Confusing Licensing for Dataverse for PowerApps

[sebe]

Hello,

I am interested in creating a powerapp and use a custom database/table to store data. I thought Dataverse could allow me.

on the licensing overview page, I was trying to understand the pricing for dataverse usage for powerapps.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/admin/pricing-billing-skus

However, the explanation on that licensing page is very very confusing:

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Capabilities included

Dataverse functionality required by other Microsoft 365 applications appears as the "Dataverse" service plan in the Apps section of the Microsoft 365 admin center.

This new service plan allows select Microsoft 365 applications to take advantage of Dataverse as a platform for storing application data and use the underlying business logic tier as part of extending application capabilities. This extension also helps these applications to use Dataverse instances within the default environment. However, if you need to create a Dataverse instance within production or sandbox environments (other than the default environment), you're still required to have a premium Power Apps or Power Automate license.

These limited capabilities of Dataverse are only available through select Microsoft 365 licenses and can't be used to run any custom apps or Power Automate flows, or run any Microsoft Copilot Studio bots, or use any other data that doesn't belong to the Microsoft 365 applications that take advantage of these capabilities.

These limited capabilities aren't the common set included with every Office application. They can be different, based on the Microsoft 365 applications that use these capabilities. For the complete list of various limited capabilities, customers should refer to the service description of these Microsoft 365 applications that contain these Dataverse plans. These limited capabilities of Dataverse don't entitle the licensed user to run standalone Power Apps or Power Automate, or any other Microsoft Power Platform applications that use Dataverse.

Review the Microsoft Project Service description for more details on the limited use of Dataverse that comes with Project.

 .....

If customers can't use Dataverse, why is this being shown in the Microsoft 365 admin center during the license assignment experience?

The service plan for Dataverse is shown to provide visibility to customers that Dataverse is being used to store and manage customer data related to the Microsoft 365 application that's using Dataverse. Additionally, this was communicated to all customers so that customers can prepare for this change and update any internal training or user documentation that they might need.

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This is completely unclear.

Can I use it or can I not use it? From this explanation, I understand, this service is available only to limited "Microsoft" products.

Besides, there is a button on PowerApps to create Dataverse table.

How much does one Dataverse instance cost?

Where can I see the licensing options, the costs and the limitations for this product?

Thank you.

[Amik]

@sebe -

How much does one Dataverse instance cost?

As you're aware, Dataverse is a premium connector. This means every user needs to have a licence. Licences are not driven by "Dataverse Instance" but by user or by app.

There are three types of premium Power Apps Licences.

Per user (Power Apps Premium): the full feature set of Dataverse is unlocked. This means access to unlimited apps and unlimited environments within the same tenant. For UK pricing at least, each user will need to pay £16 per month. So, if you have a team of 20 employees, then your organisation would need to pay £16 per employee per month.

Per app (Power Apps Per App): you can licence specific apps to specific users. This would be £4 per app, per user, and per month.

Suppose for example you have a team of 10 people in the Human Resources department using a specific app, but the rest of your organisation has no need to access the data or that app. In this scenario your organisation will just pay £4 per user per month for that app. Note however this is restricted to a single environment.

Per Active User (Pay you as go): £8 per active user per app and per month. This licence is similar to the per app licence but you’re paying by app usage. Suppose for example you have a large organisation which has created a compliance App which requires all employees to log into it once or twice a year to undergo mandatory compliance training. If only ten employees accessed that app within the month, then you’re only paying for 10 people.

Other notes:

Developer Plan: this a free environment intended for individual use. Organisations typically opt for developers to use the Developer Plan environment for Dev. This environment can be provisioned by anyone in your tenancy and comes with all the premium features. Setting up a DEV environment via the Developer Plan is simply a case of navigating to: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-gb/developerplan/ 

Dataverse for Teams: This is a heavily stripped-down version of Dataverse. Users can create apps (canvas only) which are consumed within Teams and the security model handled within Teams. You do not need to purchase any additional licenses as it is included in all Microsoft 365 subscriptions: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-apps/teams/data-platform-compare

Where can I see the licensing options, the costs and the limitations for this product?

Further reading:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/admin/pay-as-you-go-overview
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/admin/pricing-billing-skus
• 2024 licencing guide: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2085130

I hope the above clarifies.

[sebe]

Hi Imran-Ami,

Thanks a lot for your response.

The pure PowerApps licenses are clear. However, the situation is very confusing for cases where the Microsoft 365 licenses come to the picture.

I have a user account with Microsoft 365 Business Basic license and Microsoft Power Automate Free license (I do not know where this is coming from).

I understand due to this Microsoft 365 Business Basic license, I can use the Power Apps.

(This license/product "Power Apps for Office 365", this is not in your list or not in the Licensing Guide you shared)

To understand more, with this user, I created Dataverse instance but it suddenly created a lot of tables.

Where did these come from?

Am I paying extra for those? If yes/no why?

What happens if I delete them?

Where is this data stored? It seems there is already a capacity consumption happening.

Thank you.

[Amik · Accepted solution]

@sebe - 

I think your topic has moved away from the original question on licencing and onto what Dataverse actually is.

I understand due to this Microsoft 365 Business Basic license, I can use the Power Apps.

The Microsoft 365 Business Basic license allows you to use Power Apps, but does not grant you to use Premium Connectors like Dataverse.

I created Dataverse instance but it suddenly created a lot of tables. Where did these come from?

These are the standard CDM (Common Data Model) tables. See below on what the Common Data Model is:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/common-data-model/use 

Am I paying extra for those? If yes/no why?

They are part of your premium subscription.

What happens if I delete them?

You cannot cannot delete these tables.

Where is this data stored? It seems there is already a capacity consumption happening.

The data is stored in Dataverse (Microsoft Azure SQL) and files/attachments are stored in Azure Blob Storage. The CDM tables are already included in capacity and this includes the the metadata/other components required by the tables.

[sebe]

Hi Imran-Ami,

thanks a lot for your explanations. It is indeed more clear now.

The product definitions and licensing explanations are intermingled and difficult to decipher.

A little this a little that... but this but that... 🙂

Now clear 🙂

Thanks