Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell classroom resources: lesson plans, worksheets, task cards, and full units. Anyone can make a free account and buy. If you want to sell, there are now two paid plans: Basic and the new Exclusive Seller plan, which replaced Premium on October 1, 2026.
That change matters more than it sounds. It affects how much sellers keep from every sale, and it’s the first big shake-up to the seller side in years.
What Is Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT)?
The idea is simple. Teachers make things that work in their own classrooms, and other teachers pay a few dollars so they don’t have to start from zero.
The catalog is huge. One academic study of the site counted more than 4 million resources. A typical buyer is a third-grade teacher on a Sunday night who needs a fractions review for Monday. She finds a $4 set of task cards and prints them in five minutes.
Everything is made by individual teachers, not a publisher. Some of it is excellent. Some of it isn’t.
How Does TPT Work for Buyers?
Buying is free, and the steps are short:
- Create a free buyer account.
- Search by grade, subject, standard, or resource type.
- Check the preview, ratings, and “last updated” date.
- Pay and download, usually as a PDF or a Google Slides or Google Forms file.
A tip most guides skip: check the preview pages before you check the star rating. A product with 4.9 stars from 2016 might not match what your curriculum asks for today.
Lots of sellers also give away freebies, and those are a good way to test a seller’s style before you buy a $25 bundle.
What Changed for TPT Sellers in October 2026?
On October 1, 2026, TPT closed its Premium Seller plan to new sign-ups and replaced it with an Exclusive Seller membership. The catch is in the name: if you join Exclusive, you agree to sell your digital teaching resources only on TPT.
TPT said openly why it did this: more and more of its sellers’ resources were being sold on other sites.
Basic vs. Exclusive: The Numbers Side by Side
| Basic Seller | Exclusive Seller | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $29 one-time (non-refundable) | $59.95 per year |
| Payout rate | 55% | 77.5% (80% until Jan 1, 2027) |
| Transaction fee | $0.30 per resource | $0.15 per resource, only on orders under $3 |
| Sell elsewhere? | Yes | No (digital resources are TPT-only) |
| Marketing tools | No | Yes |
One detail to watch: the $29 Basic fee does not count toward Exclusive if you upgrade later. If you’re fairly sure you’ll upgrade, starting Basic just costs you $29 extra.
The official numbers can change, so click here for guidelines straight from TPT before you sign up.
What Happens to Existing Premium Sellers?
If you’re already Premium, you keep 80% through December 31, 2026. You have until 11:59 p.m. ET that night to opt in to Exclusive in your account settings.
Do nothing and your account turns into a Basic account on January 1, 2027.
How Much Do You Actually Keep Per Sale?
This is where people misread the table. The payout rate is taken from the price first, and then the transaction fee comes off the top.
Here’s a $5 worksheet pack:
- Basic: 55% of $5 = $2.75, minus $0.30 = $2.45
- Exclusive (2027 rate): 77.5% of $5 = $3.88, with no fee because the order is over $3
That’s about $1.43 more per sale on Exclusive. Divide the $59.95 yearly fee by $1.43 and you break even at roughly 43 sales a year of a $5 product.
Sell $10 bundles instead? Basic pays $5.20 and Exclusive pays $7.75, so you break even at about 24 sales.
Which Seller Plan Should You Pick?
Honestly, it depends on one question: do you sell anywhere else, or plan to?
Pick Basic if:
- You also sell on Etsy, your own Shopify store, or a membership site
- You’re testing the waters with five or ten products
- You expect fewer than about 40 sales a year
Pick Exclusive if:
- TPT is (and will stay) your only sales channel
- You already make steady monthly sales
- You want the marketing tools and higher payout
My take? A lot of established sellers built email lists and their own shops over the last few years. For them, Exclusive is a hard sell. It shuts off channels they already own for a 22.5-point bump. For a brand-new teacher-seller with no other store, Exclusive usually makes more sense, once sales are steady.
What Do New Sellers Get Wrong?
A few mistakes come up again and again:
- Pricing too low. A $1 resource on Basic nets you $0.25. That’s barely worth the upload.
- Ignoring the “exclusive” fine print. Listing the same PDF on Etsy after joining Exclusive breaks the terms.
- Weak previews. Buyers decide from the preview. Show three or four real pages, not just a cover.
- Uploading once and walking away. Resources updated for the current school year tend to sell better than ones last touched in 2019.
6. FAQ
Is Teachers Pay Teachers free to use?
Yes, for buyers. Creating an account and downloading free resources costs nothing. Selling costs money: a one-time $29 for Basic or $59.95 a year for Exclusive.
What happened to the TPT Premium Seller plan?
TPT stopped offering Premium to new sellers on October 1, 2026, and replaced it with Exclusive. Current Premium sellers keep 80% through December 31, 2026. After that they either become Exclusive or switch to Basic automatically.
What percentage does TPT take?
Basic sellers keep 55% and pay $0.30 per resource sold, so TPT takes 45% plus the fee. Exclusive sellers keep 77.5% starting in 2027 (80% before then) and pay a $0.15 fee only on orders under $3.
Can I sell my TPT resources on other websites?
On Basic, yes. On Exclusive, no: your digital teaching resources have to be sold only on TPT.
Is selling on TPT worth it in 2026?
It can be, if you price sensibly and make lots of products. On Exclusive, about 43 sales a year of a $5 product covers the fee. The money comes from volume and a growing catalog, not one hit product.
7. Conclusion
TPT is still the biggest marketplace for teacher-made resources. But since October 2026, signing up as a seller has come with a real tradeoff. If TPTwill be your only store, Exclusive pays better after about 43 sales a year. If you sell anywhere else, Basic is the safer choice.