Picmonic

What is Picmonic and who sells it?

Picmonic, Inc. was founded in 2011 in Tempe, Arizona. TrueLearn, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired it on 10 June 2021, and the Picmonic help center names TrueLearn as the parent company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ron Robertson was co-founder and CEO at the time of the sale, according to AZ Tech Beat. One source says the investor LLR backs TrueLearn.

What does it do?

Each lesson is a 2 to 4 minute video in which characters and images stand in for facts, so a drug name or a disease feature attaches to a visual scene. The service adds more than 10,000 multiple-choice questions with spaced repetition, rationales, performance insights, and tools to add or customise facts. Apps exist for iOS and Android, and notes can be printed.

Product lines cover medicine, nursing, pharmacy and other programs. By the vendor's numbers, more than 1,940,000 students in 100 countries use it, and the library holds 80,000 high-yield facts. Press coverage of the TrueLearn deal cites more than 2,000 lessons.

Picmonic calls itself "the world's best visual mnemonic learning resource and study aid for medical school, nursing school, and more!" That line and the claims "Research proven to increase retention and test scores" and "Increase Test Scores 50%" are marketing copy.

How much does Picmonic cost?

Picmonic's main pricing page carries a "NEW LOWER PRICES" banner and no figures. Picmonic's own comparison pages, updated in March 2025, put the Medicine (USMLE Step 1 and 2) plan at about $180 a year, or $287.76 for two years. In-app Premium on iOS runs from roughly $11.99 to $29.99 depending on the period.

A limited free account lasts five days without a card, and a seven-day premium trial reportedly needs one. The pass guarantee requires at least three months of regular use covering 500 or more Picmonics. If the student then fails the board exam, Picmonic offers a full refund or a free extension, per its help center.

Is the 50 percent claim backed by anything?

The vendor's page links one article in support of "Research proven to increase retention and test scores." Comparisons with Sketchy and Pixorize come mostly from competitors or from Picmonic itself.

Who is it for?

• A first or second-year student who cannot hold pharmacology and microbiology facts from text alone.
• A nursing or pharmacy student buying the program-specific plan.
• A student who already owns a main question bank and wants a second memory channel.

The verdict

Picmonic is a memory aid, and its sensible role is a second channel beside a question bank. The pass guarantee pays out only after 500 completed Picmonics over at least three months of use.