How Nattive works

Pick English, Spanish, French or German, and tell us your level, from A1 to C1. We use your level to show you the teachers who take learners like you. If you’re not sure, pick the one that sounds closest. A good teacher will hear where you are within a few minutes of your first lesson and adjust.

Every teacher has a profile, and it shows what you need to decide:

• an intro video, so you can hear how they speak and how they explain things
• the levels they teach and where they’re from
• each lesson length they offer, with its price in GBP
• the times they’ve opened for bookings, shown in your own time zone
• how they’ve helped other people, in their own words
• short Mini Lessons, if they’ve recorded any
• reviews from learners, once they’ve taught on Nattive

You can message a teacher before you book, for example to check they can help with an exam you’re taking or a meeting you’re dreading.

Pick a lesson length and one of the times your teacher has opened. Before you pay, the booking page shows the lesson price and the Classroom contribution as separate lines, and the total. You pay that total by card, through our payment provider, Stripe, and your receipt itemises it the same way.

Nothing renews and there’s no subscription. Each booking is one lesson. We hold the teacher’s share until the lesson is over, so your teacher is paid after the lesson, not before it.

The lesson runs on video inside Nattive, and the room opens 10 minutes before the start. We send you a reminder on the day with a link to join. Use headphones if you can, and find somewhere you’re happy to talk out loud.

Tell your teacher what you want from the time. A lesson can be open conversation, or practice for something specific: a presentation next week, an interview, the speaking part of an exam. The more your teacher knows, the more of the lesson goes on what you need.

When the lesson ends, you can confirm it went ahead or report a problem from your lessons page, for up to 3 days. If you report a problem, we look into it and tell you the outcome, which can be a full refund. If you do nothing, the lesson is confirmed after 3 days and the teacher’s share is paid out.

You can also rate the lesson. Ratings and reviews only come from learners who took a lesson with that teacher, and they appear on the teacher’s profile for the next learner to read.

• Cancel 24 hours or more before the start, and you get a full refund.
• Cancel less than 24 hours before, or don’t join, and there’s no refund: the teacher kept that time for you and is paid for it.
• If your teacher cancels, you get a full refund.
• 24 hours or more ahead, you can move a lesson to another open time straight away. Closer than that, you can ask your teacher to move it, and they accept or decline.
• A lesson can be moved twice. After that, cancelling it means no refund.

The exact rules are in the Terms of Service.

10% of the teacher’s lesson price, included in the one price you see, goes to Nattive Classroom. It’s pooled until there’s enough for the next course: 8 hours of free group English courses for a small group of up to five learners in developing countries, with a teacher paid for every hour. Places are for learners in the developing countries we select for the programme, subject to funding and places. We’re building the first course now, and we’ll publish what has been funded and taught as it happens. See how Classroom funding works on Our impact.

Teachers apply, send proof of a teaching certificate or degree, and record an intro video. A person on our team reviews every application. Approved teachers set their own prices and hours, and are paid after each lesson through our banking partner, Stripe. Teach with us explains what we look for.

Nattive is opening soon. Until then, Find a teacher opens a short form: leave your email and we’ll tell you the day lessons open.