Pathoma cost: Pathoma price from $84.95 to $119.95 for Pathoma Step 1 prep, and Pathoma vs Boards and Beyond

Pathoma is one author, one book and one set of lectures. Dr. Husain Sattar wrote the 218-page Fundamentals of Pathology text and teaches all of the 35+ hours of video that follow it chapter by chapter. The lectures explain disease from mechanism outward, which is how Step 1 tests pathology, and the book is an outline you can annotate during the lecture and reread in dedicated. That tight scope is the reason it has stayed on almost every Step 1 resource list for over a decade while bigger products came and went. It is also why it is cheap: there is no question bank, no app ecosystem and no tiered feature list to pay for. If pathology is the part of Step 1 you want taught properly once, this is the most direct way to buy that.

• One author for the text and all 35+ hours of video
• 218-page outline text, with 300+ full-color images per the homepage
• Taught from mechanism outward, the way Step 1 asks pathology
• No upsells: three plans, one product

Pathoma sells a Free account and three Pro plans, and nothing else. Pro 3-Month is $84.95, Pro 12-Month is $99.95 and Pro 21-Month is $119.95. Each Pro plan includes video access for that term plus the 2026 edition of the Fundamentals of Pathology text, shipped as a paperback. The features page words the same range as starting at $84.95 and offers 3, 12 or 21 months of access. The Free account is described on the sign-up page as a one-month trial with no obligation and on the features page as trial access to six videos, with no credit card needed. Prices were read directly from pathoma.com on September 23, 2026, by loading the site in a browser, because the site sits behind a challenge page that blocks simple scrapers. That is probably why so many roundups still quote older figures.

• Pro 3-Month: $84.95, about $28.32 a month
• Pro 12-Month: $99.95, about $8.33 a month
• Pro 21-Month: $119.95, about $5.71 a month
• Free account: trial access to six videos, no card required

The price ladder is very flat. Going from 3 months to 12 costs $15, and going from 12 to 21 costs another $20. At the same time, Pathoma does not let you choose a start date. Its FAQ says every subscription begins at sign-up once payment clears, with extra days added to cover shipping. Put those two rules together and the buying advice is simple. If you are in your preclinical years and want Pathoma for your pathology course and later for dedicated, buy the 21-month plan now, because $119.95 covers both and a second 3-month plan later would cost you $84.95 again. If your Step 1 date is already booked inside three months and you only want a fast pass through the videos, the 3-month plan is fine, but ask yourself whether a postponed exam would leave you paying again. For most students the 12-month plan is the safe middle, since the upgrade from 3 months costs less than a lunch.

• 3 months to 12 months: $15 more
• 12 months to 21 months: $20 more
• The clock starts at sign-up, and activation cannot be delayed
• Buy the 21-month plan if you want it for the course and for dedicated

Several limits that matter are only in the FAQ, not on the pricing card. There is no electronic copy of the text: every Pro account gets the physical book and nothing else, and the PDF on the free account is a sample. The text and videos are never sold separately, so a used copy of the book from a reseller gets you the book alone, never the lectures. Views are capped at an average of eight per subsection in each chapter, and every load counts as a view however little you watch, though support can reset the count after a review. Videos play on at most three devices. The FAQ lists Windows 8.1 or macOS 10.15 and up, iOS 13 and up in beta, and says Linux and Android are not supported. Finally, the refund policy is one line: all sales are final. The free account is the only way to test it.

• No PDF: paperback text only, shipped in 4 to 7 business days in the US
• Book and videos are never sold separately
• About eight views per subsection, three devices, no Android per the FAQ
• All sales final, so use the free account before paying

This is the comparison most students are really making, and they are not the same kind of product. Boards and Beyond covers every Step 1 discipline in 490+ videos with a question bank attached, at $89 for one month, $149 for three, $199 for six, $249 for a year and $399 for two years, with no refunds. Pathoma covers pathology only and has no questions. So Pathoma vs Boards and Beyond is rarely either-or. Most students who buy Boards and Beyond for the systems still add Pathoma for pathology, because a year of both costs $348.95, about what 30 days of UWorld costs on its own ($349). If you can buy only one and pathology is your weak area, Pathoma is the cheaper, deeper choice for that one subject. If you need to learn physiology, biochemistry and pharmacology as well, Boards and Beyond is the one that teaches all of it. Bootcamp, at $299 a year with 2,500+ Step 1 questions and a pass guarantee on yearly plans, is the other option students weigh against both.

• Pathoma: pathology only, no Qbank, $99.95 for a year
• Boards and Beyond: every discipline, 490+ videos, $249 for a year
• Both together for a year: $348.95, the price of 30 days of UWorld
• Bootcamp: $299 a year with 2,500+ Step 1 questions

The weak point of Pathoma is the gap between watching a chapter and being able to answer a question on it. Pathoma leaves that gap to your question bank, and a bank like UWorld or Amboss mixes pathology into system blocks, so you may not see a question on the chapter you watched on Tuesday until weeks later. Aspirants.ai closes the gap. You tell it the chapter, say neoplasia or red blood cell disorders, and it writes new USMLE-style questions on exactly that, explains why every wrong option is wrong, and answers the follow-up question you would have asked Dr. Sattar if you could. It does not replace Pathoma or your question bank, and we would not tell you to drop either. It is the inexpensive layer that turns a lecture into points, from $9 a month for one exam with no access clock.

• New questions on the exact Pathoma chapter you just watched
• Every answer choice explained, follow-ups answered 24x7
• Works alongside Pathoma and your Qbank, not instead of them
• From $9 a month, month to month, cancel any time