When removing an unwanted object in Photoshop, default to the Remove Tool with its AI toggle set to 'generative AI off' first — this falls back to traditional content-aware fill and costs nothing. Only escalate to 'generative AI on' if the non-AI result isn't good enough; the AI pass consumes credits (1 credit under Adobe's Firefly-model pricing as of 2026-08) and produces a single-variation result on a new layer.
The pattern — try the cheap/free, non-generative method first, escalate to paid generative AI only on failure — is a reusable cost-control heuristic for any tool offering both a classical and a generative-AI path to the same result, independent of the exact credit price attached at any given time (Adobe's own credit pricing is explicitly flagged as subject to change). It mirrors why detection/selection operations are cheaper than generation: structural/algorithmic operations are computationally cheap and free, while pixel generation is expensive and priced accordingly. See Generative Fill with Blank Prompt (Content-Aware Erase) for the generative-fill equivalent (empty prompt auto-detects removal intent; cost then depends on the chosen model).