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Inspiring
January 13, 2026
Question

Continue with full subscription or drop to Photoshop plan? Generative Fill credits a concern.

  • January 13, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 334 views

I've been an Adobe user since the mid 90's, so over 3 decades of being a customer and user now. 

I'm a commercial photographer, so Photoshop is my main tool, but over the past few years years I've stuck with the full subscription, Creative Cloud Pro, as I do occasionaly use Illustrator, Indesign, Premiere, and Acrobat for general PDF work. Basic PDF editing and filling in forms.

 

With the price increase to US$69.99 per month, partly I'm sure to cover AI costs, but just the general trend in subscription rates increasing faster than inflation, I'm now reevaluating whether I want to keep paying for so many apps that I no longer use.

 

  • Premiere I dropped for DaVinci Resolve. 
  • InDesign and Illustrator have free options in the Affinity universe.
  • Adobe Acrobat, most apps have PDF build features within and Apples Preview app allows some work on PDF's.

 

My main concern is Generative Fill credits. I shoot on-location, and honestly, Generative Fill is pretty good and quick at removing outlets, exit signs, fixing broken mini-blinds etc, but I also find Generative Fill is giving "slop" fill options more and more frequently with more complex generative fill requests. If I'm shooting people for instance and have glare in glasses, I actually find Evoto, with it's specific glasses glare remove tool, is more consistent than Photoshop Gen Fill.  I'm starting to wonder if it's worth my while to just go back to the clone/heal tools I can control rather than pay, what, US$47 (the price difference between CCPro and the Photoshop subscription) a month mainly for "unlimited" Generative Fill credits. 

 

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences, especially from professional, commercial photographers as that's the most applicable to my situation. 

 

Cheers!!

 

1 reply

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2026

 

@El_Jeffe 

 

There is one other possible option to consider: Creative Cloud Standard. The annual plan, paid monthly, is 54.99.

Go to https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html  > Individuals tab > scroll almost to the bottom.

It has 20 apps and very few generative credits.

  

 874355i333B3C1700A987EF.png

 

Jane

El_JeffeAuthor
Inspiring
January 13, 2026

Thanks Jane,

 

Actually, I feel like the only reason to stay with a more expensive plan than the straight Photoshop plan (Photoshop, both Lightrooms and the mobile apps they throw in) is for the additional Genrative AI credits that come with the Pro subscription. Appreciate the recommendation and thought though! 

 

I actually started looking through the credit cost for things like generative fill, especially with their partner models. Wow. Not exactly simple 1 to i pricing.....

 

 

kglad
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 14, 2026

you might consider creating your own spreadsheet to evaluate the options.