How Much Does a Personal Trainer cost?

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Hiring a personal trainer can be a huge boost for those pursuing lofty fitness goals. However, many people fear that the price for doing so will be too high, or just don’t know how much it would cost. So, how much does a personal trainer cost?

One hour of instruction with a personal trainer can cost anywhere from $35 to $120 or more. The cost of hiring a personal trainer varies because of the trainer’s experience, training location, certification, locality, and if the training sessions are individual or done as a group.

Many factors determine how much it would cost to hire a personal trainer near you. This article will tell you what these factors are and will help you determine whether or not the cost of hiring a personal trainer is worth it to you.

Average Personal Trainer Cost

Average Cost

Personal trainer costs vary from state to state and may be higher or lower depending on the average income in your metropolitan area.

However, in the United States as a whole, the average cost is around $50 an hour. According to Lessons.com, the national average is around $55 an hour, while the Personal Trainer Development Center puts this average at around $60 to $70 an hour. Simple Solutions Fitness states that in Columbia, Missouri, a person should expect to pay anywhere from $35 to $90 an hour for a personal trainer.

These estimates all place the average cost for a cheap personal trainer at around $50 an hour, and the cost for an expensive trainer at around $100 or more. This means that an expensive personal trainer could cost as much as two times more than an inexpensive one! Outliers do exist though, as some personal trainers offer rates as low as $10 an hour, while some are available for as much as $250 an hour.

Some personal trainers are freelance, which means that they work for themselves. Some of them own their gym, and some of them work in clients’ homes or at gyms of the client’s choosing. Others may work online as online trainers. The rates for these trainers will typically fall somewhere into the ranges listed above, although you will find many that are slightly more or less expensive, as well as a few outliers that are extremely expensive or extremely inexpensive to hire.

Many personal trainers work at gyms, whether they be commercial gyms, university gyms, or fitness clubs. The fees for these trainers also vary greatly based on the same factors that influence personal trainer costs (minus the fact that freelancers must cover their operating costs), but these trainers typically only get to keep 40%-60% of what a client is paying the gym to work with them.

It is also important to consider that most gyms require you to pay a membership fee to enter the gym before you can hire one of their trainers. The following chart gives a conservative estimate of what it might cost to hire a personal trainer every week for a month at some of the most popular gyms in the U.S.

Gym	Membership Fee*	Personal Trainer Cost (Per Hour/Session)**	Monthly Cost (One Session Per Week)***
Gold’s Gym	$40	$60-$100	$280-$440
LA Fitness	$35	$40-$60	$195-$275
24 Hour Fitness	$36	$80-$100	$356-$436
Planet Fitness	$10	Free	$10
Anytime Fitness	$41	$50-$75	$241-$341
Equinox Fitness	$168	$100-$150	$568-$768
Lifetime Fitness	$79	$50-$110	$279-$519
O2 Fitness	$35	$35-$125	$175-$535
Crunch Fitness	$10	$100-$115	$410-$470

*Membership fees listed are for basic, local options where said plan seemed to be available. The information above does not include annual membership fees, signup fees, or cancellation fees. These prices may differ based on location, changes to membership plan rates, premium memberships, deals, and promotions. For official prices, check the websites or call the gyms listed.

**May vary based on location, membership plan, and other factors.

***Information is based on a combination of the personal trainer’s hourly rates and gym membership. This could be higher or lower. Some gyms offer discounts when purchasing a large number of sessions at once or will include a certain number of sessions with the cost of a membership plan. These numbers are intended to give you a general idea of the potential costs of working with a personal trainer at popular gyms.

Training Frequency

Meeting with a trainer once a week is pretty typical. Those with particularly difficult fitness goals or who need extra motivation to work out consistently may find that working with a trainer 2 or 3 times a week is even more beneficial. Athletes may work with their trainers on an even more frequent basis.

To save money, many people meet with a trainer once a week and then supplement their routine by doing workouts on their own. Personal trainers often expect this to be the case and will offer advice, workout plans, or training suggestions for clients to use on days that a client does not meet with them in person.

Cost Over Time

Those starting a new workout regimen or working towards physical fitness goals of some kind will usually work with a personal trainer for around three to six months. At the average rate of $50 per hourly session, and assuming that a person is meeting with their trainer once a week for one hour, 3 months of working with a personal trainer would cost $600, and 6 months would cost $1200.

At the upper end of the spectrum ($100 per hour), 3 months of training would cost $1200, and 6 months would cost $2,400. Again, those meeting with their trainer several times a week should expect to pay much more. This also does not factor in gym costs, food costs, or other costs that might come up during one’s training.

