The money
What an AI stack costs a year
Ten published prices, three realistic stacks, one test.
The money
Ten published prices, three realistic stacks, one test.
Subscriptions arrive one at a time and nobody adds them up. This page does.
All figures below were read from the vendor pages on 25 September 2026 and are in US dollars unless the row says otherwise.
| Job | Tool | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Culling | FilterPixel | 14.99 a month billed annually, 180 a year |
| Culling | Narrative Select | 10 to 60 a month depending on plan |
| Culling | Optyx Pro | 6.99 a month billed annually, free tier available |
| Upscaling | Let's Enhance | 9 a month billed annually for 100 credits |
| Upscaling | Upscayl | Free, open source |
| Noise and detail | Topaz web image plan | 12 a month at the time of checking |
| Background | Photoroom Pro | 7.50 a month billed yearly |
| Background | Pixelcut Pro | 8 a month billed yearly |
| Video | Runway | 12 a month billed annually, free tier with 125 credits |
| Editor | Luminar Neo | 129 pounds once, perpetual desktop licence |
Prices and features on this page were read from each vendor's own website on 25 September 2026. Vendors change plans often. Check the current page before you buy.
The lean stack: Lightroom, Upscayl and one culling tool. Around 20 US dollars a month plus the Adobe plan.
The working stack: add Topaz and a background tool. Around 40 a month.
The full stack: add video credits and a second culling tool. Around 70 a month, which is roughly 840 a year.
At 840 a year the question changes. That is one paid session.
Anything with a free equivalent. Upscaling is the obvious one.
Any second tool that does the same job as one you already pay for.
Credit plans you top up in a panic. Those cost the most per image.
Mariya's verdict. Pay for the tool that saves an hour every week. Cancel the one you used twice because it looked interesting.
List every renewal in your card statement for one year, not one month.
Divide the total by the number of jobs you delivered.
If the cost per job is more than your retouching line, the stack is too big.
Prices move constantly. Re-check before you renew.
Plans that were annual only sometimes come back as monthly, and the reverse happens just as often.
Put the renewal dates in the same calendar as your invoices. A stack grows because nobody sees the renewals together.
A lean stack: one editor, one culling tool and a free upscaler. Around twenty US dollars a month plus the editor.
A working stack: add noise and background tools. Around forty a month.
A full stack: add video credits and a second culling tool. Around seventy a month, which is roughly eight hundred and forty a year.
At that level the stack costs more than one paid session earns, which is the moment to look at it seriously.
Culling: FilterPixel at 14.99 US dollars a month billed annually, Narrative from 10, Optyx Pro at 6.99.
Noise and detail: Topaz web plans from 12.
Upscaling: Let's Enhance from 9, Upscayl free.
Background: Photoroom at 7.50, Pixelcut at 8.
Video: Runway from 12, with a free credit tier.
Editors: Luminar at 129 pounds once, or an Adobe or Capture One subscription.
A perpetual licence keeps opening your files after you stop paying.
A subscription stops, and on some tools the presets and profiles stop with it.
Over three years a perpetual licence is usually cheaper, as long as it still supports the camera you own.
That last condition is the one that catches people, because camera support arrives through updates.
List every renewal on your card statement for a full year, not a month.
Divide the total by the number of paid jobs you delivered.
Compare that with what you charge for retouching on one job.
If the software costs more than the line item it replaces, the stack is too big.
Anything with a free equivalent that is good enough. Upscaling is the obvious one.
Any second tool that duplicates a job one you already pay for.
Credit plans you top up in a panic, which cost the most per image.
Anything bought for a job that ended.
The tool that saves an hour every single week.
The tool that keeps client files on your own machine.
The tool your delivery deadline depends on.
Everything else is optional, whatever the marketing email says.
| Case | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lean stack | About 20 US dollars a month | Editor, one culling tool, free upscaler |
| Working stack | About 40 a month | Adds noise and background tools |
| Full stack | About 70 a month | Adds video credits and a second culling tool |
| Perpetual licence | 129 pounds once for Luminar | Keeps opening files after you stop paying |
| Free option | Zero | Upscayl, GFPGAN, CodeFormer, Optyx free tier |
This page is written by Mariya Harley, a fashion, portrait and hotel photographer working from a studio in west London.
The tools described here are the ones that reach a working photographer's desk, and the failures described are the ones that reach a client's screen.
Prices and features are read from vendor pages rather than repeated from other articles. The date of that check is printed above each table.
Nothing here is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. A tool appears because it does the job, or because people ask about it.
What is deliberately absent: benchmark scores copied from press releases, rankings that change with the season, and any claim that software can replace direction, light or responsibility for the result.
If a price here is out of date, the vendor page wins. Tell me and I will correct it.
Every price and feature on this page was read from the vendor's own website on 25 September 2026.
Plans change often, and a tool that was a one-off purchase last year may be a subscription now.
Check the current page before you buy, and treat the figures here as a starting point for comparison rather than a quote.
Nothing on this page is sponsored. No vendor paid for a place in the tables, and there are no affiliate links.
This page is written by Mariya Harley, a fashion, portrait and hotel photographer working from a studio in west London.
The tools described here are the ones that reach a working photographer's desk, and the failures described are the ones that reach a client's screen.
Prices and features are read from vendor pages rather than repeated from other articles. The date of that check is printed above each table.
Nothing here is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. A tool appears because it does the job, or because people ask about it.
What is deliberately absent: benchmark scores copied from press releases, rankings that change with the season, and any claim that software can replace direction, light or responsibility for the result.
If a price here is out of date, the vendor page wins. Tell me and I will correct it.