If you are on older hardware (Intel Mac or older PC) or hate Adobe’s new subscription-only model for newer features, stick with 9.1. It represents the last era where Lightroom felt like a professional tool rather than a bloated cloud service.

Then came .

| Metric | LR 9.0 | LR 9.1 | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Scrolling in Library (1000 RAWs) | 12 fps | 28 fps | | Export (100 24MP RAWs to JPEG) | 2m 15s | 1m 58s | | Mask loading (Brush adjustment) | 1.2s | 0.6s | The good: It is stable. It doesn’t require a Creative Cloud subscription if you bought a perpetual license (pre-2020). Many wedding photographers froze their updates at 9.1 because later versions (10.0 and 11.0) changed the import dialog and removed the old export location picker.

Lightroom 9.1 May 2026

If you are on older hardware (Intel Mac or older PC) or hate Adobe’s new subscription-only model for newer features, stick with 9.1. It represents the last era where Lightroom felt like a professional tool rather than a bloated cloud service.

Then came .

| Metric | LR 9.0 | LR 9.1 | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Scrolling in Library (1000 RAWs) | 12 fps | 28 fps | | Export (100 24MP RAWs to JPEG) | 2m 15s | 1m 58s | | Mask loading (Brush adjustment) | 1.2s | 0.6s | The good: It is stable. It doesn’t require a Creative Cloud subscription if you bought a perpetual license (pre-2020). Many wedding photographers froze their updates at 9.1 because later versions (10.0 and 11.0) changed the import dialog and removed the old export location picker.