Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Pages each carry their own metric, their own premium tier, and their own connector tax. The buyer side question is per user versus per app, not which name on the marketing slide.
Power Platform is four products under one brand. Power Apps for low code apps, Power Automate for workflows, Power BI for analytics, and Power Pages for external portals. Each licenses separately. Each carries a standard tier and a premium tier. The premium connector list decides which tier a deployment lands on.
The buyer side discipline is to map every app, flow, report, and portal against the connector list before signing. The wrong order is to accept the Power Apps per user bundle on the EA, then discover half the apps need premium connectors that are not included.
Read this article alongside the Microsoft knowledge hub, the Microsoft advisory practice, the Power Platform licensing guide, the EA renewal playbook, the enterprise licensing reference, and the Vendor Shield subscription.
Each Power Platform component sits inside its own SKU family. The names look similar, the metric definitions diverge.
| Component | Standard tier | Premium tier | Premium per user list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power Apps | Bundled with M365 | Power Apps Premium | $20 per user per month |
| Power Automate | Standard flows in M365 | Premium per user or per flow | $15 per user per month |
| Power BI | Power BI Pro | Power BI Premium per user or per capacity | $24 per user per month |
| Power Pages | Limited preview only | Authenticated user or anonymous | $200 per 100 authenticated users per month |
Power Pages used to ship as Dynamics 365 portals. The new license is per authenticated user, billed per hundred users per month. Anonymous users price separately. The portal that replaces a partner extranet can land at six figures annually.
Power Apps offers two licensing routes. Per user covers unlimited apps for the named user. Per app covers a single app for the named user. The math flips at three apps per user.
| Scenario | Users | Apps per user | Cheapest route | Annual list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One app, broad rollout | 2,000 | 1 | Per app | $120,000 |
| Three apps, moderate rollout | 500 | 3 | Per user | $120,000 |
| Five apps, narrow rollout | 200 | 5 | Per user | $48,000 |
| One app, enterprise wide | 10,000 | 1 | Per app | $600,000 |
The premium connector list is the commercial dividing line. Standard connectors run inside M365 at no extra cost. Premium connectors require a Power Apps Premium or Power Automate Premium license per user touching that connector.
An IT team builds twenty Power Apps that read from Sharepoint and write to SQL. The SharePoint side is standard. The SQL side is premium. Every user of every app needs a premium license. The deployment that looked free under M365 lands at $20 per user per month.
The buyer side discipline is to inventory the connector usage before signing the EA. Refactor what is possible. Negotiate the premium count down before commitment.
AI Builder runs on a credit pool. The Power Apps Premium and Automate Premium licenses bundle 500,000 credits per tenant per month. Document processing burns 0.20 credits per page. Form processing burns 0.10 credits per page.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 include the Power Apps for Office 365 license. The license covers standard connectors and the bundled apps inside Teams. Premium tier sits outside the bundle.
Power Platform is the cheapest expensive product on the EA. The standard tier feels free. The premium tier is where the math lives. Inventory the connectors before the renewal, not after.
The seven step checklist below is the buyer side starting position for any Power Platform deployment or renewal.
Microsoft Power Platform is the umbrella brand for four low code products: Power Apps for custom applications, Power Automate for workflows, Power BI for analytics, and Power Pages for external portals. Each product licenses separately with a standard tier bundled in Microsoft 365 and a premium tier sold as a separate SKU.
Per user covers unlimited Power Apps and the premium connectors for that named user at $20 per user per month list. Per app covers a single app per user at $5 per user per app per month list.
The math flips at three apps per user. Below three apps per user, per app is cheaper. Above three apps per user, per user wins.
A premium connector is any data source that requires a Power Apps Premium or Power Automate Premium license. The list includes SQL Server, SAP, Oracle Database, Salesforce, Azure DevOps, and the on premises data gateway in production patterns. Standard connectors include SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and the rest of the Microsoft 365 stack.
Power Apps Premium and Power Automate Premium each bundle 500,000 AI Builder credits per tenant per month. Document processing consumes 0.20 credits per page. Form processing consumes 0.10 credits per page. High volume document workloads can exceed the bundled pool quickly and require a credit add on subscription.
Power BI Premium per user sits at $24 per user per month list. Per capacity starts at the EM3 SKU around $2,495 per month and scales to P SKUs at $10,000 per month or more.
The math typically flips around 250 users for the EM SKU and 500 to 1,000 users for the P SKUs, depending on workload and refresh requirements.
Redress runs Power Platform engagements inside Vendor Shield, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. The work covers connector mapping, per user versus per app modeling, AI Builder forecasts, Power BI Premium decisions, and the EA bundle math. Always buyer side, never Microsoft paid.
Redress runs Microsoft Power Platform engagements inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. The Microsoft practice lead is Ethan Mullins.
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