Power Apps Developer Plan: Test for Free Without Touching Your Production Environment

The Power Apps Developer Plan gives you a permanently free development environment with the full functionality of Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse, without having to touch your existing production environment or buy a trial license. Unlike a time-limited trial period, the plan remains in place as long as the environment is actively used and no one attempts to misuse it for production. As of: August 2026.

Who is allowed to sign up, and how do you get the plan?

Anyone with a business or school email address based on Microsoft Entra ID can sign up. Sign-up is not possible with a personal Microsoft account.

• Directly via the website: Sign up on the Power Apps Developer Plan website with your own business account.
• Via Visual Studio Dev Essentials: Users of this program will find the plan as part of their benefits under My Benefits.
• Automatic environment: Upon sign-up, a development environment is created automatically; additional ones can be created manually in the Power Platform Admin Center, up to a total of three environments.

Which capacity limits apply to the development environment?

According to the development environment capacity limits, two fixed upper limits restrict usage: 750 flow runs per month and 2 GB of database size in Dataverse. These limits cannot be increased by purchasing add-ons, and conversely, the allocated capacity does not count against your organization's overall quota, even if it remains unused.

If a development environment is not used for 30 days, Power Platform disables it automatically. Anyone who works with it regularly therefore doesn't need to worry about this, but anyone who only uses it occasionally for a prototype should keep it in mind.

Why is the plan not suitable for production use?

Apps running in a development environment permanently display a notice banner reminding users that they are in a development environment, and this banner only disappears once the app is moved to a different environment. Several usage rights are also fundamentally missing.

• No RPA usage rights: A separate RPA trial period is required for Power Automate Desktop automation with unattended robots.
• No AI Builder usage rights: Anyone wanting to test AI models needs a separate AI Builder trial period for that.
• No managed environment rights: The development environment can be turned into a managed environment, but end users still need regular premium licenses to run their apps and flows in it.
• No Dynamics 365 apps: Applications such as Dynamics 365 Sales cannot be installed in a development environment.

How does the Developer Plan differ from the 30-day trial period?

The Power Apps Plan Trial is designed to let you try out the productive premium features of a paid Power Apps license for 30 days before you buy. The Developer Plan, on the other hand, offers the same functionality as paid plans, including Dataverse and Power Automate, but permanently and exclusively for development and testing. To determine which of the two paths suits your project, it is worth getting a brief licensing consultation beforehand, especially if you are unsure whether you ultimately want to scale into production.

Frequently asked questions about the Power Apps Developer Plan

Can I create multiple development environments?

Yes, in addition to the automatically created first environment, up to three development environments in total can be created in the Power Platform Admin Center. More than that is not provided for with the Developer Plan.

Does my Developer Plan ever expire automatically?

No, as long as you actively use it and do not permanently exceed the capacity limits, it remains in place. However, if an individual environment stays inactive for 30 days, that specific environment is automatically disabled.

Can I test Dynamics 365 apps in the Developer environment?

No, Dynamics 365 applications such as Sales or Customer Service fundamentally cannot be installed in a development environment. This requires an environment with a database in which Dynamics 365 apps are explicitly enabled.

What happens if I reach the capacity limits?

You cannot expand the 750 monthly flow runs or the 2 GB database size by purchasing more. In this case, Microsoft recommends switching to a paid Power Apps plan with a user license for production use.