placement fee and the tutor receives the rest.

Where a tutor invites a family they were already teaching outside Learn Now, and that family has not previously posted a request on Learn Now, there is no trial. The first lesson is an ordinary lesson: you pay the lesson fee, the platform retains one quarter of it as an onboarding fee for the matching service, and the tutor receives the rest. From the second lesson onward the tutor receives the lesson price less the platform fee and our provider’s payout cost.

Payment processing. When a parent pays by card, WeChat Pay or Alipay, a separate “Payment processing” line is shown at checkout and paid on top of the tutor’s price: Learn Now’s payment fee, currently 3% of the amount, retained by Learn Now (Beacon Lab Pte. Ltd.). Paying by PayNow carries no such line. You choose how to pay before checkout opens, and the line, where there is one, is shown before you pay. It is a transaction cost: it is not refunded when a lesson is refunded, for any reason. On a Learn Now Credits top-up it is charged once, on the top-up, and not on the lessons the balance then pays for. Nothing is deducted from a tutor’s transfer for our provider’s payout cost; that cost is inside the platform fee. We may change the fee for future payments; the rate in force is always the one shown at checkout.

Learn Now Credits. You may add credits to your account and use them to pay for lessons at their normal price, and for Learn Now’s own services; each credit pays for S$1 of them. Credits do not expire, and we never reduce the value of credits you hold. Every refund we make to you — a cancelled lesson, an issue decided in your favour, a trial that did not happen, a short-notice booking that was not accepted, a group class that did not start — is made in credits, whatever you paid with, and appears on your credits statement at once. A top-up is a purchase of credits, not money we hold for you: credits are not exchanged for cash or paid back to a card or bank account at any time, including when you close your account, and they stay with the account that holds them and cannot be transferred or given to anyone else. Credits left on an account when it is closed are given up, so top up what you expect to use, and if you are thinking of leaving, use your balance first and close the account after your last lesson. The Account page shows your balance and says this again before you confirm. If an issue with a tutor is still being decided, closing waits until it is settled, so that anything that comes back to you can still be used. Closing an account takes a few minutes from the Account page, and we do not ask why. We hold at most 5,000 credits bought by any one family; a refund is added in full even above that.

Paying from credits. You may pay for any lesson from your credits, or for up to four weeks of an agreed weekly time at once. You may also switch on automatic payment for a class: each of its lessons is then paid from your balance three days before it happens and confirmed to your tutor, and if the balance will not cover it we tell you, and you may pay that lesson directly instead. Automatic payment is off unless you switch it on, and you may switch it off at any time.

Platform fee. From the second lesson of an arrangement onward, Learn Now charges the tutor a percentage of each lesson for running the platform — collecting and safeguarding the payment, paying the tutor within 48 hours of a completed lesson whether or not the money has cleared elsewhere, paying our provider’s cost of transferring money to the tutor, and handling disputes and refunds. The rate depends on the tutor’s status and on nothing else: Standard Tutor 5% of the lesson price; Business Desk Tutor 4%, for a tutor whose Business Desk engagement with us has been paid; Founding Growth Partner 3.85%, for a tutor we have given one of thirty founding seats, or whose lessons through Learn Now exceed S$150,000 in any twelve months, or who has referred fifteen tutors each of whom has earned S$1,000 or more here. A status is granted once and kept; a tutor holding more than one pays the lowest rate, and the rates do not combine. A status is lost only if the account is suspended or closed for a breach of these terms, or if it was obtained by fraud. The current rate is shown to every tutor in their Finance page, and nothing further is deducted from what the tutor receives.

What the platform fee does not apply to. It is not charged on a trial fee the platform retains as its placement fee, or on the half of a trial fee paid to a tutor the family did not choose — though it is charged on a trial fee kept by a tutor the family had already worked with through Learn Now — nor on the first lesson of an arrangement where an onboarding fee has been retained instead. It is not charged to parents: the price a family pays for a lesson is the tutor’s rate and is unaffected by it. It is not charged on Tutor Pro, the Report Book, learning materials, room bookings or corporate-secretarial services, which carry their own separate charges where any apply.

Changes to the platform fee. The rate that applies to a lesson is fixed when that lesson is paid for and does not change afterwards, whatever the rate becomes later. We may change the rate for future lessons; where a change would increase what a tutor pays, we will give at least 30 days’ notice by email before it takes effect. A tutor who does not accept a change may stop accepting new lessons and close their account, and money already held for lessons they have taught is paid to them in the ordinary way.

Tutor rewards. Three rewards sit on top of the platform fee and are paid to the tutor’s payout account. Revenue, for all of them, means the lesson price of lessons and class seats released to the tutor, net of refunds; it excludes trial lessons and the share of a first lesson retained as an onboarding fee, the payment-processing line, and anything other than teaching. (1) Welcome bonus: on the revenue earned in the twelve months from the tutor’s join date (or from the programme’s launch, for tutors who joined earlier), a one-time bonus of 1.5% on the first S$10,000, 1.2% on the next S$10,000, 1% to S$30,000, 0.8% to S$45,000, 0.6% to S$60,000 and 0.4% to S$90,000 — at most S$700. (2) Loyalty rebate: each financial year (June to May), a rebate on that year’s revenue earned after the welcome period, at a rate set by the tutor’s lifetime revenue through Learn Now — 0.2% from S$30,000, 0.4% from S$60,000, 0.6% from S$100,000, 0.8% from S$200,000 and 1% from S$300,000; a tier once reached is kept. (3) Partner profit share: for Founding Growth Partners, a share of a pool equal to 10% of the net profit of the Learn Now tuition marketplace for the financial year as shown in our management accounts, our determination of which is final, divided among Partners in proportion to the platform fee each paid in that year; where there is no profit there is no pool. This is a bonus under these terms and confers no shareholding, voting right or other interest in Beacon Lab Pte. Ltd. The welcome bonus and loyalty rebate are paid thirty days after the period they relate to ends, the profit share by 30 September; amounts under S$10 are carried to the next payment; a tutor must still hold an account on the payment date. Rewards are not reclaimed once paid, except where they were obtained by fraud. We may change the rates and thresholds of the rewards and the rate attached to each status with 30 days’ notice; the welcome-bonus table in force on a tutor’s join date applies for their whole welcome period, and a status already granted is kept. Rewards are income of the tutor, who is responsible for their own tax.

