Adobe’s Creative Cloud plans are changing to reflect the new world of generative AI that we are living in. When plans change, prices change and that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has had a subscription for more than about one week. But, of course, most every blog across the internet is shouting that Adobe is increasing subscription prices in their click-bait headlines knowing full well that there’s a lot more to it than that.

So before you run out clicking and commenting in a fit of internet induced rage, read Adobe’s official article on these upcoming changes (this is for North America only), made to reflect the many Firefly and cloud-based generative AI options that will be coming available in numerous Adobe products:

Changes to Creative Cloud for individuals plans including students and teachers plans

But if you don’t want to click over and read it from Adobe, here’s what is happening … the current Creative Cloud plans will automatically be moved to a new, and more expensive, “Creative Cloud Pro for individuals and Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachers.” As we all probably know by now, AI isn’t free as there’s a lot of technology working up in the cloud and a tremendous amount of energy required to generate your quirky action figure image or human with six fingers. And even the useful AI requires the same. That isn’t free and thinking a publicly traded company (or even a “non-profit”) would offer this new frontier of tech without charging for it is a pipe dream.

With that price increase your Creative Cloud Pro plan will get access to these premium features:

• Unlimited access to standard image and vector generation features including Generative Fill in Photoshop.
• Additional generative credits for premium video and audio generation features including Image to video, Translate video, and Translate audio in Adobe Firefly and Generative Extend in Premiere Pro.
• Ability to create multiple boards in Firefly Boards (beta), the new concepting and mood-boarding tool in Adobe Firefly.
• The choice to use non-Adobe generative AI models directly in Adobe Firefly, like OpenAI GPT image generation, Google Imagen and Veo, and Flux.

That’s what you’re going to get in the new, more expensive Creative Cloud Pro plan.

Cost (and I’m going to round these numbers up because the .99¢ pricing is dumb):

• Current (and soon to be old) Creative Cloud All Apps – US $60/month – Annual, billed monthly
• New Creative Cloud Pro (Formerly Creative Cloud All Apps plan) – $70/month – Annual, billed monthly
• New Creative Cloud Standard (A new, less expensive plan) – $55/month – Annual, billed monthly

And remember … Annual, billed monthly means that you agree to a year long contract for a lesser price than a non-agreed to year-long contract. You pay less each month but if you cancel before the end of the 1-year contract you will pay a cancelation fee (just like your cable contract or your cell phone contract).

Wanna know what those prices are if you don’t agree to a one year contract? Here they are right from Adobe’s website:

If you don’t want to agree to a contract you will pay $105 per month instead of $70 per month. That’s a $35 difference so don’t be shocked when you have to pay a cancellation fee if you want out of your contract before the year is up.

You will be moved into the new Creative Cloud Pro plan when your current contract ends. Adobe assumes you want all the new AI features and they want to make more money so that’s why (I guess) people get moved to the new, more expensive plan. If they didn’t move people to the more expensive plan, they would be fielded with questions as to why the AI features wouldn’t work. Of course, by moving people to the new plan, they are bombarded with complaints that they are moving people to the new, more expensive plan and not the cheaper plan. So it’s a lose-lose no matter what they do because the internet is a very fickle and complaint-heavy place.

But to repeat, all you need to know about these upcoming changes, at least for North America at this point, is available at Adobe’s official website. You can see price comparison changes in a feature comparison chart as well as a lot of FAQs about what is going on. Everything is answered there, so don’t rely on the clickbait headlines or even my summary here on a non-clickbait headline. Click over and find out for yourself. But the internet will still complain.

Changes to Creative Cloud for individuals plans including students and teachers plans