Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom photo plans get a huge price hike, but there's a way to avoid it

Some monthly costs are going up for Adobe’s Photography plans
The cheapest option will no longer be available for new users
Changes come into effect from January 15, 2025

Brace yourself for price rises if you’re signed up to one of the Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom photography plans – these are the subscription options that just give you access to the photo applications, rather than the whole of Creative Cloud.

As per the Adobe blog (via PetaPixel), these new prices come into effect from January 15, 2025. At the moment we just have US pricing, but you can calculate the equivalent price rise for your region. Long story cut short: the users currently paying Adobe the least money will have to cough up more cash, or start paying annually.

Adobe Photoshop plans — The new pricing structure – the plan on the left is going away for new subscribers (Image credit: Adobe)

The Photography plan with 20GB of storage (including Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic) will be $14.99 a month rather than $9.99 – a bump of over 50%. You’ll need to commit for a year ($179.88) or pay an unspecified termination fee, or switch to the $119.88-per-year plan, which remains unchanged (and locks you in for longer).

On top of all that, this cheapest plan is going away, and won’t be available to new subscribers next year, so these changes are only for existing subscribers. If you’re signing up for Photoshop after January 15, the cheapest option will be twice as much as it currently is (though you do get 50 times as much cloud storage).

Going up

Two photos of a girl behind a window, one with reflections removed with Photoshop

Photoshop recently added a reflection removal tool (Image credit: Adobe)

There’s no change to the more expensive monthly ($19.99) or yearly ($239.88) Photography plans with 1TB of storage, which of course send more revenue Adobe’s way. As mentioned above, from January 15, these plans will be the only way to just get Photoshop without the rest of Creative Cloud.

Prices for the Lightroom-only plan with 1TB of storage are going up too, though you will now get Lightroom Classic as well as Lightroom. Going forward you need to pay $11.99 per month rather than $9.99 a month – so it’s 20% more expensive. Again, you need to commit for a year ($143.88) or pay a penalty.

Adobe would prefer you to lock yourself in to the $119.88-per-year plan, the cost of which remains unchanged. If these prices are now a little too rich for your blood, then you might want to check out our guides to the best Adobe Lightroom alternatives and the best Adobe Photoshop alternatives.

These new prices “better reflect the value that the apps deliver” Adobe says, noting it hasn’t raised subscription prices since it started demanding continuous monthly or yearly payments for Photoshop rather than one-off fees for each version. If you’re an existing subscriber, look out for an email from Adobe close to renewal time.

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