
Teaching English is one of the online money-making opportunities that is growing in popularity and demand. There are now a lot of English tutorial websites out there looking to hire new online English teachers.
But like with any other money-making opportunities, not all of these websites are created equal. Most of them are legit, as I’ve yet to encounter a scam one.
But not all of them are actually worth investing your time and effort into, due to a lot of different factors.
To help you avoid wasting time on an online English tutorial website, we review them and recommend if it’s worth it for you to apply or not.
For this review, we’ll look at the English tutorial site called Cambly. It is not the usual site where you teach or tutor English to students.
This is more of an English chatting site, where you will be video chatting with your student instead of the usual teaching class.
You’ll basically converse with them using the English language and teach and guide them to hone their skills. There’s no formal structure and you are mostly teaching adults.
The site pays $0.17 per minute, which amounts to $10.20 an hour. But is Cambly really a legit online English tutorial opportunity that is worth your time or is it just a scam and a big waste of time?
You can also check out the step-by-step training that helps me earn over $10,000+ per month working from home.
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Cambly is a Legit Online English Tutorial Opportunity That You Can Make Money From
Cambly is an online English tutorial company that offers people an opportunity to learn and practice their English or for them to make money as English tutors.
But the opportunity is not like other English tutorial opportunities as there are no formal classes. As a tutor, your job is to video chat with a student, mostly adults, and help them practice conversing in the English language.
There’s no curriculum or schedule to follow, as you can log in anytime and just wait for a student to call and start conversing with you.
You will earn $0.17 per minute, so the longer you talk the more money you will earn. From what I’ve seen about Cambly so far, I can say that it is very much a legitimate opportunity.
The site does offer you an opportunity to make money online just by conversing with people in English. The company has also been around since 2012 so you know they are not just a fly-by-night company.
Cambly has also improved some of its processes and systems to provide a better opportunity for people looking to make money online.
Of course, there are things about the company that people don’t like and it starts with the low pay.
Other complaints I observed is that there is not enough work available, the company’s policy of suspending accounts for a week for missing calls and that some students can be rude.
I’ll discuss these issues in more detail as we progress further in this review of Cambly.
Who Uses Cambly?
Cambly is designed for two types of people with one being those who are looking for ways that they can improve their proficiency and fluency in the English language. The other type are people who are looking for opportunities to make money online.
For people looking to improve their English, the company provides them a more engaging way to do this. Instead of the usual tutoring session, Cambly allows them to practice their English with someone who is fluent and proficient at it.
This is done through a video chat where they can converse with the tutor, ask a question, and basically just practice their ability to speak in English. It’s a unique and probably more fun way of learning and improving their English.
If you’re someone looking to make money online, the Cambly can also help you with that. You just need to talk to people in English and offer tips or advice to help them improve their grammar and fluency.
You will be paid per minute of your time video chatting and talking to the company’s students. Most of the students that you’ll be talking to are adults.
Applying to be one of their tutors is free to do so and one of the main requirements is that you need to speak English properly. I’ll discuss the registration process in more detail in the next section.
I’ll also tackle how this opportunity works and how you can make money from it.
How Does Cambly Work?
Cambly provides people with an opportunity to make money just talking to other people in English and helping them improve their proficiency and fluency.
You get paid per minute of your time video chatting with a student. The money earned will be given to you weekly, as long as you reach the minimum cash out threshold.
To be part of Cambly’s tutorial team, you need to first apply, which is simple and free to do so. Before applying, you need to meet certain requirements.
One of the first requirements is that you need to speak English, preferably a native English speaker. This is why the company typically hires people who live in Canada, the U.S., UK, and Australia.
These are the countries where English is a primary language. Another requirement to be an online tutor is a computer, laptop, or a smartphone with a good mic and camera.
The company has an app too so a smartphone will work fine. You also need to have a good and stable internet connection, as well as an environment that is distraction and noise free.
Cambly, though, will accept any environment as long as you and the student can see and hear each other properly. Teaching experience and credentials are not required, but it can help you get more hours.
If you pass the requirements, you can start applying to become one of their online English tutors. Go to their website and click the “Become a Tutor” button and fill out all the details that they require.
Once done, the next step is for the company to conduct simple tests to check your internet connection, audio, and video feed to make sure that everything is working perfectly.
Once you pass that, the next step is to record an introduction video for Cambly’s staff. Use this opportunity to talk about yourself, your experiences, interests, and qualities.

The company will review your video and they’ll respond via email if you are accepted. It will usually take a couple of days to a week for them to respond.
Once you pass, the next step is to decide on the schedule that you want to take calls. The type of English teaching platform that Cambly uses offers the most flexibility since you can just log-in anytime.
Once you’re logged in, you just wait for students to call you to start a class. However, this type of system doesn’t guarantee that you will earn anything since you have to wait for calls to come your way.
It’s a good thing that Cambly offers two other ways for you to get schedules, one is the priority hours and the other is the reservation slots.
Priority hours is the timeslot where Cambly guarantees pay incentives to tutors. These hours are usually the time where demand is high and is available several times a week.
