What You Can Do in the Trial

A trial is supposed to answer one question before you commit to anything: does this actually work for how you shoot? Trying Imagen is built around letting you find that out on a real gallery rather than a demo, with the same pay-on-export pricing that pay-as-you-go photographers use day to day: you pay at export, and you see every edit in the gallery first. Here is exactly what that covers, and where the line sits.

The short version

While you try Imagen, pricing works exactly as it does for any pay-as-you-go photographer: you pay at export. You can upload a real shoot, cull it with AI or by hand, run your Personal AI Profile, try other AI tools, compare versions, and review everything the built-in editor (Beta) offers. Sliders, crops, and masks you do yourself are always free. When you export a finished photo, every AI tool that ran on it is billed, including any you removed, so try extra tools on a few photos first.

Who a trial like this is really built for

Trying Imagen on real client work instead of a handful of sample images is aimed at photographers who already have a workflow and want to know if switching is actually worth the disruption, not just curious browsers kicking the tires. If you are running a busy season and evaluating whether to bring in a new tool, you can genuinely use it to work through real client galleries rather than setting aside separate time for testing. It is not a smaller, limited version of the product built to tease you into upgrading. It is the same Imagen, and you pay at export.

What testing looks like during the trial

This is not a stripped-down preview mode. Imagen gives you the same non-linear project, where culling, editing, review, and export all happen together in any order you choose. You can skip AI culling and upload your own selects if that is how you already work, apply your Personal AI Profile across a whole gallery just to see how it performs on your style of shoot, and try the assistant to search a gallery in plain language. None of that is billed until you export. You see every edit in the gallery before you export, so you can judge the tool on your own work before a single photo leaves Imagen.

Your export allowance during the trial

The number that actually matters is exported photos, not photos uploaded, edited, or reviewed, and there is no fixed export count to track. You can work through several real shoots rather than just a handful of test frames, and you pay for the photos you export. A senior portrait season, for example, could mean working through complete galleries for a good number of individual sessions, giving you a genuine sense of how the tool performs across more than one kind of shoot. A studio testing across a mix of session types, rather than exporting everything from one large shoot, often finds the cost easier to predict than expected, simply because only finished deliverables count.

Testing on a real shoot instead of a demo gallery

The most useful trial is one you run on an actual paying job, not a folder of sample images. Upload a shoot you would normally deliver anyway, let your Personal AI Profile edit it, and compare the result against what you would have produced with your existing process. Because the eager editing model returns edited photos in batches by timestamp as they finish, you do not have to wait for an entire shoot to process before forming an opinion. You can be reviewing real, finished-looking frames within the same session you uploaded them.

A genuinely useful way to run this is in parallel with your current process rather than instead of it, at least for the first shoot. Edit the same gallery both ways, your existing method and Imagen’s, and compare the two results side by side before you decide anything. You see every edit in the gallery before you export, so you can make this comparison before deciding which version to deliver, and it gives you a far more honest answer than judging either tool from memory.

The built-in editor and the assistant, honestly assessed

Both major pieces of the experience are available during the trial, and both are worth judging with realistic expectations. The built-in editor is in Beta: manual sliders and a histogram, crop and straighten, presets you can import from Lightroom or build yourself, and versions, though not every AI tool is inside the editor yet. The assistant can find and act on photos using plain language, but it currently knows what is in a photo rather than where, so it cannot place a mask on a specific spot, it does not generate images, and it has no voice input. A trial is exactly the right place to learn these boundaries on your own shoot before they matter on a paying job’s deadline. Try asking it to pull every photo rated five stars from a large gallery, or to find a specific recognizable moment in plain language, and judge the built-in editor (Beta) separately on a handful of photos where you would normally reach for manual sliders rather than an automated pass. Testing both honestly, including where they fall short, tells you more than testing only the parts designed to impress.

Refining an AI edit with manual sliders in the Imagen editor (Beta)

What happens as you approach the limit

As you export more photos, nothing about your existing exported work changes or disappears. There is no trial limit to run into: you pay on export for the finished photos you choose to deliver. There is no cliff-edge loss of access to what you have already finished, only a decision about how you want to continue.

It is still worth keeping an eye on what you choose to export as you go, especially if you are testing across more than one shoot type, so the first invoice holds no surprises. Photographers who spread their testing across a full season rather than one large shoot tend to get a much clearer sense of whether to continue, since they have already watched the tool handle more than one kind of week.

Comparing the trial against your current tool during the same season

The most honest trial is one that runs alongside whatever you already use, not one that happens in isolation before you have made up your mind to switch. Keep your current tool active for the length of the trial, and deliver at least one real gallery through each system so you end up with two finished, client-approved results to compare rather than one finished result and a guess about what the alternative might have looked like. Pay attention to where each tool actually saved or cost you time, not only the final images, since the editing result is only part of what you are deciding between. A trial that ends with two completed galleries and a clear sense of which process fit your season better is worth far more than one that ends with a single gallery and a feeling.

Getting the most out of your trial

Pick a shoot that actually represents your typical work, not your easiest one, so the result tells you something real. Test more than one AI Profile or tool if you are unsure which fits your style, on a few photos first, since every AI tool that ran on a photo you export is billed. Try the assistant on a genuinely large or disorganized gallery, since that is where plain-language search shows its value most clearly. And pace your exports across a couple of different shoot types rather than exporting everything from one job, so you get a fuller picture before deciding what comes next. If you shoot more than one genre, a wedding photographer who also books family sessions, for instance, splitting your test shoots across both gives you a much better sense of whether the tool holds up across your full range of work rather than just your most common booking. The valuable tips library is a good companion while you do this, with more detail on individual tools than a trial overview can cover.

What’s new in Imagen: Imagen is now an intelligent, agentic Studio for professional photographers, one project for culling, editing, review and export in any order. Two parts are worth judging on a real shoot: the built-in editor (Beta), a capable early release with manual sliders, a histogram, crop and presets, and the assistant, which finds photos and acts on them when you ask in plain language. The Studio is rolling out gradually as a beta.

Frequently asked questions

What counts against my trial’s export allowance?

Exported photos count, along with every AI tool that ran on them, including any you removed. Uploading, culling, and reviewing do not, and sliders, crops, and masks you do yourself are always free.

How many photos can I export during the trial?

There is no trial export count to track. You pay on export for the finished photos you choose to deliver.

Can I use the assistant and the built-in editor during the trial?

Yes. Both are available during the trial, with the same current capabilities and honest limitations they have outside of it.

What happens to photos I already exported once the trial ends?

They remain exactly as delivered, and you pay on export for any further photos you choose to deliver.

Thinking about testing this on a real shoot of your own? Start your free trial in Imagen’s new Studio, where you pay at export, and find out.