Studio Management
Class Pack Pricing: How to Price Packs vs Memberships
Class pack pricing for yoga, pilates and barre studios: discount ladders, a breakeven formula for packs vs memberships, expiry rules and policy wording.
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Good class pack pricing follows one rule: every step up should be a visible saving per class, and your monthly membership should beat your best pack for anyone who comes twice a week or more. In practice that means packs priced about 10–20% below your drop-in rate, an expiry date on every pack, and a membership that is clearly the better deal for regulars.
The formula, a copyable price ladder, expiry lengths and checkout wording follow.
Selling packs, memberships and intro offers from different places? StudioOS by Svich keeps every pricing option and class count on one client profile, with reminders before plans end. See how StudioOS works.
#Class pack pricing: how should you price each pack?
Start from your drop-in price and discount each pack size by a fixed step, so the per-class price falls as the commitment rises. A 5-pack around 10% below drop-in and a 10-pack around 15–20% below works for most yoga, pilates, barre and dance studios.
Mariana Tek’s pricing guide, updated August 2026, puts US reformer drop-ins at $35–60 and a 10-class pilates class pack at $250–450, with packs typically priced 10–20% below drop-in (Mariana Tek). Its boutique report found the average class price rose 6% in a year, to $21.32 (Athletech News, October 2025). Use those as sense checks, then price for your own costs and local competition.
Here is an example yoga class pack ladder (it works for barre too) with a $30 drop-in:
Illustrative prices. The gap between $25 and $16.58 is what moves a regular off packs.
One mistake to avoid: a big pack that is cheaper per class than your membership. A $400 20-pack ($20 a class) next to a $176 eight-class plan ($22 a class) tells your most loyal clients to stop committing monthly.
#What is the lowest price a class can sell for?
Your floor is your cost per class divided by the average number of people in it. Below that, every booking loses money, however busy the room looks.
A worked example: a studio spends $18,000 a month on rent, instructors, software and everything else, and runs 240 classes a month. That is $75 per class. With an average of 10 clients per class, each visit costs you $7.50. With an average of 5, it costs $15, and a heavily discounted 20-pack starts to look risky.
Run this with your own numbers before you set any pack discount. Aggregator visits deserve a separate look: in Mariana Tek’s report, third-party platforms brought 33% of first-time visitors, but only 2% of those converted to a membership.
#Class pack vs membership: which should you push?
Push memberships for regulars and packs for everyone whose schedule is irregular. Packs sell to people who travel, work shifts or come once a week. Memberships give you predictable revenue and, because the class is already paid for, tend to get people through the door more often.
The breakeven formula tells you who belongs where:
Membership price ÷ your best pack price per class = visits per month at which the membership wins.
Example: $199 ÷ $25 = 7.96. Anyone coming 8 or more times a month should be off packs: the 8-class plan ($176) suits exactly 8 visits, and unlimited wins from the 9th.
| Client pattern | Best option | What to say at the desk |
|---|---|---|
| Brand new | Paid intro offer, 3–4 classes | “Try three classes in the next two weeks and see which ones you like.” |
| Once a week or less | 5- or 10-pack | “A pack keeps it flexible if your weeks change.” |
| Twice a week | 8 classes a month | “You’d pay $22 a class instead of $25.” |
| Three times a week or more | Unlimited | “At your pace, unlimited works out under $17 a class.” |
Mariana Tek’s report also found that retention climbs through the first four visits and stays above 90% from visit five, and that paid intro offers convert better than free trials. Price the intro offer cheap per class, but not free, and steer people toward a plan by visit four.
#How long should a class pack last before it expires?
Long enough to use at a realistic pace, plus a margin. A good rule is pack size divided by one class a week, plus a few weeks. Mariana Tek says packs typically expire in 3–6 months; CorePower Yoga gives studio 5-packs six months and 10-packs a year (CorePower Yoga, checked October 2026).
| Pack | Suggested expiry | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Intro offer (3–4 classes) | 14–30 days | Builds a habit fast; [solidcore]’s new-client 4-pack expires in 30 days |
| 5-pack | 2 months | One class a week plus three spare weeks |
| 10-pack | 4 months | Covers holidays and a short illness |
| 20-pack | 6 months | Big packs need longer, or they feel like a trap |
Very short expiries feel like a penalty and generate refund requests. Very long ones leave you owing classes for a year and blur your revenue picture. Unused classes (“breakage”) are not a revenue strategy; clients who lose classes rarely buy another pack.
