Meet. Share. Learn or Earn

Guruu is a place where people can learn almost anything. We love that our Guruu community is full of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. You might also consider becoming a Guruu yourself one day and sharing knowledge you have with others who might value it.

Before you start, there are restrictions about what you can ask our Guruus to do for you. To find out what they are, and to learn more about our policies, please read our community standards.  Please also be familiar with the terms of use, which you can access anytime here.

Learner FAQs should be read in conjunction with our general FAQs, which you can access here. 

While we do not have minimum age requirements for learners, we manage users aged under 18 years differently. To learn more, please visit our younger users information page.

When you use our platform, you’ll see a search option which enables you to find different Guruus. Just type in a subject you’re interested in and our search engine will try to find good matches for you. Read their bios, check out their reviews and feel free to ask them questions about their sessions.

Please note: there are restrictions regarding messaging of Guruus, which are detailed in our community standards.

Communication with Guruus is an important part of our platform. Of course, you’ll have questions before you book, so you know that your Guruu is right for you. We do, however, have rules about messaging, which are outlined in our community standards.

You mustn’t spam any other users, including Guruus. Don’t send offers, mass messages, commercially-motivated solicitations, abuse, or anything designed to drive attention to anything external to Guruu (such as other websites, products, services, etc).

If a question or comment is not directly related to a Guruu’s profile or the knowledge they share, please respect their time and privacy, and don’t message them.

Users that spam other users are breaching our community standards and we reserve the right to suspend these offending accounts.

We encourage you to check out all the suitable options before making a booking decision. Guruu profiles contain information about their skills, experience and qualifications. You can also read reviews left by other people. Be sure to read the Guruu’s cancellation policy. Feel free to message your Guruu to ask questions you might have – or to clarify your exact expectations for your session.

Once you’ve made a decision, choose an available time slot on your Guruu’s calendar and book their time. Next, you’ll deposit the fee for your session. These funds are held by Guruu until the session is marked as completed, then your Guruu is paid. 

Please note: If you have specific expectations or requirements of your Guruu, make sure to message your Guruu and clearly explain them upfront. Make sure it is agreed. You cannot dispute payment if requirements are not agreed upfront.

There is more detailed information about payments under "Paying My Guruu" below.

By booking a guruu, you’re entering a contract with someone to share their knowledge with you. Like any contract, both parties have a set of expectations, which are agreed upfront.  

You can expect that what your Guruu says about their skills, experience and knowledge is true. You can expect them to turn up on time and behave in accordance with our community standards.

If you are aged under 18, you have not yet reached the age where you can consent to enter a contract. This is why parents or legal guardians need to set up accounts for users aged under 18 years. For help with setting up these accounts, visit our younger users page.

While we do not have minimum age requirements for learners, we manage users aged under 18 years differently. To learn more, please visit our younger users information page.

Some services on Guruu involve children to participate in the service, for example, a tutor is hired to help a schoolchild. We strongly encourage parents and legal guardians to choose tutors that specify they work with children and are willing to provide relevant government-issued ID to confirm their identity.

Guruu does not provide real-time monitoring of sessions, parents or legal guardians need to supervise their sessions for young children. We do, however, provide recordings of sessions, accessible via your child’s dashboard. Parent and legal guardians may view a video session after it is delivered without breaching Guruu’s privacy policy.

We have strict rules regarding content that can feature, be broadcast to, or target children. Make sure you read our community standards to learn more about our policy. Parents, legal guardians or younger users should report any suspicious activity immediately to our team by emailing complaints@guruu.co

There are many subjects you can seek help with. For a number of reasons, we don’t allow certain types of services. Some services can pose unwanted risks for our users like legal or financial risks; others are simply not in line with our values and policies.A full list of prohibited services is detailed in our community standards, which you can access anytime here.  

This list includes, but isn’t limited to:

·      Illegal or misleading services

·      Services that pose a financial risk for our users

·      Services that have a risk of piracy or hacking

·      Academic services, such as the completion of assignments

·      Medical-related services

·      Adult, nudity, and sexual activity

·      Violent, self-harm or any criminal behaviour

When you book a Guruu, you will pay for your Guruu at the rate specified on their profile. In addition, a small service charge will be added and we will charge indirect tax (for example, sales tax or GST), which we are required to collect by law.

We do not accommodate exemptions from taxes on purchases, instead, users should seek reimbursement from their local authorities (if applicable).

Please note, all prices on guruu.co are shown in US dollars (USD).

We use Stripe to manage our payments. We accept payment methods that are accepted by Stripe. Please note, we do not see or store any credit card information on guruu.co

In the event of a refund, we will return funds (via Stripe) to the credit card that was originally used to make payment.