You’ll need to book these hours in advance and it is usually 15 to 30 minutes of guaranteed pay. It’s important that you show up to these priority hours.
Canceling them within12 hours before your schedule or not showing up at all will result in you getting less priority hour offers or temporarily banning you from booking them.
The reservation slots are a bit different since in this instance you will be the one to provide your schedules in advance and students will be the one to book them.
Reservation slots is also another way to ensure that you will have classes on your preferred schedule since you’ll be giving it in advance and allow students to book early.
Of course, this will not always result in guaranteed classes, but at least you will know ahead if there are students who booked or not.
It’s important that you are successful with your calls because a student will likely ask for you again if they like their experience with your class.
There is no set time when it comes to class, as there will be times you’ll talk to someone for 5 minutes and other times it will be longer.
The students you will talk to will likely be random as well. There will be times you’ll talk to someone from India or Saudi Arabia, and then there will also be times you’ll talk to someone from Qatar or Brazil. The company is popular in Middle Eastern and Southern American countries.
If you make an impression with students they will likely become one of your regulars and you will be more likely to fill your schedule.
Cambly also has a video recording of a class session to allow students to review how they did and for you to see how you did as well.
Tech support is almost non-existent with Cambly since the company doesn’t really need to micromanage their teachers.
It is important, though, that you don’t miss calls since missing about 2-3 calls will result in the company blocking you from the system for a week.
As for the pay, Cambly pays $0.17 per minute, which is $10.20 per hour. They pay you weekly but your money needs to reach at least $20 before they will pay you.
What People are Saying about Cambly?
The majority of people are happy and satisfied with the opportunity that Cambly provides them. The flexibility of the schedule is one of the main reasons people are happy with the company.
The other reason is that the opportunity allows them to meet and talk to different people from all over the world. Though not everyone you’ll meet will provide a positive experience, the majority of the teachers enjoyed conversing with a wide variety of people from different countries.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any issues with Cambly. There are actually several complaints about them and it starts with the low pay.
The company only pays $0.17 per minute or $10.20 an hour. Though not really that low compared to other opportunities, the lack of a fixed schedule weekly makes it harder to actually earn decent money per week.
As there is no fixed time per session, it’s also very possible that a session might even earn you less than $1, especially if the student just hangs up.
This is actually another common complaint, that some students are rude and that Cambly doesn’t really care or try to protect teachers.
Some even have horror stories on how some students don’t really use the site to learn english but just to hit on female teachers and to act indecently.
Though this is not always the case, there will likely be one or two rude students you might come across. The indecent ones are likely to be rare, so the chances of encountering them are very slim.
Another common complaint I saw with Cambly is the lack of work opportunities and their severe punishment for missing calls.
Since the company doesn’t really have a set schedule for their classes, this also means that teachers are really at the mercy of the availability of the students. There are some who experienced not getting any calls for two days straight, while others had to wait hours just for one call.
As for the punishment for missing calls, people complain that it is a bit harsh to block or suspend their account for a week for missing several calls.
What I Like about Cambly
Now that we know what Cambly is and what they offer, it’s time to discuss what is good about this opportunity.
- The first thing I like about Cambly is that the work schedule is very flexible. Unlike other online English teaching platforms, the company doesn’t have a required number of hours you need to render or a certain time that you need to be available. You can sign up for those, but you can also choose to set your own schedule.
- I also like that Cambly is not really strict when it comes to the credentials and experience when looking to hire tutors. You don’t need to have a teaching background or experience to be able to apply. Just be a good native English speaker and your chances of being accepted is high.
- Another thing that I like is that the work you need to do is relatively simple. You don’t need to prepare any lesson plan or teaching materials. You just talk to your student in English, correct their mistakes and give tips or advice to help them improve their proficiency and fluency in speaking the language.
What I Dislike about Cambly
Of course, not everything about Cambly is good, as there are also things about the opportunity that I don’t like.
- My first issue with Cambly is the relatively low pay. The company only pays $0.17 per minute, which translates to $10.20 per hour and the fact that hours are not fixed and class schedules are not guaranteed this makes it harder to actually earn decent money.
- I also don’t like that Cambly doesn’t really have a great support system for its tutors. Though the platform is set up in a way that a support and tech system is not really necessary, the company should still invest in its support team to ensure that their teachers are also taken care of and that they know they can rely on the company for assistance.
- I’m also not a fan of Cambly’s strict punishment of teachers who miss calls. Though this is a good way of making sure they don’t miss their calls, it seems like the punishment of having their account blocked or suspended for a week is a bit severe.
Do I Recommend Cambly?
After learning more about what Cambly really is and what it can bring to the table, I can say that it is an opportunity that is worth trying out, provided you’re not going to expect to earn big from it.

Yes, the company has some issues and complaints, particularly with its low pay. But if you’re going to look at it as a side income and not as a main source of income, then this could be a good opportunity.
The flexible schedule is also a big help as this allows you to seamlessly fit the schedule of your class to your schedule of work or other activities.
As mentioned earlier, just remember not to expect to get rich from this opportunity or to be able to replace your day job. It’s also important to remember that Cambly is strict about missing calls, so make sure you are always available on your chosen schedule.
Frank
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