How Much Does the Mastery Program Cost? Every Number, Including the Ones That Aren't in the Price

$229 a month for twenty-four months, which is $5,496. $399 a month for twelve months, which is $4,788. Or $3,999 paid once.

That’s the whole answer, and you can stop here if that’s all you came for. The rest of this page is the part most schools make you dig for: what the number buys, what it doesn’t, and who shouldn’t pay it.

What do the three plans cost in total?

All three plans buy exactly the same program. The only thing that changes is when you pay.

Plan	What you pay	Total	Saving
24 months	$229 a month	$5,496	The smallest monthly payment
12 months	$399 a month	$4,788	$708 less than 24 months
Pay in full	$3,999 once	$3,999	$1,497 less than 24 months

We print those savings on the pricing page rather than leaving you to do the arithmetic. A payment plan is a loan you’re making to yourself at our interest rate, and you should know what it costs before you pick one. If you can pay in full without straining your month, pay in full.

Both plans stop when the last payment clears, and you keep your lesson access for life once the balance is paid.

What’s included in the price?

Lifetime access to the lessons, so the material doesn’t expire and later updates come with it. Two years of group coaching, included on every plan including the smallest monthly one: weekly Zoom calls, plus written feedback from a coach on every piece you post, usually within 24 hours. The student community in the Milan Art app. The art business training. And the bonus courses, which cover the Essentials Courses and the Masterclasses.

The coaching is the part worth pausing on, because it’s what separates this from a video library you watch alone at midnight. You post a painting and a working artist tells you what’s wrong with it. That’s included in the $3,999. It isn’t an upsell.

What else will I have to pay for?

Supplies. You buy your own materials, the same as you would for any painting course. If you already paint, you probably own a fair amount of this. If you’re starting from nothing, our kits are $460 for Part 1 Kit 1, $350 for Kit 2, $490 for Kit 3, and $425 for the Part 2 mixed media kit, or $1,244 for all of them together.

You can source it all yourself, and plenty of students do. Once shipping from four different suppliers is counted, the saving over a kit is often smaller than it looks, but that’s your call to make with a calculator.

Either way you aren’t guessing at any of it. Every student gets a printable supply checklist inside the course, four pages for Part 1 alone, down to the individual paint colors, the brush shapes and sizes, and how many canvases of which dimensions. Anything we don’t sell ourselves sits on a recommended products page with direct links, twenty-nine items covering solvents, mediums, canvases, paper and easels.

What can I add later?

A personal mentor. Group coaching is already in your plan, so a mentor is one to one attention on top of it. There are three levels: $200 a month for a monthly private Zoom call and daily messaging, $500 a month for a weekly private call and daily messaging, and $1,000 a month working directly with Elli Milan, by application. The mentors on our roster are Mastery Program graduates, and you choose your own rather than being assigned one.

Mentoring doesn’t touch your lessons. Lifetime access comes with your purchase and mentoring is a separate service sitting alongside it, so nothing you decide about a mentor changes what you can still watch in five years.

There’s one bonus on the pay in full option, and it’s limited by spaces rather than by a date. Mentoring spaces are capped. If one is open when your enrollment is confirmed, your first month of personal mentoring is included. If you get one you have fourteen days to claim it, claiming it requires a card, and it continues at $200 a month until you cancel. We email you fourteen days before the first paid charge, and you can cancel before then without paying anything for mentoring.

What’s the refund policy?

Email info@milanart.com within 30 days of your start date, which is the Saturday your lessons open, and you get a full refund. Nothing is deducted for processing fees, and refunds are processed in seven to ten business days.

It applies to your first Mastery Program purchase, and your access ends when the refund is issued. After 30 days there are no refunds and a payment plan runs to completion, so use the first month to find out whether the teaching suits you.

Why does it cost what it costs?

Our price has moved twice. In 2023 the program was $2,040 paid in full, and feedback from a working artist wasn’t part of it. If you wanted a professional to look at your paintings and tell you what to fix, the closest thing we sold was group mentoring at $99 a month, bought separately.

In February 2024 the price went to $3,600, and two years of group coaching came inside it, on every plan. At the start of 2026 it moved again, to $3,999.

