Trying to navigate software licensing is a complex task, but here we’ll distill it to some key factors in order to help increase understanding. The Microsoft Power Platform includes Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents. This article will focus specifically on Power Apps and Power Apps Portals licensing. We will help you navigate licensing if you currently have Dynamics 365 or Microsoft 365 licenses.

Power Apps Licensing and Pricing

What kinds of Power Apps licenses are there?

There are four types of Power Apps licenses, they are:

1. Power Apps Nested License

Power Apps nested license is included when you purchase Microsoft 365 (Office 365) and Dynamics 365. You can use these features at no added cost, if your scenario only involves services like SharePoint, OneDrive or Dynamics 365.

2. Power Apps per App License

Power Apps per app license ($5USD/$6.40CAD as of October 1, 2021) is designed to help organizations solve for one business scenario at a time, which may involve a combination of individual apps. Each “per app” license provides an individual user with rights to one app (canvas and/or model-driven) or one Power Apps Portal. A single user can have more than one “per app” license if they require access to multiple solutions. If users would like to have access to one app, plus one portal, they would require two licenses.

3. Power Apps per User License

Power Apps per user license ($20USD/$25.60CAD as of October 1, 2021) is the license that allows a single user to work with an unlimited number of Power Apps with Premium connectors such as Microsoft Dataverse, previously known as the Common Data Service. Typically the break-even point is when a user required 4 Power App licenses for four different business scenarios.

4. Power Apps per App Pay-as-you-go Plan

The Power Apps per app pay-as-you-go (PAYG) plan ($10USD/$12.80CAD per active user/app/month) allows businesses to pilot Power Apps and only pay for the licenses they use without an annual commitment. According to Microsoft, an active user is someone who opens an app or portal at least once in the given month. Once the pilot is done, they can delete the licenses if no longer required and not pay for them further. The PAYG licenses require an Azure subscription as that is how they are billed. To learn more about how the pricing meters work for the PAYG pricing, please see Microsoft’s Pay-as-you-go meters article.

A use case for these PAYG licenses would be a widely distributed app, with infrequent use, pay only when people use the app. This would enable users to establish usage patterns to help track adoption.

The Power Apps pay-as-you-go pricing came into effect November 2, 2021. For the announcement, see this link from Microsoft.

Power Apps License Capabilities – Subscription Plans and Pay-as-you-go Plan

	Subscription Plans		Pay-as-you-go Plan
Plan	Per App Plan	Per User Plan	Per App Plan
Price	$5USD/$6.40CAD user/app/month	$20USD/$25.60 CAD user/month	$10USD/$12.80 CAD active user/ app/month
Build and Run Custom Apps	1 app or 1 portal	Unlimited (within service limits)	1 app or 1 portal
Connect to Your Data	Use pre-built and custom connectors Use on-premises connectors and gateway
Store and Manage Data	Create and access custom entities
Microsoft Dataverse Database Capacity*	50 MB	250 MB	1 GB file capacity (per environment with pay-as-you-go enabled)
Microsoft Dataverse File Capacity*	400 MB	2 GB	1 GB file capacity (per environment with pay-as-you-go enabled)
Execute Workflows	Power Automate use rights (including premium connectors)** Asynchronous and customer real-time workflows

* Dataverse database and file capacity entitlements are pooled at the tenant level.

**Trigger flows within the context of the app.

The table above was created based on information found on Microsoft’s Power Apps Pricing page.

There were changes to Power Apps licensing that came into effect October 1, 2021. The price updates are reflected in this blog. Please note that for the Power Apps per app plan, the entitlement to run two apps and access one portal has been simplified to access one app or one portal. Customers who purchased the per app plan prior to October 1, 2021, will maintain the current entitlement until the end of the agreement term. For more information about the updates for Power Apps pricing and licensing, please see Microsoft’s announcement.

Where can I learn how to work with Power Apps?

The Power Apps Community Plan provides a free environment for individual use with functionality including the Dataverse. In this environment you can explore and learn everything about Power Automate and Power Apps for free, but the Power Apps Community Plan is not intended for production use. Learn more at Power Apps Community Plan.

What Power Apps rights come with Dynamics 365?

Before we dive in, it should be noted that you cannot mix and match between Dynamics 365 Pro and Enterprise licenses at the instance level. You can only do this at the tenant level. What this means, is if you have a Dynamics 365 instance, all users must have the same Pro or Enterprise license level. If another instance of Dynamics 365 exists in that tenant, then those users can have a different license in the second instance. In the example below, all instance 1 users must have a Pro license and all instance 2 users must have an Enterprise license. If users require multi-instance access, please consult with Encore for a user story and security review as each case is different and complex.

