Photoshop’s New AI Credits: What You Need To Use And What To Skip

Adobe just made Photoshop’s AI tools more powerful and more expensive, and if you shoot real estate, these changes hit your workflow, your margins, and your client expectations. The mix of free tools, standard generative credits, and new premium credits now forces you to choose where speed and polish justify extra cost instead of treating AI as unlimited magic.

Coming to you from Nathan Cool Photo, this practical video walks through what the latest Photoshop AI update actually does to your everyday edits instead of speaking in vague hype. You see how common tools like the Remove tool now work with generative AI enabled without costing credits, which means you can clean up clutter and distractions without burning through your budget. Cool breaks down where standard Firefly generations are enough for item removal and subtle fixes, and where premium partner models start asking for real money in exchange for only marginal gains. That kind of side-by-side comparison matters when you are handling dozens of images per shoot and cannot afford to guess which feature is quietly charging you. By the end of this section, you start to see which edits stay in the "always on" category and which ones belong in a carefully priced upgrade path.

The video also shows how Cool uses Generative Fill and the new Harmonize feature to move beyond simple cleanup into virtual staging and composite work that actually looks client ready. Harmonize, which costs standard credits, does something you have probably wrestled with: making a dropped-in subject or element match the scene’s light and color so it does not scream cutout. Watching it blend an office worker into a commercial space, with multiple variations to choose from, makes it clear how you can sell higher-end staging or lifestyle add-ons without spending premium credits on every frame. On the flip side, Cool is blunt about Generative Upscale, testing it against Photoshop’s existing Preserve Details 2.0 and showing where paying extra credits brings minimal visible benefit for already sharp files. You get a sober look at which paid AI tricks earn their place on your invoice instead of draining your credits quietly in the background.

Where this gets more interesting is the bigger ecosystem shift that the video points toward without turning into a press release. Adobe’s integration of models like Firefly Image 3 and Google’s Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image) inside Photoshop and Firefly means your editing tools now sit on top of industrial-grade AI infrastructure, not isolated gimmicks. That connection to platforms like Google’s Vertex AI and YouTube opens doors beyond simple sky swaps, from more advanced virtual staging options to content pipelines where your stills, shorts, and marketing assets all build on the same AI backbone. Some of these tools cost more, but they also give you ways to position yourself as the person in your market who understands how to turn AI features into faster delivery, stronger visuals, and clearly defined premium tiers instead of random freebies. The video leans into that mindset: treat credits as controlled investments tied to upsells, not as vague penalties you discover at the end of the month. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Cool.