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Licensing requirements for setting up an ALM pipeline from Sandbox to Production in Power Platform

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Posted on by Vektori1

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to confirm the licensing requirements for setting up an ALM pipeline from Sandbox to Production in Power Platform.

1.Does a Power Apps per-app or per-user license include enough Dataverse database capacity to create both a Sandbox and a Production environment with Dataverse, without purchasing additional Dataverse Capacity Add-ons?

2. If both environments are Dataverse-based, can I configure a Deployment Pipeline (ALM) to promote solutions from Sandbox → Production using only per app licenses?

3. Or is at least 1 GB of additional Dataverse capacity per environment still required to make this work?

4. What would be the minimum-cost setup (e.g., Sandbox + Prod + 3 users in Prod) that allows a proper Dataverse-based ALM pipeline?

Kind regards: Vektori

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SebS 4,822 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Dataverse capacity
Per-app or per-user licences contribute Dataverse capacity, but not much — usually not enough for two environments.

Per-user: 250 MB DB + 2 GB file

Per-app: 50 MB DB + 400 MB file
Each Dataverse environment (Sandbox or Prod) needs 1 GB DB capacity minimum, so you typically need either ~8 per-user or ~40 per-app licences, or buy Dataverse Capacity Add-ons (1 GB each).

Deployment pipelines
Pipelines require Managed Environments and a Premium-licensed deployment account (per-user licence).
Per-app licences only cover end-users of a specific app — not the deployment process itself.
Capacity per environment
Yes, each Dataverse environment consumes ≥1 GB DB capacity. That’s the creation threshold.
Minimum-cost working setup (example: Sandbox + Prod + 3 users)

Option A (cheapest) → buy 2 × 1 GB Dataverse add-ons + 1 per-user Premium licence for the deployer + 3 per-app licences for users.

Option B → ~8 per-user Premium licences (enough pooled capacity, no add-ons).

Option C (PAYG) → create both envs as Pay-As-You-Go; includes 1 GB each automatically, billed via Azure.

Bottom line:
You need at least 1 GB DB capacity per environment and one Premium per-user licence for the deployment account. Per-app licences alone won’t cover the full ALM setup.

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Vektori1 31 on at

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Hi,

We understand that each tenant gets some default Dataverse capacity (often listed as ~3–5 GB), and that per app and per user licences add a small amount of capacity (50 MB / 250 MB). However, documentation and discussions seem to differ,

Is the default 5 GB capacity that appears with per app licences something we can allocate or use to create new Dataverse environments (e.g., Sandbox + Production)?

Or is that “default” capacity locked to the default environment and can’t be used for new environments?Just trying to confirm whether that baseline 5 GB can help meet the 1 GB per environment requirement for ALM (Dev → Prod) setups or if we still need to buy separate Dataverse Capacity Add-ons or use PAYG environments.

Thanks!

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