So compare the 2023 package with today’s package, because comparing sticker prices hides what moved inside them. That comparison runs the other way.

Same package, both years	2023	Today
The program, paid in full	$2,040	$3,999
Feedback from a working artist	$99 a month, bought separately	Included
Two years of that feedback	$2,376	Included
What you’d actually pay	$4,416	$3,999

$417 cheaper than it was three years ago. Parts 1 and 2 have been rebuilt and are finished, and Part 3, the business section, is still being added to the app. That arithmetic is ours, worked out from our own past prices rather than quoted from anywhere.

There’s a reason we stopped selling the cheaper version. We watched students who were getting feedback make better paintings than students who weren’t, which I appreciate is the least surprising finding in the history of teaching. So we stopped offering a version without it. That’s the whole story of the price change: the part that was doing the most good used to be optional, and now it isn’t.

One price has barely moved. Personal mentoring was around $200 a month in 2023 and it’s $200 a month now.

When shouldn’t you pay this?

If you’re not sure the teaching suits you, there’s a $99 way to test it. I want to be up front about what it is, though, because it isn’t a smaller version of the same thing. In the Two-Week Challenge you make five finished pieces, two drawings and three paintings, with a coach giving feedback on each one, and the lessons come from across the program rather than in order. It’s a great taster. If you’re a complete beginner, some of it will be harder than it would have been had you arrived at it in sequence.

The Mastery Program builds your skills in order, step by step, from classical foundations all the way to selling your art. If you enroll within 30 days of your Challenge start date, the $99 counts toward your tuition.

If you want one technique rather than a whole education, a single masterclass will serve you better than anything else we sell.

And if a payment plan is how this works for you, take one. There’s nothing lesser about it, and plenty of people choose a plan who could have paid in full. $229 a month buys the same program, the same two years of coaching and the same lifetime access as any other plan. Pick the plan that leaves your month comfortable. The right one is whichever gets you painting.

What are you actually buying?

An education that starts with drawing and ends with pricing a commission, with two years of a working artist looking at what you make and telling you the truth about it.

Whether that’s worth $3,999 depends on what you want on the other side of it. If the answer is a hobby you enjoy, this is more than you need. If the answer is paintings people want to buy, it costs less than a year of art school and it doesn’t end with a loan.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Mastery Program cost in total?

There are three plans and three totals. The two year plan is $229 a month for twenty-four payments, which comes to $5,496. The one year plan is $399 a month for twelve payments, which comes to $4,788, so it saves you $708. Paying in full is $3,999, charged once, which saves you $1,497 compared with the two year plan. Payments stop when the plan is done, and you keep your lesson access.

Is everything included, or are there extra costs?

The tuition covers lifetime access to the lessons, two years of group coaching with feedback on every piece you make, weekly coaching calls, the student community in the Milan Art app, and the bonus courses. The one cost you have to plan for on top is supplies, which you buy yourself. Our kits run $350 to $490 each, or $1,244 for the full bundle, and you get a printable checklist plus links for anything we don't sell. Everything else is optional, such as a personal mentor from $200 a month.

What does the payment plan actually cost me?

The twenty-four month plan totals $5,496. The twelve month plan totals $4,788, which is $708 less. Paying in full is $3,999, which is $1,497 less than the twenty-four month plan. If you can pay in full without straining your month, it's the cheapest way to buy the same program.

What is your refund policy?

Email info@milanart.com within 30 days of your start date, the Saturday your lessons open, and you get a full refund. Nothing is deducted for processing fees. It applies to your first Mastery Program purchase, your access ends when the refund is issued, and refunds are processed within seven to ten business days. After 30 days there are no refunds, and a payment plan runs to completion.

Can I pay monthly without a credit check?

Yes. The payment plans run through our own checkout by card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, so there's no credit check and no third party lender involved. We don't offer financing through Klarna, Affirm or anything similar. The plans are the only way to spread the cost.

Can I pay off a payment plan early?

Yes. Email info@milanart.com. If you pay off the remaining balance within the first 30 days after your first payment, you still get the pay in full price. Get in touch at least five days before your next scheduled charge so the plan can be stopped before it bills again.