On the 16th March 2020, the education system changed from offline to online during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This research wants to explore the students’ motivations and challenges in joining English online classes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. There are two formulated research questions: (1) What are the benefits and challenges do the students in SMA N 1 Prambanan encounter when implementing online learning during a pandemic? and (2) How are the students’ motivation in learning English during the COVID-19 situation? This research applied a case study to explore and get an in-depth understanding of the case. Questionnaires and interviews were used to find out the benefits, challenges, and motivations of online learning. There were 35 students from eleventh grade in SMA N 1 Prambanan as the participants in this research. The result of the questionnaire and interview showed that the participants have a positive perception of English online learning, especially in accessing the material. It also gave some challenges for students, especially in conducting group discussions. Furthermore, they are motivated by extrinsic motivation during English online learning, such as 1) to get good scores 2) to get a scholarship and 3) to compete with other friends.