Referral bonus. A tutor who refers another tutor with their referral code receives S$20, paid with their next rewards payment, once the referred tutor’s first lesson through Learn Now has been released; the referred tutor receives nothing under this paragraph. A parent who refers a family or a tutor, and a tutor who refers a family, receive the credit or voucher described in their Account page when the referred person’s first lesson is released. A referral obtained by creating accounts for oneself or by other abuse earns nothing.

On a running arrangement, a parent may request extra lessons on specific dates. Each extra lesson the tutor confirms is paid for separately, as an ordinary lesson, and follows the same safekeeping, completion and issue-window rules.

Short-notice bookings. A lesson inside the next 24 hours can be booked with a tutor who has switched short-notice bookings on, at the tutor’s listed rate plus a short-notice surcharge of 10% of the lesson price (minimum S$10), which is paid to the tutor in full with no platform fee on it. You pay when you book; the tutor then has two hours to accept. If they decline, or do not answer in time, the lesson fee and the surcharge are refunded automatically to your credits; the payment-processing line is a transaction cost and is not returned. If it is your first lesson with that tutor it is the trial lesson, and the placement fee and the rules above apply to it in the ordinary way. A short-notice booking is not available on a lesson that is waiting to be paid first after a missed payment.

Paying more than one lesson at a time. Once a weekly time is agreed you may pay for up to four weeks of it in one go from your Learn Now Credits. Each of those lessons is held in safekeeping and released to your tutor only after it happens, exactly as a single lesson is, and if one of them is later cancelled or refunded, its price comes back to your credits in full. Paying several lessons at once by PayNow or card is not offered; the next lesson on its own may still be paid by PayNow, card or credits.

For 1-on-1 lessons and group classes run by a tutor, the tutor is the supplier of the tuition and your agreement for the lesson is with the tutor. Learn Now collects your payment as the tutor’s agent, holds it in safekeeping, and passes it to the tutor once the lesson has taken place. What Learn Now itself supplies is the matching and payments service, and the placement fee is its charge for that. Your receipt for every lesson says so.

Some group classes are run by Learn Now itself under the name Learn Now Studio, and are labelled as ours on every listing. For those classes Beacon Lab Pte. Ltd. is the supplier of the tuition, your agreement is with Beacon Lab, the fee is Beacon Lab’s in full, and the tutor teaching the class is engaged by us. Studio classes are billed monthly in advance under their own terms, which you see before you enrol.

Keep lessons and payments on the platform — that is what keeps everyone’s money protected. Do not misrepresent qualifications, post false reviews, or use the platform to harm others.

Respect. Tutors, families, learners and Learn Now’s own staff and administrators are all entitled to be treated with respect. We do not tolerate abusive, threatening or obscene language, sexual harassment, or violence or the threat of it — in a lesson, in messages on the platform, or in any dealing with our team. Accounts that behave this way are suspended.

Child safety comes first. The safety and wellbeing of every child who learns through Learn Now is our foremost concern, and it outranks everything else in this section. Any report of bullying, of physical or verbal abuse, or of sexual or obscene conduct involving a child is treated as urgent: we suspend the account concerned while we establish what happened, and we do not wait for the outcome before doing so. A suspension at that stage is a precaution, not a finding that the report is true. Where the conduct may be a criminal offence we report it to the Police and to any other authority with a proper interest, and we co-operate with them fully.

Tutor declaration. Before sending a quote or inviting a family, every tutor confirms to us that they have never been convicted of an offence involving violence, sexual misconduct or harm to a child, that they are not facing any such charge, and that no court order stops them from being around children. Convictions that the law treats as spent do not count. A tutor must tell us within 7 days if any of this changes. We cannot run police checks, because none are available in Singapore for private tutors, so we rely on this declaration. If a declaration turns out to be false, we close the account permanently and report the matter as described in the paragraph above.

How to report. Write to info@learnnow.com.sg with “child safety” in the subject line and it goes to the top of the queue; if a child is in immediate danger, call the Police on 999 first and tell us afterwards. A report made in good faith never counts against the account that makes it, even if we find nothing wrong.

For lessons and classes run by tutors, we are a matching and payments service: we do not supervise lessons and are not responsible for the conduct of tutors or families, or for outcomes of tuition. For Learn Now Studio classes, Beacon Lab is the provider of the class and is responsible for it. Nothing in these terms removes rights you have under Singapore law that cannot be excluded.

We may update these terms as Learn Now develops. Material changes are announced on the platform before they take effect, and where a change increases what a tutor pays we give the 30 days’ notice set out above.

Every version of these terms is kept, together with the dates it was in force. A matter raised later is decided under the version that applied at the time it arose, not under whatever these terms have since become. The version history is at the foot of this page and each version stays readable at its own address.

We may also change how payments are taken and made — the payment provider we use, the payment methods we accept, and how money is held and transferred — without seeking each user’s approval first. A change of that kind applies to payments made after it takes effect. It never changes the price of a lesson already paid for, and it never changes how money already in safekeeping is protected, released or refunded.