Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Before we start
• Let’s start
  • What is Power Apps Free / Power Automate Free?
  • Which app need Premium License?
  • Which flow need Premium License
  • What is Premium Connector
  • Buying Power Apps premium license.
  • Subscription that already include Power Apps Premium
  • Subscription that already include Power Automate Premium
  • Dataverse capacity
  • Can I try using premium connector / Dataverse for free?

Introduction

Big brothers of Power Platform, Power Apps and Power Automate likewise have the most confusing and complex license.

Many user (or even developer/sales) may have some question like these

• Which license I need if I only use Power Apps & SharePoint
• What’s different between Power Apps Free & Power Apps Premium
• How do I need to pay if I use Dataverse
• My flow have premium connector, Do I need Power Automate Premium if I already have Power Apps Premium
• and many more…

I will try cover as much as I can

Before we start

Microsoft has the right to modify any licensing information at any time. You can use this guide to understand license overview, but for the most recent, in-depth information, including cost, please see the Microsoft licensing guide.

Click Here for Microsoft licensing guide (Scroll down to ‘More Resource’)

Let’s start

Since I’ll cover all the material in one piece rather than a separate manual that’s absurdly difficult to find, (I won’t need to do what Microsoft does).I’ll break up into a topic.

What is Power Apps Free / Power Automate Free?

Well, many Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licenses include this free license. As long as it’s premium app/flow, you should be able to create and use Power Apps and Power Automate if you have access to OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoin, etc.

Which app need Premium License?

• Canvas App
  • If your app contain any premium connector then all your app’s user will need premium license
• Model-Driven App
  • Every model-driven app user require premium license.
• Portals (Power Pages)
  • This require almost completely different license (Which I will not cover at this time)

Which flow need Premium License

• Cloud Flow – If your app contain any premium connector then it’s considered as premium flow but also different in each type of cloud flow
  • Automated & Scheduled Cloud Flow
    • User who own the flow will need premium license
  • Instant Cloud Flow
    • Every use who use your flow will nee premium license
    • EXCEPT!!! They won’t need a separate premium license for Power Automate if your flow is triggered via Power Apps and the user who triggers the flow has Power Apps Premium.
• Desktop Flow – This require separated license called “Per user plan with attended RPA” or “per flow plan”
  • This also included in some M365 subscription (M365 Business Premium, M365 F3, E3, E5)
  • Also included with some Windows license with some limitation (Please refer to Microsoft licensing guide I provided above (Search for “Power Automate use rights with Windows licenses”).

What is Premium Connector

Premium connector are clearly declared, You can find a list of them HERE

Power Apps premium connector are shown with Diamond icon.

Power Automate connector are shown with PREMIUM tag

Dataverse is also considered as Premium Connector!!

Buying Power Apps premium license.

Even though I frequently reference “Premium License,” this is not a license that can be purchased. The Premium is therefore more like “Premium Access.”

By buying one of these license, You will immediatly granted premium access for Power Apps.

Since the picture above is clearly explained (Thanks Microsoft) I will not go in detail but I have some advice for those who interested to buy

• If your company plan to use just one premium app per users, Go with Per app plan.
• If your company plan to use more than 4 premium apps per user, You should go with Per user plan.
• If your company plan to have lots of users but not every user or every app will be used all the time, Go with Pay-as-you-go plan.

Scenario: Your company have 2 app,

• App A
  • Connector in use: SharePoint, Dataverse
    • Users: Sarah, John, Steves
• App B
  • Connector in use: Business Central
    • Users: Sarah, Robert

So, If your plan to buy Power Apps per app plan then you will need 5 license for this scenarios. (5 USD x 5 / months).

If you plan to buy Power Apps per user then you will need 4 license (20 USD x 4 / months).

You may already have premium access! See topic below

Subscription that already include Power Apps Premium

Some subscriptions already include premium access, you might not need to purchase a separate license for it!

Dynamics 365 license that included power apps premium

• Dynamics 365 Sales Professional,
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional
• Dynamics 365 Team Members
• Dynamics 365 Operations – Activity
• Dynamics 365 Human Resources Self-Service
• Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Members
• Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise
• Dynamics 365 Field Service
• Dynamics 365 Finance
• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
• Dynamics 365 Project Operations
• Dynamics 365 Commerce
• Dynamics 365 Human Resources
• Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management

This mean user who have one of license above are not need to buy Power Apps premium if you plan to use only Canvas App.

For model-driven app there are some exception below.

Subscription that already include Power Automate Premium

This is similarly to Power Apps topic above, Some Dynamics 365 license have rights to use Power Automate premium flow with some exception which is well-explained in the picture below

Dataverse capacity

This is one of the most confusing part for beginner or developer who new to Power Platform, You may have many question like: How can I get more capacity, Why my tenant have zero Dataverse capacity, What is org default, etc…

User with Power Platform Administrator role can be view Dataverse capacity for their tenant. Here.

Capacity are shared across environment (Pooled at tenant level)

Org (tenant) default

This capacity is default capacity for your tenant, This will be granted upon first purchase of any license that included Dataverse capacity in your tenant.

Scenario: Your tenant doesn’t have any Dynamics 365 / Power Apps license or other license that include Dataverse capacity, Your will see 0 GB available.

Then your company purchase 1 Power Apps per App license, Immediatly after purchase, You will see 5 GB of database, 20 GB file, 2 GB log capacity available under org (tenant) default

User license

This capacity accured per license bought in your tenant.

Scenario: Continue from previous scenario, Let say that your company purchase 5 additional Power Apps per app license. You will see 250 MB for database, 2 GB for file capacity under User license.

At this moment your tenant will have 5.25 GB database capacity (5 GB + 250 MB)

Additional capacity

This capacity is granted when purchasing additional Dataverse capacity license.

Note: At the time I writing this, You need to search for Common Data Service instead of Dataverse in order to find this license in M365 Admin Center

Each license will granted you 1 GB additional capacity

Scenario: Your tenant is about to ran out of “Database” capacity and you need extra 5 GB of database capacity, You will need to pay 200 USD/month (40 USD x 5 license).

Can I try using premium connector / Dataverse for free?

Yes! If you’re developer and want to learn about how to using connectors or how to work with Dataverse but you don’t have any license or capacity, You can register for Power Apps Developer Plan!

This Developer plan will granted you almost the same as premium. You can use premium connector, You can create & play with Dataverse.

You will also get 1 new environment for safely develop your apps (You will be an Admin for this environment)

However, There are some limit

Developer environment is for development purpose only, please don’t run a production use on this environment

– TO BE UPDATE –