How to Start a Skool Community and Make Money (2026 Guide)

To start a Skool community, you create a group, dress it up with a logo and cover photo, set up your categories and rules, write an About page, and invite your first three members. The setup itself takes an afternoon. Getting the group to feel alive is the part most people skip, so this guide covers both, plus the part most guides leave out entirely: what starting actually costs and how owners turn a new group into recurring income. Skool runs on two plans, Hobby and Pro, and both start with a 14 day free trial, so you can build the whole thing before you pay anything.

Start with the topic, not the software

The biggest mistake new owners make is opening Skool before they know what the group is for. Skool's own founder training pushes one idea hard: build around a topic you actually care about, ideally one that scratches your own itch. Passion is what keeps you showing up in month three when the novelty is gone.

Pick something specific enough that the right person reads it and thinks "that is exactly me." A group called "Marketing" is dead on arrival. A group for "freelance copywriters landing their first retainer client" has a pulse. If you are stuck at this step, steal from 50+ Skool community ideas that already work, then write an About page that actually converts.

Set up the group shell

Once you know the topic, the mechanical setup is quick. Everything below lives inside your group's admin Settings.

Claim a custom URL (Pro only)

Every new group starts with a temporary URL. If you are on Pro, you can claim a clean custom one under Settings, General, CLAIM URL. Your first change is free. After that, each URL change costs $100, so choose carefully and treat the first one as your real name, not a draft.

Invite your first three members

Do not wait for a crowd. Skool's setup training frames launching a community like throwing a party: you set the vibe, invite three friends, then show up and let things happen. Three real people posting beats an empty group of 300.

You have three free ways to bring people in, and all of them grant instant access without a payment or a pending request.

Get to 10 true regulars

Your real launch target is not a number of signups. It is roughly 10 people who show up regularly on their own. Skool's engagement training is blunt about how to get there, and it runs against instinct.

Stop lecturing. The "value post" that reads like a webinar kills conversation. Ask questions people can actually answer instead. Do things that do not scale, like welcoming every new member by name. Then praise your model citizens publicly so everyone learns what good looks like here.

Once you have those regulars, the group starts running partly on its own, and that is the point where growth, monetizing, and reducing churn become worth your attention. For the growth side, see how to get your first Skool members.

How much does it cost to start a Skool community?

Between $0 and $99 for your first month. The 14 day free trial covers either plan, then Hobby is $9 per month and Pro is $99 per month, with the same unlimited features and different transaction fees on member payments, 10% on Hobby and 2.9% on Pro. There is no setup fee, no per-member fee, and no charge for courses, videos or live calls. The full arithmetic, including when Pro becomes the cheaper plan, is in how much Skool costs.

That makes the real startup cost your time, not money. An afternoon of setup, an About page, and a few weeks of showing up daily is the actual investment, which is exactly why so many owners start the group before they feel ready.

How to make money once the group is alive

Charge for access, and keep the offer simple. A paid Skool community is a subscription: members pay monthly or annually for access to the community, the classroom and the live calls, and Skool handles the billing and pays you out. Most successful owners run one of three models.

The first is paid from day one. You launch at a price, often with a free trial for members, and every member is a customer. This works when you have an audience or a skill people already pay for. The second is free group into paid group: the free community builds trust at scale, and a paid tier sits behind it for people who want more depth or access. The third is free group as lead source for a high-ticket offer, where the community itself earns nothing but feeds coaching or services.

Whichever model you pick, price against the result you deliver rather than the hours you spend. The reasoning, with real numbers from communities charging $5 to $500 a month, is in how to price a Skool community, and the honest answer to whether this works at all, including what typical owners actually earn, is in can you make money on Skool. For proof of the ceiling, the Skool Games leaderboard publicly ranks the highest-earning communities on the platform.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free to start a Skool community?

You start with a 14 day free trial on either the Hobby or Pro plan, so you can build and launch the whole group before paying. After the trial, the plan becomes a recurring subscription. You can also run a completely free group for your members even while you pay for the plan.

How many members do I need before I invite people publicly?

Start privately with three friends who will actually post. A group with a few live conversations converts far better than an empty one, so seed the activity first, then open the doors wider.

Do I need the Pro plan to start?

No. You can start on Hobby. You need Pro for things like a custom URL, more than one admin, AutoDM, Zapier, and webinars. Many owners begin on Hobby and upgrade once the group is earning.

How many categories should I create at launch?

Skool allows up to 10, but two or three is plenty at the start. Empty categories signal a dead group, so add more only once the existing ones fill with posts.

How much does it cost to start a Skool community?

Nothing for the first 14 days, then $9 per month on Hobby or $99 per month on Pro. Both plans include unlimited members, courses and live calls; the difference is the transaction fee on member payments, 10% on Hobby versus 2.9% on Pro. There are no setup or per-member fees.

How do you make money with a Skool community?

By charging for access. Owners either launch paid from day one, run a free community with a paid tier behind it, or use a free group to feed a high-ticket coaching or service offer. Skool handles billing and payouts, so monetizing is a pricing decision rather than a technical project.

How do I make a Skool community succeed?

Pick a specific topic, write an About page that names exactly who the group is for, seed it with three real people before inviting anyone publicly, and post questions rather than lectures until roughly ten members show up on their own. Nearly every dead Skool group skipped one of those four steps.