*Updated December 2020*
If you’re wondering how much does Photoshop cost, you’re in the right place. It’s a simple question, but there are several answers.
So how much does Photoshop cost and how do you get the best deal?
Photoshop is available as a subscription from Adobe Creative Cloud in a number of different plans. The best deal for Photoshop is as part of the Creative Cloud Photography Plan which costs $9.99. As a standalone app, Photoshop costs a monthly fee of $20.99. Photoshop is also available as part of the Creative Cloud All Apps Plan which costs up to $52.99 per month.
The pricing is somewhat confusing as you can get Photoshop AND Lightroom together in the Photography Plan for less than Photoshop alone.
Keep reading and I outline exactly what you get for your hard earned money.
The table below gives a quick overview of the current Photoshop deals and plans. I’ll explain each of the plans in more detail after the table:
An Outline Of The Creative Cloud Plans Which Include Photoshop
| Photography Plan Photoshop & Lightroom (20GB)US$9.99 /mo |
| View Deal |
| Photoshop Single App
US$20.99 /mo |
| View Deal |
| Lightroom Single App
US$9.99 /mo |
| View Deal |
| Creative Cloud All Apps
US$52.99 /mo |
| View Deal |
| Students & Teachers Creative Cloud All AppsUS$19.99 /mo
Note: This price is for the first year only |
| View Deal |
How the Photoshop & Creative Cloud Subscription Plans Work
Years ago, you could buy Photoshop as a standalone app. You could pay for it and download it, or get it on DVD and then you owned it forever.
Today, Photoshop and the latest versions of all of the other Adobe apps are only available with a month-to-month or annual subscription plan.
When you sign up for Photoshop on this subscription, you get all the latest updates and future releases. Photoshop is installed locally on your computer.
You will need to validate your membership when you first install it, but then you won’t need to connect to the internet to validate again for 99 days.
You can install Photoshop (or any of the Adobe desktop apps) on two computers. You can put it on a Mac, and a PC.
What is the difference between the annual and month-to-month plan?
The annual plan requires a one-year commitment (paid monthly or annually) and is cheaper than paying month-to-month.
The month-to-month plan is more expensive but it lets you stop and restart your subscription without a cancellation fee.
There is a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can always cancel if you decide you don’t want to use it. If you cancel after that, there is a penalty and you’ll be charged a 50% fee for the remaining months.
Membership plans renew automatically until they are cancelled.
Photoshop Plans In More Detail
The Best Deal For Photoshop Only
If you want to buy just Photoshop, there are two choices:
- Photoshop Single App Plan ($19.99 per month)
- Photography Plan ($9.99 per month)
The table below outlines exactly what is included in each plan. Basically though, if you don’t care too much about the amount of online storage, then the Photography Plan is by far the best value as you get Photoshop AND Lightroom for half the price of the Photoshop only plan. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, but there you go. 🙂
| Photography Plan | Photoshop Single-App Subscription | |
| Price | $9.99/month | $19.99/month |
| Photoshop CC (for desktop and iPad) | Included + Plus future updates | Included + Plus future updates |
| Lightroom CC | Included + Plus future updates | Not Included |
| Lightroom Mobile | Included | Not Included |
| Creative Cloud Online Storage | 20 GB Can be upgraded to 1 TB for $19.99 | 100 GB |
| Adobe Portfolio | Included | Included |
| Adobe Fonts | Included | Included |
| Adobe Bridge CC | Included | Included |
The Best Deal For All Adobe Creative Cloud Apps
If you need more than one single app from Adobe’s huge collection of creative software, consider the All Apps bundle. This gives you Photoshop as well as every program Adobe currently offers from $52 a month. It is a bit more expensive, but if you use 3 apps from the list below, it is worthwhile. It also gives you the option to try out the full suite of apps.
The full collection of Adobe Creative Cloud Apps are:
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- Adobe XD
- Lightroom
- Acrobat Pro
- Animate
- Dreamweaver
- Premiere Pro
- Premiere Rush
- After Effects
- Dimension
- Audition
- InCopy
- Lightroom Classic
- Media Encoder
- Character Animator
- Prelude
- Fuse
- Bridge
The Best Deals For Photoshop For Students And Teachers
Are you currently a teacher or a student? Then you can get a massive saving on the All Apps bundle - only $20 per month.
If you only need Photoshop, then the Photography Plan mentioned above for $9.99 is still the best price for Photoshop, even as a student or teacher.
But, if you need more than just Photoshop and Lightroom, the student or teacher deal is excellent value. Note, though that the education price is only applicable for one year. After a year the education price goes up to $30 per month - which is still really good value.
Conclusion
If you are not a student or teacher, and you only want Photoshop and no other apps, then the best value deal is definitely the Photography Plan for the bargain price of $9.99.
I hope you’ve found this guide to Photoshop pricing useful. And don’t forget you can download a completely FREE Photoshop trial for 7 days. Or the 7 day trial of all the Creative Cloud Apps. If you enjoy using the trial after 7 days you can pay for a subscription but there is absolutely no obligation to that.
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