"Free" is the most abused word in medical education marketing, so let us define terms before comparing anything. In practice there are five different things a company can mean: fully free (rare), a limited free tier (usage caps), a time-limited trial, a free tutor sitting on paid content, or free access to selected banks while others sit behind a subscription. The comparison below judges what you can actually do without paying, not whether registration costs nothing.
What the free tiers genuinely include (last checked August 2026)
iatroX: free access to askiatroX clinical answers plus full access to selected question banks, currently the MRCP Part 1, MRCEM SBA, PSA and PARA banks, with sample questions across the other 40+ exams. The UKMLA, PLAB 1, MSRA, MRCGP AKT, specialist and international banks sit within the subscription.
ChatGPT Study Mode: genuinely free at the base tier, with step-by-step teaching, quizzing and file review. The cost is not money but the absence of a medical corpus, exam blueprint and performance memory.
Neural Consult: a free Starter plan with limited weekly usage of every feature, enough to evaluate the platform properly before the $24.99 monthly or $224.99 annual Pro plan.
Geeky Medics: substantial free written content and a selection of free OSCE stations; the AI Tutor can be tried free, while advanced AI features such as real-time virtual patients and examiner feedback draw on credits included with paid bundles.
Osmosis, AMBOSS, UWorld, Lecturio: trials and limited previews rather than working free tiers.
The paid maths
| Platform | Monthly | Annual | Effective monthly if annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| iatroX Pro | £29 | £99 | £8.25 |
| Geeky Medics Everything Bundle | £35.99 | £69.99 | £5.83 |
| Neural Consult Pro | $24.99 | $224.99 | about $18.75 |
Two things jump out. First, monthly-to-annual discount structures differ wildly: Geeky Medics and iatroX both discount the annual plan heavily, so paying monthly for either across a full revision year is poor value. Second, headline prices are not comparable line for line, because the products do different jobs. Geeky Medics' bundle is the clinical-skills library plus credit-metered AI; iatroX's covers every question bank it offers plus the Tutor, planner and mocks; Neural Consult's covers unlimited generation from your own materials.
A rough cost-per-exam lens helps. A candidate sitting the UKMLA this year and MRCP or MRCGP within three years pays iatroX £99 annually for all of it, since the subscription unlocks every bank rather than charging per exam. Buying separate products per exam typically costs multiples of that. The caveat cuts both ways: if you only need OSCE practice, the Geeky Medics annual bundle is cheaper and better targeted.
How to choose on a student budget
Start free everywhere that lets you. Run the same week of revision through the iatroX free banks, Neural Consult's starter tier and ChatGPT, and notice which one you reopened unprompted. Pay annually, never monthly, once you commit. And pay for the layer closest to your exam: a curated blueprint-mapped bank if you face a written paper, a virtual-patient environment if you face a clinical one. The £99 iatroX annual tier earns its place when you want the written-exam layer plus clinical answers to persist beyond a single exam season.
Frequently asked questions
Is free ChatGPT genuinely enough to pass a medical exam?
As your explainer, plausibly; as your preparation system, no. Candidates have passed exams with nothing but free tools and library books, so "enough" is not the bar. The question is efficiency: without a blueprint-mapped bank, calibrated difficulty or scheduled review, you spend scarce study hours doing jobs software does better, and you sit the exam with no external calibration of where you stand. Free ChatGPT plus a free curated bank, such as the full free banks on iatroX, is a materially stronger zero-cost setup than ChatGPT alone.
What hidden costs should I watch for?
Three patterns. Usage caps that bite mid-revision: a free tier generous in week one can throttle exactly when your volume peaks, which is the Neural Consult starter tier's designed limit. Credit metering: Geeky Medics' advanced AI features draw on credits included with bundles, fine for normal use, worth modelling if you plan heavy daily virtual-patient work. And per-exam pricing: the cheapest subscription per month is not cheapest per career if every new exam is a new purchase.
When is the right moment to upgrade from free?
When one specific limit is costing you marks or hours, and not before. The usual triggers: your target bank sits behind the paywall, your free usage cap now interrupts real sessions, or you need mocks and a planner as the date closes in. Upgrade annually when you do; every platform here punishes monthly loyalty, and £8.25 a month for everything, iatroX's effective annual rate, only exists on the annual plan.