PowerApps per App license: Sharing app with users vs groups

[Sam4]

Hi, 

Just a quick question about licensing to check if I can have any issue. I have an scenario where an app is shared to a AD Group. Now I want to assign a license per app to all users in that group. So following the steps on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/admin/about-powerapps-perapp, this would be:

1. Purchase Power Apps per app plans
2. Allocate per app plans to environments
3. Set up apps to use per app plans
4. Share the app

But I am concerned about the step 4: Would it be enough to share the app with the group or does it need to be to individual users?

In other word, Let's say There is a "MyUsers" group with 40 users and I purchase 40 license per app. If I share the app with "MyUsers" group, would the license be applied to the 40 users?

I assume so, but I'm not reading in the link above anything about groups so I would like to double check first.

Many thanks  

[blanghorst1]

Question - let's say I have a user with a per app license and they get assigned a Power Apps Premium license.  Is the per app license returned to the pool immediately or in 90 days?

[Pstork1]

I can't give you a definitive answer for that, but I would assume it would be returned to the pool relatively quickly.  The 90 days is more to prevent people from shuffling around per app licenses between multiple users. As mentioned earlier the documentation says the "legal" requirement is to purchase per app passes for all unlicensed users that the app is shared with. Its just that the application of that license in the software doesn't happen until the user runs the app.

[jkic]

I'm trying to find a solution for a client who uses casual/temporary workers.  On a given day there are only maximum 5 users of the App, but the actual users change week to week, even day to day.  Previously the Per App 'Monthly commitment' licence was an option, but now that's been removed so if the 90 day thing is true, we're expected to buy a User an annual licence to use the app for a few days here and there??!  Nobody is going to buy that, so microsoft are missing out on revenue here. I'm going to try talking to Sales....

[Pstork1]

The per app license has not gone away. It is still available. But re-assigning per app licenses has always been difficult. That is where the 90 day timing comes in. For your scenario it probnbly make more sense to use Pay as you go. That is the license that only charges users if they have used the app during the current 30 day period. But those licenses are also difficult to re-assign so your client will need to get more than just 4-5 licenses. You'll need enough to cover everyone who works with the app over about a year period. But you only get charged each month for the users who actually run the app.  So if 4 people use the app this month and 5 different people use the app the next month you only get charged for 4 users one month and 5 the next. But it would be 9 different licenses.  Documentation on Pay as you go is here: Pay-as-you-go plan overview - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn

[jkic]

Thanks @Pstork1 , I wasn't saying Per App plan had gone, I was saying you can't buy it on a monthly commitment any more, so you can't buy it and then cancel a month or two later - that was always useful for short term licences (testing, casual staff).  

Pay-as-you-go is a possible option (or 'I'm-not-sure-what-it-will-cost' as I prefer to call it), although clients tend not to like not knowing what things will cost each month, or have to consider licensing on a daily/weekly basis when deciding whether to use person A or person B.  Also, you still pay for a month even if the user only uses the app for 1 day.  I know it's called PAYG but It feels like you're not paying for what you use 😂.  I find it makes it very difficult to sell Power Apps as a solution to some small businesses with tight budgets.

I've tried Dataverse for Teams as a way of avoiding the premium licensing, but the studio experience feels a bit like developing with 1 arm tied behind your back.  I'll have a think about PAYG, but will still contact Sales about this - there must be a lot of businesses who use a pool of casual/temporary staff.

[Pstork1]

I didn't think you ever could buy it as a monthly license. It was always a yearly commitment.

[TonyMcg1]

when I last followed up with this with Microsoft, about 3-4 months ago, they confirmed that there is no 90 day timing with licenses assigment/reassignment. 

"... license re-allocation, it would take 24 hours for a license to get assigned to the pool when an application is unshared with a user.

And it would take up to 3 weeks for the report job to run and reflect in the Licensing consumption report.  Microsoft will not be able to force the Licensing consumption report. During this time frame it wouldn’t impact the users to access their applications. Microsoft wanted to assure that the existing setup will not have any impact if there is a shortage of App passes as there is no strict enforcement of the App passes." 

Confirmed at the time that: "... this ment that users of an app, where that app is set up for app passes, it will not check if we have enough App passes to cover usage, it will just alert if more allocation/purchases is required, but the app usage/access will not be affected, even if the purchase passes does not cover the current use. 

Currently there is no strict enforcement of PowerApps Per App plan...."

again this was 3-4 months ago, but I have not seen any announcement or seen any chnages to update this. 

[vinayaknair2802]

Hi @Pstork1  Thank you for these information. I was trying to understand the licensing usage as mentioned above. 

Could you please help me understand, what would happen if a user shared an application with "Everyone in the org" in the default environment? I understand the following scenarios:

1. If the app does not have a premium connector, we should be good since all the users accessing have E5 license which already has PowerApp capabilities for this scenario. (please correct me if i am wrong)

2. If there is a premium connector, i am a bit confused as to how the licensing will work.

Thank You

[Pstork1]

1) You are correct. Standard connector Apps will be covered by the E5 Office 365 license

2) The legal expectation is that each user who has access to an App with a Premium connector should have either a Premium license or a Per App license.  If you share with everyone that would require per app user licenses for everyone except individual with a Premium license. The actual process is a bit different.  Per App licenses are assigned to a person when they try to run the Premium connection app without a Premium license. Once assigned they are tied to that particular user. If a user has access to an app, doesn't have a Premium license, but doesn't run the app; then a per app license is not consumed.  So although MS expects you to buy licenses for each user that an App is shared with you really only have to buy enough to cover everyone who uses the App.

[vinayaknair2802]

Thank you for such a quick response! Also, since you mentioned legal requirements, it means that if MS Audits our environment, they would tell us to buy more licenses?

Another query about licensing, I read that if a user has D365 customer service Enterprise License, they are already entitled to all premium powerapp features given that the following scenario is true:

1. The Environment in which they have the custom canvas app, should also have Dynamics 365 apps enabled and dataverse enabled. This would be cost effective if we have users with d365 license correct?