User	Instance 1	Instance 2
John Doe	D365 Sales Pro
Jane Doe		D365 Sales Enterprise

Power Apps Use Rights with Dynamics 365 Applications

Power Apps use rights capabilities for Dynamics 365 applications include running custom apps, connecting your data, storing and managing data, executing flows, infusing AI, and Power Apps Portal use rights.

The table above references Dynamics 365 Applications and Dynamics 365 Enterprise Applications, which include both CRM and ERP solutions. Below is a list of the specific Dynamics 365 license types in each category referenced in the above table.

Dynamics 365 Applications

• 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 Enterprise Applications

• Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise
• Dynamics 365 Field Service
• Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation
• Dynamics 365 Finance
• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
• Dynamics 365 Commerce
• Dynamics 365 Human Resources
• Dynamics 365 Business Central

Power Apps Portals Licensing and Pricing

What are Power Apps Portals?

If you require a Power App experience for external users, you will use a Power Apps Portal. Power Apps Portals deliver the capability to build standalone, external-facing portals over the Dataverse. For more information on Power Apps Portals, please visit Microsoft’s Power Apps Portals page.

How are Power Apps Portals licensed?

Each end user that accesses a Power Apps Portals instance needs to be licensed appropriately. The table below outlines the end user types.

Per Login Licensing

External (authenticated) users would use a per login license.

• Each time a user logs in, they are given a “24-hour pass” to the portal. If they login multiple times that day, it’s one billable login. When the user logs in another day, that is another billable login, and so on.
• Login capacity is “per month” and “across all portals”. So, if a user logs into one portal and then a second portal, that will consume 2 billable logins that month. If they login another day, then it will consume another billable login, and so on.
• Each unit provides 100 logins/month. Volume tiers and corresponding SKUs differ based on minimum purchase requirements. For each of the tiers, once the minimum purchase requirement is met, additional units can be purchased in units of 1.
• For example, a customer requiring 5,500 logins/month can purchase 55 units of “Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on tier-3”.

Power Apps Portals Login Capacity Tiers

There are five add-on tiers for Power Apps Portals login capacity. Tier 4 and Tier 5 were announced by Microsoft in June 2021.

License Tier	Best For Minimum Of:	Minimum Purchase Requirement
Tier 1	100+ logins/ month	1 Unit
Tier 2	1,000+ logins/ month	10 Units
Tier 3	5,000+ logins/ month	50 Units
Tier 4 (Limited Time)	25,000+ logins/ month	250 Units
Tier 5 (Limited Time)	100,000+ logins/ month	1,000 Units

Currently Tier 4 and Tier 5 are available for a limited time from June 1, 2021 through to December 31, 2021. More information available at Microsoft Power Apps Pricing.

Power Apps Portals Login Capacity Tier Pricing Per Unit Per Month

SKU Name	CAD Price	USD Price
Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on (Tier 1 – minimum purchase of 1)	$256*	$200*
Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on (Tier 2 – minimum purchase of 10)	$128	$100
Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on (Tier 3 – minimum purchase of 50)	$89.60	$70
Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on (Tier 4 – minimum purchase of 250)	$40.96	$32
Power Apps Portals login capacity add-on (Tier 5 – minimum purchase of 1000)	$15.36	$12

*Based on Tier 2 discount, the customer should upgrade to Tier 2 after reaching 5 x Tier 1 login capacity.

Per Page View Licensing

External (anonymous) users would use a page view capacity license.

• Customers should purchase necessary page views capacity across all Portals instances that cater to anonymous access scenarios.

Power Apps Portals Page View Capacity Add-on

Each unit provides 100,000-page views per month. For example, a customer requiring 570,000-page views per month, should purchase 6 units of “Power Apps Portals page view capacity add-on”.

Power Apps Portals Page View Capacity Add-on Pricing

SKU Name	CAD Price	USD Price
Power Apps Portals Page View Capacity	$128	$100

Is Power Apps Portals page view capacity enforced?

Yes, purchased capacity is enforced monthly for Power Apps Portals page view capacity add-on SKUs. Unused page views do NOT carry over from one month to another. Customers should purchase appropriate capacity aligned with peak monthly anticipated usage.

How are overages handled?

While occasional and reasonable overages will be tolerated, customers exceeding purchased capacity should adjust their purchase quantity per standard Microsoft terms to remain in compliance.

How do I license internal users?

For internal users i.e., users licensed with Power Apps or Dynamics 365 licenses, the use rights for Power Apps Portals are essentially custom portals aligned with use rights to custom Power Apps.

Custom Power Apps Portals Use Rights

Please note that all pricing is subject to change without notice. Always contact Encore for the most current product pricing.

As you can see, there are many variables to consider when architecting your Power Apps and Power Apps Portal deployments. Contact us or reach out to your Encore Account Executive to assist you in your Power Platform strategic initiatives.