Adobe Brings Premiere Pro to iPhone — For Free

Adobe just made one of its boldest mobile moves yet: Premiere Pro is coming to iPhone on September 30, and it’s completely free to use. For years, Premiere has been the industry standard for professional editing on desktop, but this marks the first time Adobe is putting its flagship video editor in creators’ pockets without the subscription barrier.

Professional Features, Mobile First

The iPhone app isn’t a watered-down version of Premiere Rush. Instead, it’s a full rethink of Premiere Pro for mobile creators:

• Multi-track timeline with colored tracks and audio waveforms for frame-accurate editing.
• Support for 4K HDR content and unlimited video, audio, and text layers.
• Studio-grade audio recording and Adobe’s AI-powered Enhance Speech to clean up noisy voiceovers.
• Adobe Firefly AI built in, letting you generate images, sound effects, or even extend video with text prompts.
• One-tap exports for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram, with automatic aspect ratio adjustments.

The app will be free to download and use. The only charges come from generative AI credits or additional Creative Cloud storage. On launch day, Adobe is also sunsetting Premiere Rush, folding its mobile editing ambitions fully into this new app.

Why This Matters Now

CapCut currently dominates mobile editing with 81% market share, a remarkable rise that’s reshaped how short-form content is created. Adobe’s free Premiere Pro for iPhone is a direct response, giving creators professional tools without upfront cost.

It also fits into Adobe’s wider mobile push. After bringing Photoshop to mobile earlier this year and experimenting with Project Violet, this feels like the flagship release meant to signal they’re serious about mobile-first creativity.

My Take

This is a smart move, though it comes with risks. By making Premiere Pro free on iPhone, Adobe lowers the barrier for millions of creators to try professional tools, but it could also undercut their paid desktop subscriptions. The likely play is that creators will start editing on their phones, then move projects to desktop for more complex work — and that’s where Creative Cloud subscriptions become attractive again.

The timing is also no accident. Meta launched its own editing app, Edits, globally in April. The mobile editing space is getting crowded, and Adobe knows it can’t afford to sit out while others define the workflow for the next generation of creators.

What to Watch

• Creators: A huge opportunity to access pro-grade editing tools for free, entirely on iPhone.
• Competitors: CapCut will still be tough to dislodge, but its monopoly doesn’t look as untouchable as it did last year.
• Adobe: The big question is whether this move grows their Creative Cloud ecosystem, or simply cannibalises it.

Either way, this is the first time Adobe has looked truly committed to mobile-first editing. September 30 is a date worth circling.