MentorCruise Cost, Fees and Cancellation: How Billing Works

How MentorCruise billing works

According to MentorCruise's help article on cost, each mentor sets their own price, which is shown clearly on their profile. Prices are in USD and billed on a monthly subscription basis. Most mentors include calls and sessions in their plan, so you usually won't pay extra unless the mentor offers an additional service outside your package.

You enter payment details after a mentor accepts your application. That starts a 7-day free trial, and nothing is charged at that point. The first charge comes when the trial ends, then once a month after that. Each mentor you try can offer you a trial, but you get one free trial per mentor: if you cancel and later sign up with the same mentor again, the trial is not offered a second time.

Billing then continues automatically each month until you cancel, even if you do not schedule calls during that time. A week with no session does not pause anything; the subscription is still active and billed as usual.

MentorCruise gives three reasons for taking card details upfront: your mentor is committing to work with you long-term, it reduces no-shows and last-minute dropouts, and it means mentors are paid for reserving time for you. It also points to what monthly billing gives the mentee. If your mentor is unresponsive or not a good fit, you can cancel quickly, from your dashboard in a few clicks, and MentorCruise says its refund policy is “designed to be generous in these cases”.

What MentorCruise's fee adds to the price you see

MentorCruise's fee article is written for mentors, so it talks about “your fee” and “your payout”. Read from the mentee's side, it says MentorCruise takes a platform fee on each payment processed through the site, and that its pricing generally puts a 20% markup on top of the mentor's fee, which is the price mentees are shown. It puts its take rate at 16.6% per transaction on a global average. Every row below comes from that article.

Custom plans work the other way round. The fee is taken directly as a cut instead of being added on top, at the same take rate: in MentorCruise's example, $180/mo selected as the cost to the mentee gives the mentor a $150/mo payout. Custom sessions that a mentor creates carry a 10% fee. MentorCruise describes the article as “only explanatory” and says the exact calculation is subject to change, while also stating that it does not change the prices of existing mentorships or subscription plans without prior announcement and consent.

How to pause or end a MentorCruise mentorship

Mentor and mentee can both pause or end a mentorship from the plan settings in the dashboard, as MentorCruise's article on pausing and ending explains.

Pausing

Pausing causes payments to be skipped while keeping access to the chat system. You set a resume day, and the days left in your billing cycle are added back when the mentorship resumes. MentorCruise's example: you paid on the 1st, paused on the 15th and come back on the 10th, so your next payment is on the 25th.

Pausing is only available when all three of these hold:

• you have not already paused in the same billing cycle
• you have already passed the trial period
• your latest payment is not overdue

Mentors can pause multiple times on their end.

Ending

Ending a mentorship stops payments from recurring, and it is an immediate action. MentorCruise's article on payments after ending is explicit that the connection ends right away and does not run to the end of the billing cycle: payments stop, and there are no upcoming renewals. Ending also closes chat access, so you will not be able to contact your mentor again until you send another application. You are asked for final feedback as part of ending.

When MentorCruise gives refunds

MentorCruise's refund article lists the situations that can qualify and the ones that generally do not. Each qualifying ground carries its own conditions, so read the one that matches your case.

Situations where you can request one

• Your mentor has been unresponsive for more than a week without giving prior notice, and you made at least two follow-ups in the weeks before your request. If both you and the mentor were unresponsive, the refund is at the mentor's discretion.
• Your mentor agrees to refund you. You need written proof of the agreement, and the request goes to the mentor first for confirmation.
• There has been major misconduct, harassment or a serious breach of trust.
• The agreed services were not provided, and you made at least two follow-ups in the past month.
• At least 25% of the agreed services were not provided in a billing period, which can qualify for a partial refund. MentorCruise's conditions are that you made at least two reasonable scheduling attempts and that “Your mentor must have offered at least two feasible time slots per week”. Slots with under 24 hours' notice, at unreasonable times or with no real availability may still count as unavailable, and trial or intro calls do not count toward the paid plan's call limit. If you choose to cancel while the mentor has reasonable availability, you waive those missed calls and any partial refund is at the mentor's discretion. If less than 25% was missed, refunds are only at the mentor's discretion.
• Your mentor missed scheduled calls or was not properly prepared, for example avoidable technical issues that prevented a meaningful session, or agreed materials that were not provided.

Situations where refunds generally do not apply

MentorCruise says refunds are generally not issued for:

• not reaching your personal goals
• dissatisfaction with progress
• deciding that mentorship is not working out
• missing calls yourself as the mentee
• forgetting about the mentorship for more than one month
• ending the mentorship more than one month ago without a prior dispute
• requests without a specific reason
• transactions older than 90 days

General dissatisfaction with session quality is not handled through refunds, and missed calls from previous billing periods do not carry over and are not refunded later.

How a request is handled

You submit a request through MentorCruise's refund form. If the mentor accepts, the refund should appear on your statement within 5 to 10 business days. If the mentor declines, MentorCruise's support team reviews the case within 5 business days. After ending a mentorship, you can in certain cases request a refund for the last payment. When it is the mentor who ends the mentorship, MentorCruise asks them to provide a partial or full refund; it may be a partial refund based on the date of your last payment, and the mentor can choose to issue a full refund immediately.

Cancelling a single MentorCruise session

One-off sessions follow their own rule, set out in MentorCruise's article on cancelling a session. Cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled time and you get a refund, but the mentor then has a 24-hour window to dispute it; if there is no dispute, the refund is processed after that period. You cancel through the booking link in your confirmation email. Cancellations are not reversible, a session already marked as completed can no longer be cancelled, and a session cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice is not eligible for a refund.

MentorCruise facts checked against help.mentorcruise.com on October 14, 2026. Fees and policies can change, so check MentorCruise's help center before you subscribe.

How cost and booking work on ADPList

ADPList is free to start, with free sessions available. Mentors can also choose to offer paid sessions, so review the mentor and the session details before you book. There is no application process and no waiting list: you pick an open slot on a mentor's calendar and book it. Mentors apply and are reviewed before joining, and each profile shows their professional background, how many sessions they have completed, and reviews written by past mentees.

The trade-off is continuity. ADPList does not guarantee availability. Mentors set their own availability, so in-demand mentors book out, and continuity depends on you re-booking the people who help rather than a subscription.

Moving from MentorCruise to ADPList, or using both

1. Note when your current billing cycle renews. MentorCruise keeps billing monthly until you cancel, even if you have no calls.
2. If you want a break rather than an exit, pause instead: payments are skipped, chat stays open, and the mentorship resumes on the date you set.
3. Before you end a mentorship, save anything you need from the chat. Ending is immediate and closes chat access.
4. If agreed calls did not happen, check MentorCruise's refund conditions above first, because each ground has its own test.
5. Keep a mentor who is working. You do not have to choose one platform.
6. Bring your notes to your first session elsewhere. On ADPList, sessions are conversations rather than a fixed curriculum, so you set the agenda with the mentor you book.

If you want to try a session before your next renewal, here is how booking works on ADPList.

Still deciding where to go? Our MentorCruise alternatives guide compares options by reason for leaving.

Related: Best mentorship platforms · ADPList FAQs

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