Licensing is where Power Platform projects stumble, because the answer is never on one tidy page. Here is the plain language version.
4 min read · 2 September 2026
When a Power Platform project stalls, it is rarely the app that is the problem. It is the licensing conversation. Which licence covers this flow? Does the app need a licence for every user, or only for people who do more than view? The answers change the cost of the project, so they deserve attention before you commit. This guide keeps it plain, and where entitlements change, we point you to Microsoft’s own pages rather than guessing.
Many organisations already own more than they think. Most Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans include a baseline of Power Platform capability, an amount of Power Automate usage and a form of Power Apps, so the first question is never what do we buy but what does our current plan already include. Exact inclusions shift between plans and over time, so treat any summary as a starting point and check Microsoft’s current plan pages for exact entitlement. A surprising number of first projects cost nothing extra at all.