Both guruus and learners can cancel a booking, however, there are some things to note:

• If your Guruu cancels a booking, you'll receive a full refund.
• If the learner cancels a booking, the refund you'll receive depends on your Guruu's cancellation policy, which you can view on their profile page.

Some guruus don't mind late changes to bookings, while others may not accept them, so it's important to read the guruu's cancellation policy before you make the booking. 

Changing a booking

To change a booking, click on sessions, which you can access from the top right hand corner of your laptop screen. You'll see the option to change session times to the right of your booking.

Once your session has been delivered, you will be prompted to pay your Guruu and review your experience.  

You’ll be presented with three options:

1.     Pay now: If you’re happy with your Guruu and the session, please pay immediately so that your Guruu is not left waiting to be paid.

2.     Dispute: If something has happened that is a breach of our community standards, you can dispute the payment. Please note: Being unhappy with the session may not be a valid reason to dispute payment. If you have specific expectations or requirements of your Guruu, make sure you message your Guruu beforehand and clearly explain them. Make sure your Guruu agrees. Even if your session does not meet your expectations, you may still need to pay for it. You can reflect your experience in the review that you leave for your Guruu.

Creating a dispute initiates a mediation process, which is resolved at Guruu’s discretion. We reserve the right to watch any session recordings if this helps our team to resolve the dispute. Once we have decided the outcome or any dispute, it is considered final and we will not continue to enter into dialogue about it.

3.     Skip: You can choose to skip your payment. We do not recommend this option, but appreciate that sometimes people need more time. Please note, after 48 hours has elapsed, funds will automatically be released to the Guruu if a learner does not either initiate payment for the session or lodge a dispute with us.

Please note:

At the end of a session, you can dispute the payment under very limited conditions.

These are:

• The Guruu behaved in a manner that breaches our community standards.
• The Guruu did not deliver on pre-agreed requirements.

Our community standards are detailed and strictly enforced. Your Guruu is required to accurately state their skills and knowledge, and behave in a way that is consistent with our standards. Being unhappy or not liking someone is not sufficient reason to withhold payment. Being unhappy with your session may not be a valid reason to dispute payment. Instead, you can reflect a disappointing session in your review.

Guruu encourages both learners and Guruus to leave reviews about their experiences. This helps us maintain the integrity and quality of our website, and helps other users make better decisions about who to work with.

Once a session is completed, and payment is made, we encourage you to leave a review. Reviews should be honest and independent, in other words, free of pressure or coercion. If you feel you are being put under pressure, please get in touch with our team at complaints@guruu.co

If you are unhappy with the quality of your session, if possible, we recommend that you raise this directly with your Guruu during your session. This gives your Guruu the opportunity to amend the session to better suit your needs if possible. If you decide to leave a negative review, please ensure it is constructive and focuses on areas of improvement.

A negative review can be challenged and/or removed if it constitutes a personal attack, is dishonest, or is a breach of our community standards.

Guruu is a place where people can learn almost anything. We love that our Guruu community is full of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. You might also consider finding a Guruu yourself one day and learning something new!

Guruu is a knowledge-sharing billable platform that enables you to earn an income by sharing what you know and getting paid for it.

We love Guruu because it offers people the ultimate income freedom – you can choose where you work, when you work and how much you get paid. If you have a computer with an Internet connection, plus knowledge someone else wants, you can earn on Guruu.

Minimum age requirements apply to Guruus. You must be aged at least 15 years old. To learn more, please visit our younger users information page. 

Before you start, there are restrictions about what you can do, for example, you are not allowed to complete assignments for learners. To find out what you can't do, and to learn more about our policies, please read our community standards.  Please also be familiar with the terms of use, which you can access anytime here. 

Guruu FAQs should be read in conjunction with our general FAQs, which you can access here. 

We have minimum age requirements for Guruus and we manage users aged under 18 years differently. To learn more, please visit our younger users information page.

Only registered users can buy or sell using Guruu.

You set up your free profile, which includes all your relevant details, your availability and pricing. Under the terms of our community standards, it is extremely important that your bio honestly reflects your skills, experience and qualifications to make it harder for a learner to dispute payment.

We’ll publish your profile on our platform, along with your price and availability, so that learners can find you and book time with you.

At the end of each session, learners are invited to rate and review their Guruus. The more positive ratings you achieve, the more likely you are to be hired by more people in future.

Under our terms, Guruus cannot deliver their sessions to learners outside of the Guruu platform. Nor are instructors allowed to offer or accept payments using any method other than through Guruu. When you sign up, you agree to be bound by our terms, which also include our community standards, which can be updated from time to time.

