Teach English Online

Teaching English online from Ireland is real work, but it is usually not employment. You will almost always be self-employed for Irish tax purposes, paid by the hour by a company based abroad, and expected to teach when your students are awake rather than when you are. This guide does not quote an hourly rate, because no major platform publishes one officially.

What Irish teachers should know first

If you teach online from Ireland for a platform based abroad, nobody is operating PAYE on your behalf. The Revenue Commissioners treat that income as non-PAYE income and, in the normal case, treat you as self-employed. Revenue’s guidance on Income Tax self-assessment (revenue.ie, Who should register for Income Tax self-assessment?) states that you should register for Income Tax self-assessment if you are self-employed. If you also hold a PAYE job, Revenue’s Guide to Completing Pay and File Tax Returns sets the trigger for a Form 11 self-assessment return at net non-PAYE income of €5,000 or more in a year, or gross non-PAYE income of €30,000 or more; below both of those figures the simpler Form 12 return normally applies. Those thresholds are Revenue’s, checked on 8 September 2026. They are the single most-missed fact in online TEFL, and no competitor guide we have read mentions them.

Two practical constraints matter as much as the tax point. First, platforms recruit against a market, and a market has a clock: if the students are in East Asia, the paid hours sit in the Irish small hours, and if they are in Latin America or the Gulf, the hours are kinder. Your realistic weekly earnings are set by how many of those hours you will actually sit up for, not by the advertised rate. Second, platforms set their own qualification rules — degree requirements, minimum TEFL hours, native-speaker or accent policies — and these change without notice, so verify the current rules on the platform’s own site before you build a plan around it.

On pay: online teaching is quoted hourly, and we hold no audited hourly figure for any platform. Platform rates are commercial, unpublished, and vary by student demand, peak-hour bonuses and cancellation rules, so as of 8 September 2026 this guide does not publish an hourly rate. Anyone quoting you a precise average is estimating. Treat any figure you see elsewhere as an advertisement until the platform states it in writing to you.

How did online English teaching become a mainstream option?

Online teaching has taken off massively in the past few years. When the world was going through a time when nobody could attend their classes and continue learning, the solution was to take education online. Teachers quickly learned to use different teaching programmes and adapt their methods to a new online environment. Students got used to turning microphones on and off (although some still struggle to do this at times!). Although many countries have gone back to traditional classroom learning and many TEFL jobs can be found here, there continues to be a significant demand for online English teachers as some students continue their education in this way.

What does teaching English online actually involve?

Teaching English online is just teaching a lesson online using a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Video calls are the most common method of communication in online education. Classes can be one-on-one or include multiple students at once, just as in a regular classroom. Exam English, Business English, and even Medical English might be the focus of specific classes. The world of online education is thriving! The market for online instruction has grown dramatically during the past year.

Where to read next

Start with our TEFL jobs pillar for how online work sits alongside classroom roles. If you would rather teach in a classroom and keep a European base, compare teaching English in Spain and teaching English in Georgia, which has a notably straightforward entry route for Irish citizens. To get qualified before you apply anywhere, see our TEFL courses in Ireland.

Talk to a real person

No obligation and no sales pitch. Tell us what you want out of the year and we will tell you honestly whether teaching online fits.

Where to Find a Job

Listings on job websites

All the usual websites for finding TEFL jobs now also list vacancies for online teaching! Here are some useful sites you can check out and apply for online teaching jobs to kickstart your remote TEFL career:

TEFL.com

This is the number one job website for TEFL (for both classroom and online teaching). A lot of companies advertise here, and it is updated regularly. You can select the category “online” to find the latest positions for online teaching. You apply via the site and can fill out a standard application to apply for multiple roles, including teaching English online but don’t forget to create a unique cover letter for each position you apply for! An employer can tell straight away if you’ve copied and pasted the same cover letter and will immediately lose interest in your application.

Indeed

Although a generic job site, you can focus your search by adding the keywords ‘TEFL online’ or ‘English Teacher online’. When you conduct a search for this, you can also select ‘remote’ to access all of the online job postings with information on pay and responsibilities. On this website, you can also make a CV that will be automatically utilised when you wish to apply for a job teaching English online, or you can frequently find the company’s email on the job advertisement and apply directly.

Social media

Nowadays, the world is obsessed with social media. If you can learn a recipe online, why can’t you find a job vacancy online? Facebook is a great place to find daily listings- you need to find the right group to join. Try joining TEFL groups (online TEFL ones, TEFL worldwide, country-specific groups for English teachers etc.), and you will see some listings pop up from recruiters and schools. Remember that these jobs are often not vetted by the group admins. Anyone can post anything, so you need to do your own research before responding or taking a job with anyone who advertises this way.