Microsoft 365 already includes Power Automate rights, but only for standard connectors. As soon as a flow touches SQL Server, an on-premises gateway, or Robotic Process Automation, a standalone license becomes due. We review your flows and contracts and tell you which plan is enough before you buy anything. All license details on this page come from the official Microsoft Learn documentation on Power Automate licensing.
Power Automate seems to already be included in Microsoft 365, yet Microsoft suddenly demands an extra license. Anyone who doesn't know the line between standard and premium either buys too much or ends up with a flow that no longer starts.
We work on your actual tenant, not a sample calculation. These five checks form the core.
We list every active flow and mark which ones use standard connectors and which access premium connectors, custom connectors, or an on-premises data gateway. Only this list makes the license question decidable, because only premium usage costs extra.
Impact License needs become a list instead of a guessMicrosoft 365 licenses entitle you to automated, scheduled, and manually triggered cloud flows with standard connectors. Not included are premium and custom connectors, on-premises gateways, Robotic Process Automation, and business process flows. We show you, flow by flow, which side of the line each one falls on.
Impact Clarity on what is already paid forPower Automate Premium is a per-user license and suits people who build automations themselves or start flows interactively. Power Automate Process is a capacity license for a single process or an unattended machine, and it covers any number of users in the company. We run the numbers both ways against your actual volumes.
Impact Often fewer user licenses than expectedAttended RPA is included in the premium user license, whereas unattended robots need a Process or Hosted Process license instead. If Microsoft 365 comes into play during an unattended run, the Microsoft Product Terms additionally require an unattended license. Almost everyone overlooks this footnote, and it surfaces later.
Impact No back-billing in an auditInstead of buying licenses up front, a Power Platform environment can be linked to an Azure subscription and billed per flow run. This pays off for seasonal or infrequently running processes and does not pay off under constant load. We run your run counts against the license's fixed price.
Impact The right billing model instead of a gut feelingThe license consulting is deliberately its own small, standalone service. It comes before implementation and is not tied to it.
ImplementationOnce the license is settled, building the flows follows: approvals, incoming invoices, data handoffs between systems. We then implement the automation within the license limits you actually purchased.
The Bigger PicturePower Automate shares its licensing logic, Dataverse capacity, and environments with Power Apps. Anyone using both should plan the licenses together, or they end up paying for the same capacity twice.
AlternativeSometimes the honest answer is that premium licenses don't pay off for a single process. In that case, n8n on your own server is the cheaper and, from a data protection standpoint, cleaner solution. We are tool-agnostic and recommend based on the use case, not on a partner program.
The license consulting itself is a compact, fixed-price analysis, not open-ended hourly billing. If building follows afterward, the same 30-day model applies as in all our projects.
In 60 minutes, we look at your Microsoft 365 contracts, the number of flows, and the systems that need to be connected. Afterward, you will know whether there is even a license gap.
We go through the active flows and flag premium connectors, custom connectors, gateways, and desktop flows. The result is a list that assigns each flow to a license category.
You receive a written proposal: which licenses, in what quantity, what you can cut, and where pay-as-you-go is cheaper. For every statement we cite the Microsoft source, so your purchasing team can verify it.
On request, we carry out the assignment in the tenant and document which flow runs under which license. You keep control: the contract stays yours, we buy nothing in your name.
Some companies already have the license and just don't know which process is worth the effort. In that case, looking at the economics is a better starting point than looking at the license contract.
In the free initial analysis, we spend 60 minutes going through your license situation and the planned flows. No obligation, no sales pressure, with an honest answer even if you don't need to buy anything at all.
Microsoft 365 licenses include the right to build and run automated, scheduled, and manually triggered cloud flows with standard connectors, with an allowance of 6,000 actions per day per user. Not included are premium connectors, custom connectors, on-premises data gateways, Robotic Process Automation, and business process flows. All of that requires a standalone Power Automate license. This distinction is stated in the Microsoft Learn documentation on Power Automate license types.
Premium connectors are the connections that go beyond the standard world of Microsoft 365, including SQL Server, the Azure services, Dynamics 365, and all custom connectors. The on-premises data gateway to systems on your own network also counts as part of the premium world. Microsoft has since reclassified several connectors that used to be listed as standard, such as SQL Server, as premium, which is why many older flows are affected. In the flow designer, these connectors are marked as premium.
Power Automate Premium is a per-user license and suits people who build flows themselves, manage desktop flows, or start automations interactively. Power Automate Process is a capacity license assigned to a single process or machine, which any number of users in the company may trigger. A background process that nobody starts personally is often significantly cheaper with Process than with many individual licenses. Which variant works out for you depends on the number of users and the number of processes.
Unattended Robotic Process Automation is included neither in Microsoft 365 nor in the premium user license; it requires a Power Automate Process license or the hosted process variant with a machine provided by Microsoft. Attended RPA, meaning the robot that runs at the workstation under supervision, is included in Power Automate Premium instead. If an unattended robot accesses Microsoft 365 applications, the Microsoft Product Terms additionally require an unattended license. We check this point in the analysis too, because it becomes expensive later otherwise.
Grandfathering for flows built before the reclassification of premium connectors has expired. Microsoft ended the extended transition period on October 1, 2024, and activated technical license enforcement in the product on April 1, 2025. Anyone who wants to keep running such flows has needed matching licenses for the affected users or processes ever since. In the inventory, we find exactly this legacy baggage before a flow stalls in live operation.
