We’re thrilled to announce the release of Excire Search 2026, the latest and most powerful version of our AI-powered Lightroom Classic plugin. Designed for photographers who want to spend less time managing their image catalog and more time behind the camera, Excire Search 2026 is packed with new features that make photo management—and now video management!—simpler, faster, and more enjoyable than ever before.
Why Excire Search 2026?
Lightroom Classic has long been the gold standard for photo editing and management, but organizing, culling, and searching through large catalogs can be time-consuming, frustrating, and even overwhelming. That’s where Excire Search 2026 comes in.
Whether you’re dealing with 800 images from a recent photoshoot, 8,000 images from a weeklong photography adventure, or 800,000 images from years of capturing special moments, Excire Search 2026 can help you cut through the chaos. Our plugin gives you the tools to find any photo instantly (no matter where it’s hidden in your Lightroom Library), organize a massive catalog without applying a single keyword, and select your best shots in record time.
Best of all, Excire Search 2026 integrates seamlessly into Lightroom Classic. You can access Excire’s array of AI-powered tools without ever leaving Lightroom; in fact, the brand-new Excire Search 2026 includes a configurable quick-access panel that can be easily positioned off to the side while you work or expanded into a larger display with powerful functions to help with culling and image review.
And since Excire Search 2026 runs locally on the user’s computer, privacy is never at risk. Your images remain on your own hard drives, with no cloud uploads and no external data flows. With Excire, your data is always safe.
What’s New in Excire Search 2026?
Excire Search 2026 is packed full of exciting upgrades, including:
The Excire Search Panel
In previous versions, Excire’s tools were accessed through Lightroom’s “Plug-in Extras” menu, which meant digging through dropdowns to access frequently used functions. While powerful, this wasn’t always the smoothest experience for photographers.
With Excire Search 2026, we’ve completely reimagined the way you interact with the plugin. Excire Search 2026 features an all-new Excire Search Panel that puts the most important tools right at your fingertips. Instead of interrupting your flow to navigate menus, you can now access Excire’s AI-powered features directly from an icon strip that can be positioned atop the Lightroom Classic window:
And you can expand the panel to view image previews, evaluate face sharpness, and more:
This redesign helps create a workflow that feels natural, efficient, and unobtrusive. By eliminating friction, the new panel makes it easier than ever to integrate Excire into your media-management routine. (That said, if you’re a longtime user of Excire Search and you prefer accessing tools via Lightroom’s menu, never fear; all of Excire’s features can still be opened in the Plug-in Extras menu!)
AI-Assisted Photo Culling
Culling is often one of the most dreaded parts of a photographer’s workflow. After a big shoot or photographic adventure, you might find yourself staring at hundreds or even thousands of images, many with only slight variations in expression, pose, or focus. Traditionally, photographers go through these shots one by one, flagging keepers and bypassing (or rejecting) the rest, which can be a time-consuming and mentally exhausting task.
That’s why we’re pleased to announce that Excire Search 2026 introduces dedicated AI-assisted culling tools that take the pain out of this process! The software can automatically group photos by people, content, visual similarity, and more, making it easy to compare variations at a glance. And you also have the option to have Excire sort or even flag your best images automatically using adjustable criteria: face sharpness, eye sharpness, global sharpness, face expression, and aesthetics.
With Excire’s new photo culling tools, AI helps you cut through the noise and quickly identify your best work. But—as is always the case with Excire!—you remain in control. Even when the AI picks your best images automatically, the selection is completely non-destructive. You always have the option to repeat the process (or ignore Excire’s picks entirely).
Intelligent Focus Detection
Any portrait or event photographer knows the frustration of evaluating face sharpness, especially for high-volume photoshoots. You often need to zoom in on every face to make sure the eyes are tack-sharp, which eats up a lot of time.
Excire Search 2026 revolutionizes this process with Intelligent Focus Detection. The software automatically evaluates facial sharpness, and the results are instantly visible in the Excire Search Panel. The sharpest faces are given a green label, while the softest faces are shown in red:
The Search Panel also provides instant close-up previews of faces, allowing you to quickly check focus without manual zooming. This makes it easy to spot the sharpest image in a sequence, whether you’re reviewing headshots, group photos, or candids.
AI-Powered Video Support
Photographers today often capture both stills and video clips, but until now, organizing and accessing video content in Lightroom Classic has often been a manual, disjointed process.
Excire Search 2026 bridges this gap with AI-powered video support. Just like with photos, the software analyzes your clips and applies descriptive keywords automatically so you can retrieve videos based on their content. Plus, Excire’s most powerful search tools—including Find by Text Prompt—can now be used to search and instantly retrieve video and photo files side by side.
This feature allows photographers and hybrid shooters to keep their entire creative archive organized and accessible within Lightroom Classic.
Also in Excire Search 2026
Our new plugin also offers popular photo-management features included in previous versions of Excire Search, such as:
Class-Leading AI Search Tools
Gone are the days when finding a photo meant endless scrolling and searching through your Lightroom Classic catalog. Excire’s AI-powered search tools are the best in the business, and our latest LrC plugin leverages cutting-edge AI so you can instantly find files hidden deep within your library.
Here are just a few of the image-search tools included in Excire Search 2026:
- Search by Text Prompt, which enables you to find any image in your catalog using natural language
- Search by Example Photo, which lets you find images based on a visually similar reference photo
- Search for People, which lets you find photos of specific people in your catalog based on a reference image
- Search for Faces, which lets you find photos of people based on specific characteristics, including age, gender, and number of subjects
Whether you’re a professional photographer searching for client portraits or a hobbyist organizing family photos, these tools ensure your images are never more than a few clicks away.
Powerful Image Organization Tools
Organization is at the heart of every efficient workflow, and Excire Search 2026 includes a suite of tools that make catalog management nearly effortless.
Automatic keywording analyzes your images and adds descriptive tags, so you can instantly browse by subject, scene, or style. Plus, you can instruct Excire to keep AI-generated keywords hidden—or to transfer tags directly into the Lightroom Classic interface to be stored alongside any existing LrC keywords.
And with Excire’s powerful duplicate-search feature, you can scan your entire Lightroom catalog, identifying not just exact duplicates but also near-duplicates and burst-sequence shots. It’s a great way to cut down on clutter and free up storage space!
These tools work together to transform even the messiest catalog into a clean, organized, and highly functional archive, freeing you to focus on what really matters: creating.
Pricing & Availability
Excire Search 2026 is available now for both Windows and macOS. The list price is $199 (USD/EUR/GBP) for a lifetime license, with a special launch price of $179. Existing users of Excire Search 2024 and Excire Search 2022 can upgrade for a significant discount; upgrade discount codes can be found in the Excire Search 2026 launch email.
We also offer a free 14-day trial so you can test the new features for yourself!
Get Started With Excire Search 2026 Today!
With Excire Search 2026, your Lightroom Classic workflow will become faster, smarter, and more enjoyable. From instant search and the Excire Search Panel to AI-powered culling, intelligent focus detection, and video support, this is the most powerful Excire Search release yet—and it’s available today.
So download your copy of Excire Search 2026 and experience the next evolution of AI-powered photo management!