Excire Search 2026 – Reviewed
AI Search for Lightroom - At a Cost
T
hose of us who adopted Adobe Lightroom early on in the piece and have subsequently built up vast catalogs of photographs will know that, for the most part, Lightroom’s built-in search sucks.
Yes, you can narrow your searches down by utilising the indexed metadata and yes you can search by location via embedded co-ordinates and yes you can search for keywords, but it’s all quite rudimentary and most of it is reliant on data entry. Map search depends upon reliable embedded GPS data, metadata often results in vague search returns and keywords must be entered manually or via a third party service.
I’ve tested many third party solutions to the Lightroom search problem, including automated AI keyword generation and aggregating meta-cataloging tools, all of which had their flaws. And now the German developers Excire have released the updated 2026 version of their AI-powered Lightroom search tool which promises to plug, once and for all, the planet sized holes in Lightroom’s native search capabilities.
It could be the solution we’ve all been waiting for, but it’s gonna cost you, chief.
The rest of this one’s for paid subscribers.
Already a paid subscriber or a Patron? Enter the members’ password from your welcome email.
Not a member? Subscribe on Substack or leave a one-off tip.
Also published in RAW & Unfiltered on Substack.
