It was only a matter of time before Adobe increased the cost of its Creative Cloud All Apps plan, following the price hike to its Photography and Lightroom plans, earlier in the year. But few could have expected that the software giant’s premium all-you-can-eat plan would cease to exist in North America (as you were, if you reside elsewhere) and instead be carved up into two new plans: Creative Cloud Pro ($69.99/month) and Creative Cloud Standard ($54.99/month).
The former is essentially the All Apps plan with full software functionality, while the latter doesn’t include the Firefly Boards (beta), third-party generative-AI-model integration, premium generative features, and unlimited credits for standard generative features. But before I get into the price changes, this perfectly illustrates a long-term problem I’ve had with Adobe’s pricing structures, they’re so darn complicated. So much so that, according to PetaPixel, even Adobe’s own Help Center initially failed to make it clear that new customers – not just existing customers – can sign up to the cheaper, standard plan.
And on that note, if you’re an existing customer who doesn’t want the more expensive Creative Cloud Pro, make sure you change to Creative Cloud Standard via your Adobe account or you’ll be automatically shifted onto the costlier Pro version. I’d be interested to know how many Creative Cloud users are wasting money on the plan they think they need, rather than the plan they actually need, because – as the Adobe Help Center illustrated – it’s easy to get confused.
The problem with the perceived cynical nature of Adobe’s plans, is that when the ‘big bad’ of image-editing software does something reasonable, it can get missed by the community. From what I can see on Reddit and elsewhere, this latest price restructuring hasn’t been received particularly well. But the fact is, if you’re an existing All Apps user who can live your creative life without the aforementioned perks of Creative Cloud Pro, then this is actually a price decrease. That’s right, the US All Apps plan is currently priced at $59.99/month, meaning you’ll save $5/month if you switch to Creative Cloud Standard.
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Adobe had announced that it was going to automatically shift All Apps users to the cheaper $54.99/month plan, with those who need the additional AI functionality left to switch to the pricier plan on their own terms. I really think this would have flipped the narrative into something much more positive. To my mind, the most disappointing aspect of all this is that standard users only get 25 credits per month for standard generative features, when those on much cheaper plans, like the Photography 1TB plan and Photography 20GB/Lightroom plan, get 500 and 100 credits, respectively.
But when it comes to the bigger picture, I don’t actually bemoan Adobe for charging more for its AI features. After all, it’s invested a huge amount in artificial intelligence in recent years and that hasn’t always sat well with investors. Recently, I’ve been reading The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future by Mustafa Suleyman, and one of the key themes he talks about is "containment". This is a broad term that covers everything from regulation to safety protocols to kill switches. And I think monetization can be a form of containment, too.
If you’re a creative who relies on AI, you could look upon Adobe’s monetization of such features as a price hike, or you could look upon it as a form of containment. If you’re a serious creative who’s serious about AI, do you really want everyone to have uncontained access to it? Food for thought at the very least.
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