How Does Chegg Work? Business Model

Chegg is a well-known name in the educational space, providing academic support and guidance to students for years. It has astounded with $77.7 million in the third quarter of 2025, and a total revenue of $617.57 million in 2024. While it continues to break records, have you wondered how it makes money? And how does Chegg work?

The leading student-first connected platform earns from multiple sources, including subscription-based academic tools, advertising, and recent acquisitions. In this blog, we break down its business model and different revenue streams and also show you how to build a similar platform seamlessly with Pinlearn.  

What is Chegg?

Chegg is an online service, founded in 2011, offering 1-on-1 personalized tutoring sessions and academic support from niche experts. The platform is one of the fastest-growing e-learning companies in the educational space.

Chegg Study includes homework help, step-by-step textbook solutions, plagiarism check, proofreading services, quiz and exam help. It offers tutoring assistance across academic subjects, UI/UX design, data analytics, cybersecurity, and AI basics.

Textbook solutions are also key segments of the Chegg Study solution. Students can find a book by its title or ISBN. Then, browse solutions chapter-wise and find step-by-step answers with an extensive library of over 100  million expert solutions.

The tutoring platform operates on a subscription model for online services, including Chegg Study, Chegg Math, and Chegg Writing. While the platform monetized from 1-on-1 tutoring services earlier, now it has transitioned to subscription billing for expert Q&A.

How Does Chegg Work?

Chegg offers students personalized academic support through 24/7 study help and guidance. On the other hand, tutors can join the platform and answer the questions uploaded by students.

For Students

1. Sign Up: Students register with Chegg using phone number, email ID or social login.
2. Ask questions: Once you log in, you can either ask a question or upload an image of your problem.
3. Get expert verified answers: Students will get complete answers and explanations within 2 hours, depending on the subject and complexity of the question.
4. Chegg Study Subscription: Chegg offers two subscriptions: Chegg Study and Chegg Study Pack. Chegg Study includes homework help and students can ask up to 20 monthly questions. Alternatively, the Chegg Study Pack includes homework help, quiz, exam help, proofreading, and plagiarism detection and allows unlimited questions.

   

5. Additional Academic Support: Chegg also offers academic support through writing, plagiarism checks, and textbook rentals.

For Tutors

1. Sign up on Chegg and create a profile (older than 18 years of age)
2. Take up subject assessments based on the niche expertise (Engineering, Maths)
3. Clear the verification, vetting, background checks or interviews as stated by Chegg for that period of time.
4. To register on Chegg, experts need to submit their picture with government-issued identification.
5. Once they log in, experts can answer the subject questions submitted by students.
6. Payments are processed based on the questions answered and typically monthly.

How Does Chegg Make Money?

Over the years, Chegg has found success transitioning from its early textbook rental services and pay-per-session tutoring model to a subscription model. Today, its key revenue sources are expert Q&As, step-by-step solutions and acquired businesses over the last few years.

Chegg’s Revenue Streams

Chegg’s diversified revenue streams include:

• Subscription Services

Chegg earns recurring revenue from its subscription services: Chegg Study, Chegg Study Pack, Chegg Writing and Chegg Math. Students get access to homework help in the Chegg Study plan priced at $15.95 per month. The Chegg Study plan combines homework help, step-by-step solutions, a Math solver, plagiarism detection and proofreading solution.

• Expert Q&A

Whether students need to solve complex Maths problems or find detailed explanations, Chegg’s expert Q&A provides them answers 24/7 round the clock. This is the platform’s most popular education service, where subject matter experts asynchronously answer questions asked by students.

The expert Q&A is available as part of the Chegg Study plan and is great for getting expert-verified answers.

• Textbook Rental and Sales

While Chegg initially started by renting physical textbooks to students, it later diversified into other online services. But physical and e-textbooks still remain a part of Chegg’s offerings.

It has partnered with marketplaces like Valore to buy, rent or sell textbooks. Thus, students get access to a vast library of textbooks from multiple vendors at an affordable price. Students can search textbooks by title, ISBN or author name and get quick access.

• Busuu Language Learning Services

Chegg acquired Busuu in 2023; since then, it has been earning from the popular language learning platform. Busuu is a key player in the language learning industry with over 120 million learners in 12 different languages.

Chegg extends a free Busuu premium subscription to its Chegg Study plan subscribers. Learners can access specialized courses and bite-sized lessons in their preferred language and enhance their language skills.

