Licensing confusion - Model driven app with Data verse not requiring premium license

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Posted on by SJ-15052312-0

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I've searched so many sites, I've emailed reps and no one can give me direct answers.

We have a model driven application that uses DataVerse as the back end. It also uses multiple on demand cloud flows. Looking in the settings the app is designated to use a premium connector. The model driven app is published in a production environment. The app environemnt is controlled by a security group and then we assign a security role to be able to read/write/delete data in the environemnt based on their role.

Multiple users who only have a Microsoft Fabic (free), Microsoft Power Automate Free, Power BI Pro & Office 365 E3 license assigned to them are able to play the app and CRUD data. We want them to be able to do so, but are confused why they are able to do so without a per app license assigned to the env or a premium power app license.

I am positive there are no per app license assigned to this env. There are per app licenses assigned in the UAT env for this same application and set of users (Not sure if that is important). When navigating to the admin portal portal and seeing what licensed the people are using to access the app is says they are on a "M365" license.

We originally though we needed to request a "Per app" license for each user but if that's not the case, great. We don't want this app to randomly break one day for all the users if this licensing thing is a bug or something.

Thank you for any insight.

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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Daniel Bocklandt 5,151 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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You’re not alone, this issue causes a lot of confusion.
Here’s the direct answer:

Why It's Working (for now)

Even though your app uses Dataverse, model-driven architecture, users without a premium Power Apps license can still access it because:

Microsoft sometimes grants grace access in environments cloned from licensed ones (like your UAT → Prod).

The app might be benefiting from delayed enforcement or legacy behavior, especially if the app was created by a licensed user.

License checks aren’t always enforced in real time, and some environments are soft-flagged for later evaluation

Why It's Risky

This behavior is not compliant, and Microsoft has started enforcing license checks more strictly, especially in:

Production environments

Power Platform admin center reporting

Cloud Flow executions

One day, access could be cut off without warning.

What You Should Do:

To avoid disruption:

Assign Power Apps per app or per user licenses to users actively using the app

Monitor usage via Power Platform Admin Center

Don’t rely on accidental access — it’s not guaranteed

Bottom Line

If it’s working today without a premium license, consider it temporary and unsupported.
Lock in proper licensing now to avoid a painful surprise later.

If this solved your problem, please mark it as Solved to help others find the solution faster.
If you found it helpful, consider giving it a Like to support each other in this community!

Thanks, and happy building!

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SJ-15052312-0 418 on at

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Thank you for the answer DBO DV. What you say make sense, but is there an official statement or something that states this to be fact? Maybe there is a "known" bug or something documented by Microsoft? How do you know this to be true? I'm just trying to have something concrete to reference if asked to justify this.

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