Anonymous users triggering flow and licensing

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Posted on by Gman8321

Our organization users have Power Apps for Office 365 Plan 3, Power Automate for Office 365, and Power Automate Free through an A5 license.

This is our scenario. Anonymous, external users submit a Microsoft Form which triggers a Power Automate Flow. Can we use our current licensing if we only use standard connectors? Do we need to purchase any additional licensing?

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Building flows

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Lagortinez 128 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi there!

Yes, you can use your current licensing in this scenario, as long as you stick to standard connectors (like Microsoft Forms, SharePoint, Outlook, etc.). Here's a breakdown based on your setup:

✅ Licensing Implications:

Microsoft Forms supports anonymous responses without any extra licensing.

Power Automate for Office 365 covers flows that use standard connectors triggered from services like Microsoft Forms or SharePoint.

No premium connectors or HTTP/Custom connectors involved = No extra license needed.

⚠️ Just Watch Out For:

If you ever need to call premium connectors (like SQL, Dataverse, etc.), you would need a Power Automate per-user or per-flow license.

If the form response data needs to be stored in Dataverse or triggers an approval flow, that may change licensing needs.

So you're good to go under your current setup!

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Gman8321 23 on at

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So a manual flow triggered by an anonoymous user is allowed. This is a change in licensing from the last time I checked in which Microsoft support told us additional licensing was needed when manual flows were triggered by anonymous users.

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David_MA 12,982 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Since you would use the trigger when a new response is submitted, I don't think you would need any additional licensing, as this flow should run on the credentials and licensing of the flow owner. I think you'd only need to worry about this if the flow was manually triggered, which is not possible for when a Microsoft Forms response is submitted.

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rzaneti 4,262 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @Gman8321,

Just to clarify: In the original message you mentioned a MS forms, which will start an automated trigger (not manual) that runs upon submission, and no licenses are required for the Form anonymous requester in this scenario, as explained by @Lagortinez.

If an external user wants to access the Power Automate environment and run the flow, or start it from a Power Apps (examples of manual triggers), then they will need a license. However, if you are working with an When an HTTP request is received (classified by Power Automate as a manually triggered flow), you won't need a license from the external user.

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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Gman8321 23 on at

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When creating a new flow, the options include:

Automated (Includes MS Forms submission)

Instant

Scheduled (not in scope for this question)

Desktop (not in scope for this question)

If I understand correctly, for licensing:

Automated - Triggers do not require additional licensing

Instant - Triggers require additional licensing

For our subscription, the trigger “When an HTTP request is received” shows up as a premium connector which requires additional licensing.

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David_MA 12,982 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Yes, when an HTTP request is received is a premium action. However, this does not apply to your question since you are asking in the context of when someone submits a response via Microsoft Forms. There is only one trigger for that, which is when a new response is submitted, which you would follow by the get response details to get the answers from the questions in the form:

I have several forms that allow for anonymous users to respond, and licensing has never been an issue. The flows run just fine on my Power Automate Premium license.

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