Power Platform licensing explained: which licence do you need?
Power Platform licensing explained in one place: which licence each app, flow, website, agent and report needs, what it costs, and the 2026 changes to plan around.
Governance & adminQuick reference5 min read
Power Platform licensing is spread across five products, three Microsoft licensing guides and a dozen pricing pages. This page is the map: find what you're building, see which licence covers it, and follow the link to the guide that explains it in full.
Which licence for which job
| You want to | You need | Full guide |
|---|---|---|
| Run a canvas or model-driven app on Dataverse, SQL Server or another premium source | Power Apps Premium for each user, or the per app meter | Power Apps licensing |
| Run cloud flows with premium connectors, or attended RPA | Power Automate Premium for the person | Power Automate licensing |
| Run one business-critical flow for everyone, or an unattended bot | Power Automate Process on the flow or machine | Power Automate licensing |
| Publish a website for customers or partners | Power Pages authenticated and anonymous user packs, or pay-as-you-go | Power Pages licensing |
| Build agents people chat with | Copilot Credits for the tenant; makers get a free user licence | Copilot Studio licensing |
| Use Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams | Microsoft Copilot ($30 a user a month) on top of Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Copilot licensing |
| Share Power BI reports | Power BI Pro or Premium Per User for authors and, below F64, for viewers | Power BI licensing |
| Use lakehouses, warehouses or notebooks, or let hundreds of viewers stay free | A Fabric F capacity (F64 or larger for free viewers) | Fabric capacity pricing |
| Govern and secure AI agents at scale | Agent 365 | What is Agent 365 |
| Store more data than the tenant's pool | Dataverse capacity add-ons or pay-as-you-go | Dataverse storage capacity |
What Microsoft 365 already includes
Most Microsoft 365 and Office 365 business and enterprise plans include limited Power Apps and Power Automate rights: apps and cloud flows that use standard connectors such as SharePoint, Outlook and Teams, plus Dataverse for Teams. They don't include premium or custom connectors, full Dataverse, or any Power Pages rights. Desktop flows come only with some plans, such as Microsoft 365 E3, E5, F3 and Business Premium.
Two traps catch most teams:
- SQL Server, Azure and Dynamics 365 connectors are premium, even though they feel like everyday plumbing.
- Dataverse for Teams is going away: no new environments from 15 November 2026, suspension on 15 September 2027 and deletion on 30 October 2027 for any not upgraded, and upgraded ones need premium licences.
What changed in 2026
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| January 2026 | The Power Apps per app subscription left Microsoft's licensing guide; the $10 per app pay-as-you-go meter remains |
| August 2026 | Microsoft 365 Copilot became Microsoft Copilot, and Copilot Chat likewise |
| September 2026 | Power Apps Premium covers running apps built in Copilot Studio (paid preview) |
| 1 November 2026 | New and renewed licences stop including AI Builder credits; AI Builder then uses Copilot Credits |
| 15 November 2026 | The Power Apps Developer Plan stops creating environments; unmanaged ones are deleted from 15 January 2027 (what to do) |
| February 2027 | Microsoft starts blocking unlicensed users in managed environments and model-driven apps |
The price list at a glance
US list prices per month, billed yearly, from Microsoft's licensing guides and pricing pages on 20 October 2026:
| Licence | Price |
|---|---|
| Power Apps Premium | $20 per user ($12 with 2,000+ new licences) |
| Power Apps per app meter | $10 per active user per app |
| Power Automate Premium | $15 per user |
| Power Automate Process | $150 per flow or bot |
| Power Pages, 100 signed-in users | $200 per website, down to $50 at volume |
| Copilot Studio credit pack | $200 for 25,000 credits; pay-as-you-go $0.01 a credit |
| Microsoft Copilot | $30 per user |
| Power BI Pro / Premium Per User | $14 / $24 per user |
| Fabric F64 | about $8,410 pay-as-you-go, about $5,003 reserved (East US) |
| Dataverse database add-on | $40 per GB |
Prices differ by region, currency and agreement, and Microsoft says its licensing guides don't replace the Product Terms. Confirm on Microsoft's pricing pages, or with your Microsoft partner, before you buy.
Don't
- Don't license a whole department on Premium before checking how many people use more than one premium app.
- Don't assume a Copilot licence covers agents built for customers: it covers employee-facing use only.
- Don't buy a Fabric capacity smaller than F64 for a large audience of report viewers.
Sources
- Power Platform Licensing Guide, October 2026 — Microsoft
- Microsoft Copilot Studio Licensing Guide, October 2026 — Microsoft
- Power Platform licensing FAQs — Microsoft Learn
- Understand Microsoft Fabric licenses and capacity — Microsoft Learn
- Important changes (deprecations) coming in Power Platform — Microsoft Learn
- End of AI Builder credits — Microsoft Learn
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