Personal Training Cost Factors

Group vs Individual Sessions

Group sessions are almost always significantly cheaper than one-on-one sessions. This is because group sessions are typically a lot less personalized, and thus require a smaller investment of time per person on the part of the trainer. Group sessions also typically don’t include customized workout plans or individual correspondence with the trainer in between training sessions (which typically involves workout tips and efforts to help with motivation throughout the week).

Some people may find that the one-on-one experience is worth the extra cost, as the trainer can spend each session tutoring them on form, technique, effort, and methodology. Others may prefer group sessions, where exercise can be done with a group of friends and may be less intensive or intimidating than a one-on-one session.

Group sessions typically cost around $12 to $25 per person or around 25%-50% of what you would expect to pay for an individual session. Some gyms offer free group sessions for certain types of exercise, including HIIT workouts and cycling classes.

Personal Trainer Experience & Certification

Since personal training is not regulated to a high degree in the U.S., it is typically not required for someone to obtain a certification to legally claim that they are a personal trainer. That being said, most gyms will not hire uncertified trainers or will require them to become certified within a brief window of time after starting work. Some personal trainers have higher education degrees in fields related to personal training, such as kinesiology, exercise physiology, or exercise science,

Generally, the more certifications and the higher the level of formal education a personal trainer has, the more expensive they will be. In essence, you will be paying for the greater degree of knowledge that they have. For some people, especially those looking to perform at a competitive level in a sport or looking to perform despite a tricky injury or other condition, this knowledge will be well worth the extra cost.

Others may find that they just want a personal trainer for motivation purposes and will find themselves just as satisfied working with an inexperienced trainer. Most people will want to work with a trainer who is at the very least certified by one or more of the different organizations that offer personal trainer training, such as the American Sports and Fitness Association (ASFA) or ACE.

Session Length

Personal Trainer rates are typically specified for an hourly session. However, some trainers offer longer or shorter sessions. Some trainers will offer a slight discount for longer sessions or charge more per minute for shorter sessions. It all depends on the trainer or gym that you are planning to work with. Some may find that longer or shorter sessions may work significantly better for their schedule or fitness goals.

Locality

Your location or the location of your gym may also play a large part in the cost of hiring a personal trainer near you. Certain locales, such as Los Angeles or other places where the cost of living is high, may have more expensive rates for personal training services. More rural areas may charge less per hour. Even gyms with locations in several states tend to vary the cost of their membership and other services based on the location of individual gyms.

Training Location

As mentioned earlier, certain gyms will charge more for personal trainers than others. Freelance personal trainers may charge more or less depending on where you want to do your training sessions. In-home sessions tend to be the most expensive due to the travel time and effort required for the personal trainer to come work in your home.

Multiple Sessions

Trainers will often offer a discount when someone purchases multiple training sessions at once. Some other trainers will even offer contracts to purchase their services for an extended period, such as six months or a year. When hiring a trainer, it is important to review the terms of any such contract and to check to see if training sessions expire after purchase.

Many people may find that it is beneficial to try one or two individual sessions with a trainer first before they purchase sessions in bulk. Some gyms will even offer free training sessions to get more people to hire their trainers. Whether or not this method of purchase is worth the upfront cost (which still may be in the realm of $250 or more even with a discount) will depend on how dedicated you are to working with a trainer in the long term.

Trainer Specialty

Certain trainers specialize in training different special populations. These trainers may need to complete extra certification or training, which can increase the cost of training. Some of these unique populations include:

• The elderly
• Those with asthma, hypertension, diabetes, or other long-term ailments
• Amputees
• Athletes
• Those looking to lose weight

Those who fall into one or a number of these and other categories may find that they have to pay more to hire someone who can cater to their specific training needs.

Online vs In-Person

Personal training apps and online personal trainers represent a rapidly growing market. A personal training app can be any sort of app that recommends a training program to you, and such a recommendation typically comes from an AI using your personal data, preferences, and user data in conjunction with the advice of certified personal trainers. These apps vary widely in price when it comes to their premium plans. it may cost anywhere from $50 to $150 a month or more for a highly customizable and feature-rich service that may or may not include one-on-one sessions.

Individual online personal trainers may offer a combination of an app service and one-on-one training sessions via a device such as a tablet, smart tv, laptop, or phone through video calling. This type of service is more similar to in-person training than an app-only service but does not provide the same degree of feedback that an in-person session can.

A personal trainer with Trainiac costs anywhere from $100-$300 a month. Freelance personal trainers often cost up to $200 a month. Online training can be more convenient for some people, but extreme beginners (who may not have a good understanding of proper exercise form) and those that struggle with motivation may find that an in-person trainer is a better option.

No Insurance? 

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If you don’t know what a Health Share is, you can start here to learn how it works and why it’s a great alternative to health insurance. If you are looking for affordable healthcare, I highly recommend checking out my article about the Best Health Share Plans.