How to get Photoshop for free

Getting Photoshop for free isn't as easy as it once was, but there are still a couple of techniques worth trying if you need to use Photoshop and don't have the funds for a purchase or subscription. There are also some great free alternatives worth considering if you can get away with editing photos or pictures in another application.

Here's how to get Photoshop for free, and some good alternatives.

Download your free trial

The best way to get Photoshop for free, at the time of writing, is with the free trial. You'll need to input your credit card details, but you can cancel before it ends and enjoy a truly free trial.

Step 1: Navigate to the Adobe website and select Free Trial or Buy now.

Adobe will offer you three different free trial options at this point. All of them offer Photoshop and all of them offer a seven-day free trial. But they all have different prices and other benefits besides access to Photoshop, so choose the one that will best fit your needs and pay attention to the prices because that's what you'll be paying if you don't remember to cancel your subscription before the free trial ends. When you’re ready to choose a plan, select that plan’s corresponding Start Free Trial button.

Step 2: There are two options you can choose from:

Photoshop alone, with a seven day free trial and $21 a month charge after that, or the entire Creative Cloud app suite, which gives you Photoshop and 20+ more other Adobe apps for $55 a month, with a seven day free trial.

Select which one works for you from monthly or annual payment options on the right-hand side, then select Continue.

Step 3: Choose whether you want to include an Adobe Stock subscription (with its own seven day free trial) and select Add or No thanks.

Step 4: Input your payment information then select Start free trial

Step 5: Download the application and install it using the on-screen instructions. If you don't have an Adobe account already, you'll need to make one, but sign in to the app either way.

Step 6: You can now start using Photoshop like you would any other application. Just be careful to cancel your subscription before the seven days are up if you don't want to continue paying for access.

It's incredibly challenging to get a second free trial on Adobe, as they track and record all of your computer downloads. You can try your hand to eliminate Photoshop from your computer or use another computer and sign in with a new Adobe account. These methods might score an additional trial, but it's important to note that it doesn't always end in a win for you.

What are some good alternatives to Photoshop?

Rather not pay for Photoshop or mess around with a free trial? There are a number of other great Photoshop alternatives. From GIMP, to Pixlr, here are the best free photo editing tools you can use.

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Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…