Power Platform pay-as-you-go on Azure: set it up and stay in budget

Power Platform pay-as-you-go lets an environment pay for what it uses through an Azure subscription, instead of buying licences up front for everyone who might use it. It suits an app with occasional or unpredictable users, a pilot, or a team that wants its Power Platform costs on its own Azure bill. The set-up takes minutes; the work is knowing what each meter counts, what stops working, and how to watch the bill.

Set up a billing plan

1. In the Power Platform admin center, open Licensing > Pay-as-you-go plans and select New billing plan.
2. Choose Azure subscription, name the plan, and pick the subscription and resource group to bill.
3. Under Power Platform products, choose the products whose meters the plan applies. The Dataverse meter is on by default.
4. Select Next, pick the region, choose the environments to link, and select Save.

Who can do it: an environment admin can create a plan and link the environments they administer; Power Platform, Dynamics 365 and Global admins can link any environment. On the Azure side you need rights to create resources and register resource providers in the subscription, which owners and contributors normally have. Only production and sandbox environments can be linked, and each environment belongs to one plan at a time.

The plan creates a Power Platform account resource with the plan's name in the resource group you chose. It's hidden, so in the Azure portal select View hidden types above the resource list to see it. Every charge for the plan is billed to it, and you can tag it like any other resource.

You can also start from a Power Apps app: open its Settings and select Set up pay-as-you-go. That links the app's whole environment, not just the app.

To stop, remove the environment from the plan or delete the plan. The environment goes back to normal straight away; usage up to that moment is still billed. Deleting the plan leaves its Azure resource behind, so delete that in the Azure portal.

What each meter counts

How the flow meter decides whose licence counts: for automated and scheduled flows, the owner's; for instant flows and flows started from an app, the person running it. A flow owned by a service principal has no licence, so every premium run is charged. Testing a flow in the designer and resubmitting a failed run aren't charged. A flow started directly from a Power Apps app is covered by that app's licence or meter.

The same plan can also bill Power Pages visitors and Copilot Studio credits; this guide covers apps, flows and Dataverse. Microsoft notes your rates can differ under your agreement, so check the meters page before you estimate.

What changes in a linked environment

• Every app is billed this way. You can't mix pay-as-you-go and app passes in one environment: passes already assigned are ignored, and you can move them elsewhere. To keep one app off the meter, turn pay-as-you-go off in that app's settings; its users then need their own Power Apps licences.
• Process licences and unattended RPA add-ons stop applying. Once the environment is linked, every unattended desktop flow run is charged. Keep flows that rely on a Process licence in an environment that isn't linked.
• The tenant's shared Dataverse storage doesn't apply. A linked environment gets its own 1 GB of database and 1 GB of file storage, and anything above that, or above capacity you allocate to it, is billed to Azure.
• Log storage is billed from the first byte. It's used when auditing is on.
• Guests can use apps without a licence, and each one counts as an active user.
• Power Platform requests aren't billed yet. Usage is reported, but the meter isn't live, and linking doesn't raise anyone's request limits. For a flow that needs more capacity, Microsoft points to a Process licence, in an environment that isn't linked. Connector limits and Dataverse's service protection limits apply either way.

Keep it in budget

• Azure Cost Management shows what each meter billed. Filter by the Power Platform account resource to see one plan. Charges can take up to 24 hours to appear.
• The admin center's report shows which environments, apps, flows and users drove the cost, which Azure doesn't. Download it from the billing plan's page.
• Set an Azure budget on the Power Platform account resource for the whole plan, or on a single meter, with alerts at thresholds you choose and an action group to notify the right people.
• A budget never stops spending. It only sends alerts, and Azure checks budgets about once a day against data that can itself be a day old. Decide in advance who acts on an alert: someone can unlink the environment if a pilot gets out of hand.
• Tag the resource with the team or cost centre, so a shared subscription can split the bill.

When it's the right choice

• Good fits: an app many people may use but few use often, such as a yearly survey or an event check-in; seasonal flows; pilots where you don't yet know how many licences to buy; and teams that already buy through Azure.
• Poor fits: people who open several apps every month, and personal flows that run often, where per-user licences can cost less; and flows that need a Process licence or more request capacity.

Sources

• Pay-as-you-go plan, Microsoft Learn
• Set up pay-as-you-go, Microsoft Learn
• Pay-as-you-go meters, Microsoft Learn
• Known issues and frequently asked questions, Microsoft Learn
• View usage and billing information, Microsoft Learn
• Tutorial: Create and manage budgets, Microsoft Learn