I’ve used Adobe Photoshop since version 7 and Lightroom since it was launched. They are the computer programs that have provided me the most fun over time. The shift to a subscription model rather than outright purchasing the programs in 2013 caused a lot of anguish on the internet but the Photography Plan (20Gb) for US$9.99/month gave access to Photoshop and Lightroom with regular updates and was a lot more economical than purchasing and upgrading each program whenever a new release was available.

That US$9.99/month price has not increased since launched so it was not a surprise to hear that the cost is going up from 15 January 2024. The new price is US$14.99/month which is a 50% increase which seems a lot until you reflect that there hasn’t been an increase for 11 years and that the current programs are far more capable than they were back then. This price increase only kicks in from the annual renewal date for your subscription so depends on that specific date. You could well continue paying at the old rate for up to 12 months depending on when you first subscribed.

The real purpose of this post is to point out that by simply changing to the “pay annually” (rather than monthly option) you can lock in the equivalent of US$9.99/month so is a logical option. Logging into your Adobe account gives the option to manage your plan so that if you’re on the annual plan paid monthly you can simply switch to the prepay annual plan as I did in the screenshot below. You are billed for the year and any remaining balance for the current month is refunded.

A second point to bear in mind is that from 15 January 2025 the 20Gb plan will no longer be available and the base tier will be the 1Tb US$19.99/month plan. If you’ve been considering subscribing but haven’t yet, now would be a good time to get the lowest cost plan and lock in that price for at least 12 months.

These videos from Matt Kloskowski cover the issues in a little more detail.

Godwit photo with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S