Setting up an account is free.

When you successfully deliver a booking, and your learner releases payment, you'll be paid your fee less our commission.

Once someone opens your profile, you want them to choose you. Think of your bio as a sales pitch that explains to someone that you’re the best fit for their needs and gives them plenty of reasons to choose you.

A strong bio will include:

·      The topics or knowledge you will share

·      Your industry experience

·      Your relevant formal qualifications

·      Any awards or recognition you’ve received

·      If you work with children, your experience with young people

·      A bit about yourself – your family, background and interests

Don’t forget to let your personality shine through!

Keep your bio tight and easy to read. Avoid jargon where possible. You want everyone who opens your profile to understand clearly and easily what you are communicating.

Finally, no profile is complete unless it includes a great photo of your face. Look straight at the camera and smile.  You can use a good smartphone and take a selfie. Photos should be clear and good resolution, so people know what you look like when they meet you over video.

Please note: As part of our terms, you agree to provide us with accurate, complete and updated information. You must not create an account for fraudulent or misleading purposes. Also, you are solely responsible for any activity on your account and for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your password. We are not liable for any acts or omissions by you in connection with your account. It’s also extremely important to be accurate about your time zone, since learners will book your availability based upon it.

When a learner books time with you, they are required to pay in advance. These funds are held by us until the session is completed and the learner releases payment or, in the event of a dispute, a settlement is reached.

After this, we send a payment to your nominated account, less the platform commission, which is 15%.

It is the sole responsibility of service providers to verify their personal tax obligation, report, and pay taxes according to the laws of the state and/or country of residence, as applicable and required by local law and regulations.

Please also read our terms and FAQ covering your employment status.

Sessions are recorded automatically, and these recordings are available for download by both parties from their dashboards shortly after completion of the session.

We recommend downloading videos to your local computer since Guruu may, at its discretion and with no advanced notice, delete videos to better manage our video storage capacity.

Please note: For privacy reasons, video recordings may not be published, or in any way publicly shared, except with a parent or legal guardian in the case of a minor, without the prior written consent of all recorded parties. A failure to comply with this policy can lead to you being sued by the other parties. 

Unless a video recording is submitted as evidence in a dispute or complaint, the Guruu team does not watch video recordings.

When you set up your profile, you will choose a cancellation policy, and we apply this cancellation policy to your profile.

If a learner cancels a booked session, we apply the terms of your cancellation policy to any refunds.

If you cancel a booking, it triggers a 100% refund to the learner.

Guruus must not cancel bookings on a regular basis or without cause. Cancelling orders can affect a Guruu's reputation and status.

There may be penalties applied for late cancellations since guruus may be unable to book someone else for your session at short notice.

How much you charge is entirely up to you. There is no maximum amount you can charge, although a minimum charge of US$15 per hour applies.

How much you can charge depends on different factors, such as the knowledge you have, how many competitors you have, the level of your education, experience and skill, your location, language and, most importantly, your ratings and reviews.

It’s common practice to charge less at first to get experience and then increase prices as reputation and popularity grows, although this is at your discretion.

All pricing on Guruu is in USD. It’s important to fully understand the terms of use and payment arrangements.

When you earn an income on Guruu, like other marketplaces, you are an independent contractor or business. As such, you are responsible for paying your own tax and arranging your own insurances. 

We recommend shopping around for quotes, since you will have many choices.

While the following are not recommendations, to help you get started, we found some options online: 

Bizinsure (USA)

Bizcover (Australia)

Compare the Market (Australia) 

When you use guruu.co to earn an income, you are classified as an independent contractor, not an employee. You are responsible for paying your own tax on any income generated via our platform, and you are not entitled to employee benefits, such as superannuation and leave entitlements.

Guruu is a user-funded platform. We take a modest service from buyers (our learners) and apply a commission to our service providers (Guruus). This revenue funds the platform and its team.

Online reviews are increasingly important for building your reputation. With a high number of positive reviews, you may be hired more often and be able to charge more for your time. Against this backdrop, we understand that getting negative feedback may make you feel upset, angry or defensive.

It's important to stay calm and do not retaliate. Ask yourself whether the feedback is valid. Does your buyer have a point? Can you learn and grow from the feedback? If you think the feedback is unfair, consider messaging your buyer and, in a calm and polite manner, apologise for any negative experience. They may be willing to give you another chance.

We have rules regarding reviews that are outlined in our community standards. If you believe the review breaches our community standards, please get in touch with our team at help@guruu.co