#Are class pack expiry dates legal?
In most places, yes, if you sell packs as a number of classes and disclose the expiry clearly before purchase. Gift cards are different. In the US, the federal rules in Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.20 stop gift card funds expiring within five years, and California’s Civil Code 1749.5 bans expiry dates on gift certificates.
Whether a class pack counts as a gift certificate is not settled. SoulCycle faced a California class action over expiring packs and settled for up to $9.2 million, reinstating about 230,000 classes (American Spa, 2017). Practical steps:
- Sell packs as classes (“10 classes”), not as dollar credit.
- Show the expiry date at checkout and on the receipt.
- Sell gift cards as a separate dollar-value product without a short expiry.
- Get local legal advice if you’re in California or another strict state. This isn’t legal advice.
A class pack expiration policy you can copy:
“Class packs are valid from the date of purchase: 5-packs for 2 months, 10-packs for 4 months, 20-packs for 6 months. Packs are for the named client only and are non-refundable. If you’re ill or injured, email us before your pack expires and we’ll extend it once, for up to 30 days.”
#How do you stop packs expiring unused?
Remind clients before the end date, and contact anyone who has stopped booking well before that. Most expired packs belong to people who drifted, not people who decided to leave.
StudioOS has four prebuilt automations, each with its own channel and send time: before a plan ends (10 days before), after a missed payment (3 days after the due date), on birthdays, and after a lapse (14 days after). You connect WhatsApp or email, preview the message and switch it on. An at-risk card shows how much revenue sits in plans ending in the next 30 days, and an “active but absent” list shows paying clients who have stopped coming. A personal follow-up that works:
“Hi Priya, it’s Anna from Lantern Yoga. You’ve got 3 classes left on your 10-pack and it ends on 14 November. Thursday 6:30pm flow still has space. Want me to save you a spot?”
Read more about automatic reminders for studios.
#How does StudioOS handle packs and memberships?
StudioOS puts three pricing types on one list: everything included, a set number of classes that tops up monthly, and pay per visit. You can add installments, freeze days and extensions.
Booking rules apply on their own, with defaults of 12-hour free cancellation, no-shows counted as used, a 30-day book-ahead limit and three open bookings per client. If you sell one-off packs with a fixed expiry or a one-per-client intro offer, set one up in your free trial and check it behaves exactly the way you sell it. See how class packs work in StudioOS or read the classes and packs guide.
Pricing is per studio, not per instructor: Starter is US$49/month for up to 250 active members, Growth is US$149/month with unlimited members.
#Checklist: review your pack prices this week
- Work out your cost per class and cost per visit at your real average attendance.
- Check every pack is cheaper per class than drop-in, and more expensive per class than your membership.
- Run the breakeven formula and list every pack holder who came 8+ times last month; move them to a plan.
- Put an expiry date on every pack, and show it at checkout and on the receipt.
- Write your extension policy down so the front desk answers the same way every time.
- Switch on a reminder 10 days before plans end.
- Make the intro offer paid, 3–4 classes, with a plan conversation by visit four.
Related reading: our pilates studio software guide covers private sessions and equipment-based classes, and the class booking software guide covers cancellation rules.
#Frequently asked questions
#How much should a class pack cost compared with a drop-in?
Most studios price a 5-pack about 10% below the drop-in rate per class and a 10-pack about 15–20% below. Mariana Tek’s 2026 pricing guide puts pack discounts at 10–20% off drop-in for pilates studios.
#When is a membership better than a class pack?
Divide the membership price by your best pack’s price per class. If a client attends more often than that number each month, the membership is cheaper for them. With a $199 unlimited plan and a $25-per-class 10-pack, that point is 8 visits a month.
#How long should a 10-class pack be valid?
Three to four months suits most studios, enough for one class a week plus vacations. Mariana Tek reports packs typically expire in 3 to 6 months, and some chains give 10-packs a year.
#Can class packs legally expire?
Usually, if they are sold as a number of classes and the expiry is disclosed before purchase. Gift cards have stricter rules, such as the US federal five-year minimum and California’s ban on gift certificate expiry. Whether packs count as gift certificates is unsettled, so get local legal advice.
#Should a studio’s intro offer be free or paid?
Paid. Mariana Tek’s boutique fitness report found paid intro offers convert better than free trials, and that retention stays above 90% from the fifth visit.
#Put every pack and plan in one place
Set up your plans, booking rules and renewal reminders in StudioOS, or walk through your pricing with us first.
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