Is Power Platform free? Partly. If your business pays for a Microsoft 365 business plan, you can already build simple apps and automations at no extra cost. Paid licences start when you need more than Microsoft 365’s own data and standard connectors.
This post explains what is included, what tips you into paid licences, and what those cost in pounds, using Microsoft’s own UK prices and licensing guides.
What Power Platform is
Power Platform is Microsoft’s set of low-code tools, which means you build with screens and formulas instead of writing software. Power Apps builds apps. Power Automate builds flows, which are automated steps such as an approval request. Power BI builds reports and dashboards. Copilot Studio builds AI agents. Each part is licensed on its own, which is why “is Power Platform free” has no single answer.
What you get at no extra cost
Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, and the E3, E5 and F3 plans, all include limited Power Apps and Power Automate rights (Microsoft’s Power Platform Licensing Guide). Microsoft Learn says these rights are for scenarios that use Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors. A connector is a ready-made link between Power Platform and another service. Standard connectors cover everyday Microsoft 365 services such as SharePoint, Outlook, Teams and Excel. So an expense claims app on a SharePoint list, with a flow that asks a manager to approve each claim in Teams, can run on the licences you already have.
A few other things cost nothing.
Power Automate’s Free licence lets anyone with a work or school account create and run their own cloud flows, which run in Microsoft’s cloud. They cannot share them, and they can only use standard connectors. It also lets them run desktop flows, which automate apps on their own Windows PC, while they watch (Microsoft Learn’s page on Power Automate licence types). Microsoft’s licensing guide describes that free desktop use as not for business-critical work, with no service level agreement or Microsoft support.
Power BI’s free account lets you build reports for yourself. Sharing them needs Power BI Pro or Premium (Microsoft’s Power BI pricing page).
The Power Apps Developer Plan is free for building and testing, but people need paid licences to use the apps in production (Microsoft’s Power Apps pricing page). From 15 November 2026, signing up no longer creates a developer environment, Microsoft’s name for a separate space that holds apps, flows and data (Microsoft Learn’s Power Apps licensing FAQ).
Dataverse for Teams, a database built into Teams and included with some Microsoft 365 plans, is deprecated, which means Microsoft is retiring it. From 15 November 2026 you cannot create new ones (the same FAQ), so it is no longer a sound place to start.
What tips you into paid licences
What an app or flow uses decides whether it needs a paid licence. These are the usual triggers:
- A premium connector. Microsoft’s list includes SQL Server, Azure services, Dynamics 365 and Business Central (Microsoft Learn’s Power Apps licensing FAQ). Custom connectors, which you build yourself, and the on-premises data gateway, which reaches data on your own servers, need premium licences too.
- Storing data in Dataverse, Microsoft’s database for Power Platform.
- Unattended automation, where a bot runs desktop tasks with nobody watching. This uses robotic process automation, or RPA: software that copies a person’s clicks and keystrokes.
- Sharing Power BI reports with colleagues.
- Agents built in Copilot Studio, which use Copilot Credits that you buy in advance or pay for as you go.
Licences follow the users, not the builder. Microsoft’s Power Apps pricing page puts it plainly: building apps is not charged, but using them requires paid licences. If a whole team uses an app with a premium connector, everyone in the team needs a licence.
If you already have Dynamics 365, check its rights first. Qualifying Dynamics 365 licences, including Business Central Essentials and Premium, include limited Power Apps and Power Automate rights for extending that application, used within it (Microsoft’s Power Platform Licensing Guide).
What it costs in pounds
These are Microsoft’s UK prices as listed on 20 October 2026, paid yearly and excluding VAT.
Power Apps Premium costs £15.40 per user per month. It covers unlimited apps for the licensed person, with premium connectors and Dataverse (Microsoft’s Power Apps pricing page). Power Automate Premium costs £11.50 per user per month. It covers cloud flows, premium connectors and desktop flows run while someone watches (Microsoft’s Power Automate pricing page). For unattended automation, Power Automate Process costs £115.30 per bot per month on the same page.
Power BI Pro costs £10.80 per user per month, and Power BI Premium Per User costs £18.50 (Microsoft’s Power BI pricing page). Power BI Pro is already included in Microsoft 365 E5. If you need more Dataverse storage, the database capacity add-on costs £30.80 per GB per month (Microsoft’s Power Apps pricing page).
You can also pay as you go. You link an environment to an Azure subscription, and Microsoft bills the usage through it (Microsoft Learn’s licensing overview for Power Platform). The UK pricing pages do not list these rates in pounds, so see Microsoft Learn’s page on pay-as-you-go meters for how each one is measured and charged. For Copilot Studio credits, see Microsoft’s Copilot Studio pricing page.
You may also see a per-app plan in older guides. Microsoft stopped selling Power Apps per app to new customers through some channels from 2 January 2026 (Microsoft Learn).
How to keep the bill down
List what you want to build, and check each connector it needs. Microsoft marks premium connectors in its connector documentation. Keep early apps on Microsoft 365 data where that works. License only the people who use premium apps. And when an app becomes business-critical, move it off the free routes onto proper licences, with support behind it.
A second opinion
Spark 365 is a UK Microsoft partner. If you would like a second opinion before you buy, we can help you decide what to build first and in what order. That way, the licences you pay for match what you actually use.