Announcing exciting updates to managed environments licensing
In response to customer feedback and a commitment to empowering organizations with more advanced governance and security capabilities, we’re making an update to our managed environments licensing model. At Microsoft Ignite we are announcing managed environments capabilities are included with existing Power Apps Premium or Power Automate Premium (Power Platform user licenses). Here’s what this change means for you, how it simplifies governance, and the benefits it brings to your organization.
Why This Change?
Managed environments empowers customers with critical tools for comprehensive governance, advanced security, and streamlined operations management to enhance oversight across the entire platform. Managed environments capabilities remain a benefit of existing premium licenses, and any environment with managed features requires the users of any of the assets in that environment to have a premium license. However, there’s been some confusion in the past about whether apps and flows with standard features in a managed environment require the same user to have both a Power Apps and Power Automate license to be compliant. It is not our intention to “double charge” for these features, so we’re updating the Power Platform licensing guide to clarify that that as long as a user is appropriately licensed with at least one premium license, managed environments features will work, and customers will be compliant.
With these updates, we’re taking steps to remove a key hurdle and offer a licensing model that better aligns with the way you use the Power Platform every day.
What’s Changing?
We will be updating the Power Platform licensing guide to clarify that as long as a user is appropriately licensed with at least one premium license, a Power Apps Premium or a Power Automate Premium, managed environments features will work, and customers will be compliant.
Customers with Power Apps Premium or Power Automate Premium user licenses are eligible to use managed environments capabilities to govern all the apps and flows in the environment. This enables your organization to strengthen governance and security using the full capabilities of managed environments. For example, if your organization assigns premium Power Apps (or premium Power Automate) licenses to all active employees, managed environments can be activated across all environments organization wide including the Default environment. (See FAQ section for more information)
These updates are designed for Power Platform’s user-based licenses, such as Power Apps Premium and Power Automate Premium. Capacity-based licenses (e.g., Power Automate Process, Copilot Studio messages, or Dataverse capacity) remain excluded from this change to ensure the premium experience remains consistent and valuable.
No Change for Premium Assets
Premium flows and apps will continue to require dedicated premium licenses, regardless of the environment they’re in. This ensures stability in customer expectations and budgeting.
How Does This Benefit You?
This streamlined licensing model opens managed environments for even more users, helping organizations adopt critical governance and security features without requiring additional licenses. Here’s how:
- Enhanced Control and Security
Managed environments allow you to apply advanced data policies, create safe environments, and manage resources effectively across departments. With simplified access, it’s now easier to keep your data and workflows secure. - Reduced Complexity
By aligning managed environments capabilities directly with existing Power Platform Premium licenses, you’ll save on the time and cost of navigating additional license requirements for critical governance features. - Greater Flexibility for Growing Organizations
For organizations expanding their use of Power Platform across teams, these changes mean more seamless scaling without increased licensing costs for essential governance features.
What’s Next?
Our goal with this update is to make managed environment capabilities accessible to a broader range of customers. This licensing change is a direct response to customer feedback, and we’ll continue to evaluate ways to improve managed environments and Power Platform governance in response to your evolving needs.
Stay tuned for more details during Microsoft Ignite on November 19th and be sure to reach out to your Microsoft account representative if you have any questions on how this update can benefit your organization.
FAQ
Q: How do the changes to the managed environment licensing model impact my existing Power Apps and Power Automate licenses?
A: These changes allow customers to assign their existing premium Licenses more easily and consume them fully, before they need to acquire more licenses.
Q: Do all users in a managed Environment need a premium license even if they are not directly interacting with flows or apps?
A: No, this doesn’t change, only active users in managed environments that are generating activity by launching an app or running a flow are required to have a premium license assigned.
Q: What is the expected license behavior if a user is assigned a Power Apps Premium and Power Automate Premium while running basic on in-context Flows only?
A: If a user is assigned both a Power Apps Premium and Power Automate Premium but only running basic or in-context flows, the Power Apps premium covers this activity, the Power Automate premium provides additional flexibility for any premium flows.
Q: What types of activities are considered basic flows in managed environments, and how are they covered under this new model?
A: All Standard Standalone flows hosted in managed environment that got created via the Power Automate Studio or outside of the studio (via SPO, Teams, Outlook…) are basic flows in managed environment that can be run if the user has a Power Apps Premium license, or a Power Automate Premium license.
Q: Flow using SQL in an environment used by a user with a Power Apps Premium; Does the user need an Automate Premium License?
A: Yes, they need a Power Automate License. When the flow is not running in the context of a Power App and is using a premium connector like SQL, then a Power Automate Premium license is required. The Power Apps Premium licenses does not cover standalone cloud flows with premium connectors unless the flow is directly associated with or triggered by the Power App.
Q: Desktop flow in managed environment with desktop DLP used by a user with a Power Apps Premium. Does the user need an Automate Premium License?
A: Yes, they need a Power Automate Premium License. Desktop Flows (RPA) require a Power Automate Premium License, regardless of the user’s Power Apps license. The Power Apps Premium license does not cover desktop automation or RPA scenarios.
Q: User with a Power Automate Premium License that starts to use a premium Power App;
Do they need a Power Apps Premium license?
A: Yes, they need Power Apps license. A Power Automate Premium license does not include access to Premium Power Apps. To use Apps in managed environment or to use premium Power Apps (Apps with Dataverse or premium connectors), the user must also have a Power Apps Premium license.
Note: If the user was assigned the premium Power Automate licenses just to use basic flows in a managed environment (vs. for the use of RPA or premium flows), admins can remove that assignment once the Power App Premium is assigned.
Q: A user with a Power App Premium license creates a new standalone flow via Power Automate studio and the flow only uses standard connectors (SharePoint, Outlook…).
Does the user need a Power Automate Premium?
A: No, Power Automate is not required. Standard flows do not require an additional premium license, so the user can run the flow in a managed environment using their existing Power Apps Premium license.
Q: A user sets up an independent flow in an environment that integrates with Dataverse as part of a data management process and not triggered by any Power App. Does the user need a Power Automate Premium License?
A: Yes, a Power Automate Premium license is required. Since the flow uses Dataverse, which is a premium connector, the user needs a Power Automate Premium license to use this flow when it is not in the context of a Power App.
Q: A user with a Power Apps Premium license creates a flow using AI Builder (e.g., extracting text from documents) within an environment. Does the user need a Power Automate Premium license?
A: Yes, a Power Automate Premium license is required. The use of AI Builder is considered a premium feature within Power Automate, so even though the user has Power Apps Premium license, they must also have a Power Automate Premium license to run flows with AI Builder capabilities.
Q: A flow using a premium connector is shared with a team of 10 members. The flow runs within a managed environment, and all users need access to edit or trigger the flow. Some users have Power Apps Premium licenses, while others have Power Automate Premium licenses. What is required?
A: All users who need to interact with or trigger the flow must have Power Automate Premium license. Power Apps Premium licenses do not cover editing or running a standalone flow with a premium connector outside the context of an app.