• Chegg Skills

Career skills development programs through Chegg Skills have lately been the platform’s latest venture. After a successful partnership with Thinkful in October 2023, Chegg is offering training programs and bootcamps for in-demand industry skills. Engineering, data science, AI, business and leadership are among its core offerings.

Thinkful is a well-known online coding and tech skills platform, finding its spot in the 2023 Forbes Advisor list for the best coding and UI/UX bootcamp in the U.S. With this partnership, Chegg has stepped into the corporate training with reskilling and upskilling programs.

• Advertising and Affiliate marketing

Advertising and affiliate marketing have been yet another segment for generating revenue for Chegg. It partners with educational institutions, publishers, and related businesses that advertise their business on Chegg. While this helps the brand to reach its audience, Chegg earns from commissions and ad fees.

• Chegg Digital Advertising

Chegg student advertising or Chegg college marketing offers a dedicated space for businesses to connect with Gen-Z.

• Content Licensing

This is a new revenue addition where the platform sells its extensive Q&A library and learning materials to top technology leaders. And, it has reportedly generated $4 million in the first quarter this year and more in the second quarter.

Chegg’s Genius Marketing Strategy

Chegg’s impressive performance and positive business outlook leads us to one question – How does Chegg attract customers? 

Well, it leads with a multi-channel marketing approach primarily targeting high-students and colleges. And it uses a blend of paid advertising, organic marketing, influencer-driven and strategic partnerships.

Here we explore its promotional tactics:

How to Create a Tutoring Platform Like Chegg with Pinlearn?

From its inception, Chegg’s student-centric business model has stunned the educational industry. By expanding into textbook rentals, homework help and skill-based learning, Chegg leads with innovation.

If you’re creating a platform like Chegg, building from scratch could be time-consuming. A ready-made and white-label clone script like Pinlearn provides all the core features, so you can focus on growing your platform.

Here’s why Pinlearn is the right solution for launching your Chegg-like platform:

• Live lessons with Zoom and LessonSpace
• Virtual whiteboard
• Dashboard & analytics
• Integrations with popular and local payment gateways
• White-labelled & highly customizable
• Subscriptions for 1-on-1 live classes and courses
• Internal Messaging & Notifications
• Multilingual & multi-currency support

Whether you’re building a Chegg-style platform or set to launch a full-fledged marketplace, you can tailor Pinlearn to your business needs. Best of all, you get all this at a single-time cost with no recurring fees or hidden costs.

Conclusion

Chegg’s business model has changed over the years, from adopting textbook rentals to homework help and more student-centric services. Over the years, they have prioritized growth, engagement and monetization to attain a total revenue of $617.6 million in 2024.

If you are inspired by Chegg’s business model, it’s the right moment to create your educational empire. However, don’t create an exact replica of Chegg; try to find gaps in the platform. Scale big on these opportunities and analyze the recent market trends. Pinlearn is one of the best Chegg clone scripts that has all the core features of the platform, so you can focus on growing your business!  

FAQ-Related to How Does Chegg Work

1. How does Chegg make money?

Chegg makes money with different revenue streams, including:

• Subscription Services from Chegg Study, Chegg Writing and Chegg Math
• Textbook Rental and Sales
• Chegg’s Busuu language learning offerings (acquired Busuu in 2023)
• Chegg Skills offers programs in engineering, data science, AI, etc.
• Advertising and affiliate marketing with institutions, publishing partners, and related businesses
• Content Licensing

2. How much does Chegg cost for students?

Chegg primarily charges a monthly subscription with Chegg Study ($15.95 per month) and Chegg Study Pack ($19.95 per month). On the other hand, Chegg Writing costs $9.95 per month. While Chegg Study allows students to post 20 questions monthly, upgrading to Chegg Study Pack includes homework help, writing support, a math solver, and a plagiarism checker with unlimited access.

3. How much do Chegg tutors get paid?

Subject-matter experts on Chegg are paid for every correctly answered solution and subject demand. The earnings often depend on the number of questions and are often higher for more questions.

4. How do students use Chegg?

Students use Chegg for seeking expert Q&A, homework help, step-by-step solutions for problems, essay feedback, and plagiarism checks. Besides, textbook rentals for physical and e-textbooks are an essential revenue stream. Additionally, Busuu learning services and career development and skills programs are its relatively new offerings.