The Power Apps Developer Plan deadline: keep your environment past December 15

The free Power Apps developer plan has been the way makers learn, test and build portfolios for years. That era is ending: Microsoft has deprecated unmanaged developer environments, and that includes the environment the Developer Plan creates when you sign up. The dates are close and the penalty is real — a deleted environment takes its apps, flows, agents, Power Pages developer sites and data with it.

The timeline

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1. 1Nov 15, 2026 · creation ends
2. 2Dec 15, 2026 · environments suspended
3. 3Jan 15, 2027 · environments deleted

Find out if you are affected

You are affected if your developer environment is not a managed environment. In the Power Platform admin center, open Manage > Environments and check the Managed column for your environment. Makers without admin access: ask your admin, or check whether your environment was created by environment routing — those are managed by default and safe.

Not affected: managed developer environments, production, sandbox, trial and default environments, and any solution you export before the suspension.

Option 1: convert it to a managed environment

An admin can keep the environment alive by enabling Managed Environments on it before December 15, 2026:

1. In the Power Platform admin center, open Manage > Environments.
2. Select the ellipsis next to the developer environment, then Enable Managed Environments.
3. Configure the settings and select Enable.

Option 2: move the work out

If converting makes no sense, save the work itself:

1. In your developer environment, put your work in a solution if it isn't already.
2. Export the solution — you get a .zip file that is yours regardless of what happens to the environment.
3. Import it into a sandbox or another environment where you have maker rights.

Do the export before December 15, 2026: a suspended environment's contents are no longer reachable.

For admins: find every affected environment

1. In the admin center, open Manage > Environments.
2. Filter where Type is Developer and Managed is No.
3. Sort by Last activity to separate the environments people still use from abandoned ones.
4. For each one still needed, pick Option 1 or Option 2 with its owner.
5. Turn on environment routing so future makers get a personal managed developer environment automatically — each user can create one.
6. Review the Developer environment assignments tenant setting while you are there.

What this means for learning Power Apps

The Developer Plan sign-up itself stops creating environments on November 15, 2026. After that, the practical free-of-charge path to a personal build space is an organisation that turns on environment routing — the routed developer environments are managed by default, makers keep building for free, and only running apps needs the premium licence. For personal learning outside any tenant, watch Microsoft's guidance for what replaces the plan's environment.

Sources

• Important changes (deprecations) coming in Power Platform — Microsoft Learn
• Managed Environments overview — Microsoft Learn
• Enable Managed Environments — Microsoft Learn
• Environment routing — Microsoft Learn