Everything you need to know about Microsoft Power Platform licences

Lately, customers often ask us how the Power Apps and Power Automate licences of the Microsoft Power Platform actually work. That is why we have set everything out clearly for you in this blog.

People often assume that Power Apps and Power Automate are part of the Office 365 package and can therefore be used for free. That is true for some scenarios, but you do miss out on several premium features of the platform. So how exactly does it work? We explain below.

What is the Power Platform?

The Power Platform is Microsoft's low-code/no-code platform. It allows you to quickly build powerful business applications, analyse data, automate processes and create intelligent chatbots, all from a single platform. The platform consists of the following products:

• Power BI: an interactive data visualisation tool that enables organisations to make data-driven decisions. You can create user-friendly dashboards personalised with your KPIs and corporate identity.
• Power Apps: a low-code/no-code application development platform that turns ideas into organisational solutions by enabling anyone to build custom apps that solve business challenges.
• Power Apps Portal: the low-code tool for creating extranet websites for external users.
• Power Automate: the workflow tool that lets you easily automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks in a process without any programming knowledge.
• Power Virtual Agent: the no-code tool that creates chatbots to engage in conversation with customers and employees.
• AI Builder: the AI toolkit that extends the Power Platform and integrates with Power Apps, Power BI and Power Automate. It also offers no-code artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
• Dataverse: (also known as Common Data Services, “CDS”) is Microsoft's cloud database technology. With Dataverse, people can store their data dynamically in a scalable and secure environment.

Want to know more about the Power Platform? Then take a look at our blog ‘What is the Microsoft Power Platform?’

What is included with Office 365?

Offering a comprehensive platform that is easy to use and allows customisation has always been Microsoft's strategy for Office 365. Microsoft has therefore added some Power Platform capabilities to Office 365. If your organisation has Office 365 (a Business or Enterprise subscription), you get the following capabilities as part of your licence:

• Power BI Pro if you have a Microsoft Office 365 E5 licence.
• Power Apps lets you create canvas apps, but only with the standard free connectors. Some examples are Azure AD, Dropbox, Excel, Gmail, Google Drive and Microsoft Teams.
• The ability to customise SharePoint/Microsoft lists with Power Apps.
• Power Automate lets you run workflows within the daily API limits that only use the standard free connectors. Some examples are YouTube, Twitter, Trello, Slack and Pinterest. See a complete list of all free connectors here.
• Power Virtual Agents for Teams, a scaled-down version of Power Virtual Agents, can run in the Microsoft Teams client.
• Dataverse for Teams, also known as a scaled-down version of CDS, is used to build applications that run within Microsoft Teams within the size and capacity limits.

If you need to use an app or workflow that requires a premium connector, you will need additional licences. Since 2019, Microsoft has reclassified its connectors and most connectors are now labelled premium. See a list of the various connectors here.

But how do you decide whether you need additional licences? If your application or workflow needs to connect to data stored in Office 365, your current licence will be sufficient in most cases. Only if you frequently need to connect to a system or source outside Office 365 should you consider purchasing additional licences. There is one exception: if you build an app with the new Dataverse for Teams. With Dataverse for Teams, calling the API from within that app is now included.

Power Apps licences

Power Apps licences have changed a lot over the past three years, which unfortunately makes things somewhat complicated. Power Apps consists of the following three components:

1. Canvas apps: canvas apps are free apps that let you use your creativity to build web or mobile applications.
2. Model-driven apps: these are apps driven by data, with a component-focused approach to app development. Unlike canvas apps, the design is limited to predefined layouts and components. For those familiar with the Dynamics CRM platform: model-driven apps are the technology used for Dynamics CRM apps.
3. Portals: Portals make it possible to create web portals for external users, such as communities, customer service portals and much more. They also include various ways to identify users or let them browse content anonymously. Power Apps Portals is not new, but a rebranding of Dynamics Portals.

If you need to buy Power Apps licences because you need to build a high-capacity app, use a premium connector, build a model-driven app (instead of just canvas apps), create a portal or build a more complex application, you will need to purchase additional Power Apps licences. Power Apps premium licences are available in two versions.

Power Apps per app

• Although this is per app, it is still licensed per user per app, with a maximum of two apps. For example, you might have 35 applications running, but some of your users only need access to one of those applications. In that case you can license some of your users on a per-app model.
• Rights to use Dataverse CDS as a data source with basic capacity.
• The cost is €8.40 / per user / per app / per month (including up to two separate apps).

Power Apps per user

• Unlimited number of apps per user per month.
• Rights to use Dataverse as a data source with greater capacity.
• The cost is €33.70 / per user / per month.

Power Apps Portal

• With a Power Apps per user subscription, you are automatically entitled to create a portal.
• If you need more than one portal, you can buy rights for additional capacity.
• Each portal comes with a predefined number of logins and page views.

Power Automate licences

As with Power Apps, you may need more for Power Automate than the rights you get with Office 365. Power Automate can be extended to get more capacity, higher limits and access to premium connectors. It works as follows:

Power Automate per user

• This allows individual users to create unlimited workflows based on their needs and to use premium connectors.
• A licence is required to activate the workflow, which means that if one user creates a workflow and someone else activates it (via a trigger), that person must also be licensed, either individually or through a per-flow plan.
• The cost is €12.60 / per user / per month

Power Automate per user with RPA (Robotic Process Automation)

• RPA is only required if you plan to use the new UI flows, also known as Robotic Process Automation. These use the new Power Automate Desktop (formerly known as WinAutomation).
• If RPA is needed (use of UI flows). 1 bot at a time.
• Includes 5,000 service credits for AI Builder.
• The cost is €33.70 / per month / per user.

Power Automate per flow

• This allows an unlimited number of users to use a flow.
• There is a minimum purchase of 5 flows.
• The cost is €421.50 / per 5 flows / per month.

So what about an application built with Power Apps that triggers a flow? Microsoft has a solution for this: in this case, the Power Apps licence permits the use of a flow, as long as the flow runs in the context of the application. This is covered in more detail in the Microsoft Power Platform licensing guide on page 13.

What is included with Dynamics 365?

If your organisation has a Dynamics 365 licence, there is good news. Dynamics 365 comes with user rights for Power Automate and Power Apps. This means you may be able to build additional applications and complex flows and implement a portal without having to purchase additional licences, as long as the applications are created within the context of the Dynamics application and are in the same environment.

Want to know more?

Do you still have questions about the Power Platform licensing structure after reading this blog? Feel free to get in touch with us, with no obligation.

This blog is based on the Microsoft Power Platform licensing guide, available via this link.