Udemy Sale: How Often It Runs and What to Pay

Almost every week. We counted every dated Udemy sale offer that reached our feed between February 2 and September 28, 2026. A new course sale started in 28 of those 35 weeks, and 24 of the 42 start dates fell on a Monday.

The sales are planned well ahead. Most reached our feed one to four weeks before they began. When a course page says a sale ends soon, that is one sale ending, and the next one is usually already scheduled.

Each sale carries a theme. The one that started on September 7 was called Leadership for the AI Era. Short sales repeat as well: offers labeled as 24-hour sales are dated May 5, May 29, September 3 and October 2.

Udemy also runs separate sales on its Personal Plan subscription. We counted 10 of them between February 9 and September 14.

One limit on these numbers. They count what reached our feed, and our feed was thin in August. The 30 days between the August 3 and September 2 sales may be a gap in our data, not a pause at Udemy.

Udemy's own offer text in our feed this year reads "Prices as low as $9.99 per course," followed by "Markets may vary." That is the floor Udemy itself names.

Skip the percentage badge. It is measured from the course's list price, and with a new sale starting most weeks, the list price tells you little about what the course costs in a normal week. Eight quick checks work for any discount, and Udemy is a clean example of why the final price matters more than the percent off.

If the price in front of you is far above that floor, wait for the next sale. In our feed, it usually started within two weeks.

One sale can come in many sizes at once. The September 7 sale reached our feed in seven versions, all for the same date: 20, 30, 35, 40, 50, 80 and 85% off. Udemy explains this on its course pricing help page: promotions "may be run that target different regions, markets, or prospective learners."

A learner posted on Reddit that courses which used to cost about $14 now seemed to cost more, and asked whether they had imagined it. Probably not. Your country and whether you are new to Udemy can both change the offer you see. Our feed also carries offers meant only for new users.

So when you compare prices, compare them on the same day and in the same country. Even then, a friend's screen may show a different number.

Not every course joins every sale. One learner on a Reddit forum for PMP exam prep posted that Udemy had just run a sale, and the course they wanted stayed at full price.

Usually that is the instructor's choice. Instructors who leave Udemy's deals program set their own list price, and per Udemy's pricing tiers page "their courses are not included in sitewide discount campaigns." New courses sit out too: in the United States, a paid course is not discounted in a Udemy promotion for its first 14 days after it is published.

If the course you want did not drop, it may never drop in a sitewide sale. Compare it with the next-best course on the same topic before you wait for another sale.

For one practical skill, often yes. Mike Tarantino, who founded Gazoobie, has finished many of Udemy's Adobe design courses. "They were informative," he says. "I picked up tips and tricks in Illustrator and Photoshop that grew my design skills."

A low price only helps if the course is good. Before you buy, check four things on the course page: the rating and how many reviews sit behind it (thousands tell you more than dozens), the last updated date (software courses age fast), the total hours against the time you will really give it, and the free preview lessons. If you do not like the teacher in the preview, the full course will not change that.

There is also a safety net. Eligible courses can be refunded within 30 days if the request meets Udemy's refund policy. That makes a wrong pick cheap to undo.

It is not worth it when the only reason to buy is the timer.

Udemy's pricing page listed the Personal Plan starting at $13 a month when we checked on October 5, 2026. It is a subscription to a library, not to all of Udemy: per the Personal Plan FAQ, "not all Udemy courses are included," though thousands are.

At the $9.99 course floor, $13 a month is about the price of 1.3 courses. So if you take courses back to back and the ones you want are in the plan, it may cost less. If you want one skill and a course you can keep, buy the course. Udemy says a bought course stays yours for life, as long as your account is in good standing and Udemy keeps its license to the course.

One difference matters. Subscription plans bought on Udemy.com have no 30-day refund, per the same refund policy. Single courses do.

The plan has its own sales, too: 10 in our feed between February and September.

Not so far. Coursera completed its combination with Udemy on May 11, 2026. Coverage at the time said courses, pricing and subscriptions would stay the same for now.

Our feed agrees. New Udemy sales kept starting after the merger, including May 18, June 1, July 13 and September 7.

Since February 5, 2026, 3,196 Udemy offers have reached our feed. Most are labels for a sale theme or a country, not something you can use. Only 39 pass the rules for our lists, and 3 have ever scored high enough to earn the Gazoobie Pick badge.

That gap is the point of Gazoobie. Our online course deals show the Udemy offers that pass, next to other course and software deals. How we score offers explains the rules.