Photoshop's AI tools are getting more expensive to use, and until recently, you had no way to know what something would cost before you clicked generate. Adobe has quietly added credit cost transparency to Photoshop, and if you're using any of the generative AI features, you should be planning your workflow.
Coming to you from Terry Vander Heiden, this practical video walks through exactly how Adobe's credit system works inside Photoshop and Lightroom. Vander Heiden shows that hovering over the Generate button now displays an estimated credit cost before you commit, something Adobe didn't offer before. The range varies depending on which AI model you're using. Adobe's own Firefly Image 5 runs about 10 credits for a generative fill, while third-party partner models like Imagen 3 can run as high as 40 credits for the same task. That's a four-times difference for what might look like the same button. One catch: you won't see any of this credit information unless tooltips are enabled in Photoshop's notification settings, which Vander Heiden notes he had turned off and many users likely do too.
The credit reset date is something most people overlook entirely. Adobe doesn't roll credits over month to month, so whatever you don't use is simply gone. Vander Heiden gets 4,000 credits per month with his full Adobe suite plan and had used 3,700 of them at the time of filming, with a reset coming in four days. His point is direct: if you're sitting close to your reset date with credits left, that's the time to experiment, practice, or run through anything you've been putting off. If you have a large project coming up, timing it just after a reset gives you the most runway. If you need additional credits beyond your plan, Adobe sells them in bundles: 2,000 for $9.99/month, 7,000 for $29.99/month, 10,000 for $49.99/month, and 50,000 for $199/month. These are recurring charges, so if you only need a one-time boost, Vander Heiden's advice is to upgrade, do the work, and then cancel back down.
What gets genuinely interesting in the video is how Vander Heiden tests which AI features actually draw from your credits and which ones don't, and the results aren't what the feature list suggests. He runs through AI Denoise in both Lightroom Classic and Photoshop's Camera Raw filter, checks his credit balance before and after, and finds something unexpected. He also demonstrates Photoshop's newer object rotate tool inside Free Transform, showing how you can reposition and re-angle a vehicle extracted from a stock photo and composite it into a scene without spending a single credit on generation. The Harmonize feature, which matches lighting and shadow between a composited object and its background, also gets tested against the credit counter with a result worth seeing. Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Vander Heiden.
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