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I am using Power Apps. I have 2000 users and 2 developers. How I can minimize the license cost. I have office 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. I don't want to go for per user license since this is going to be very expensive. I am not planning to use any premium connector as of now.
If all 2,000 users have M365 licenses and you aren't going to use premium connectors then you already have all the licensing you need. M365 licenses include Power Apps licenses that cover all the standard connectors.
thanks @Pstork1 for your feedback. Most of my users have Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise license and all of them are only going to consume the Power Apps. Please let me know if I don't need any additional license? Can I deploy all my power Apps in separate production environment or I need to use default environment.
Power Apps is licensed in terms of the users running the app, not the developers making the app. So all of your users will need Microsoft 365 licenses. But they need to be regular M365 licenses, not the Microsoft 365 Apps for business license. The way to tell would be to see if they have access to SharePoint. If they do then they should have a license that will work with Power Apps.
In terms of environments. The M365 licenses don't include any additional capacity so normally you will be stuck using the default environment. But if you have even one paid license you get enough additional capacity to create multiple environments. There is no licensing restriction on deploying apps to separate environments. The issue is whether you have capacity to create an additional environment.
Thanks @Pstork1 for details explanation. Yes all users have SharePoint online license and they are accessing SharePoint online portal. We are expecting out of 2000 business users, 100 may take role citizen developer, rest of the users will be just consumer. We may procure 8 - 10 paid license to create new environment, I assume only these 8 -10 can use the app with premium connector, rest of the users can access or create apps with standard connector only? Do you any Microsoft documentation link so that I can take it further?
Yes, only the 8-10 with paid licenses will be able to use the apps with premium connectors. But anyone can create apps with standard connectors in the default environment. You can control whether they can create apps in other environments in the environment settings. In terms of environments even one paid license will provide enough additional capacity to make several environments. Here's the licensing documentation.
Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform - Power Platform | Microsoft Docs
Thank you @Pstork1 for your quick response.
@Pstork1 I have one query when you say power apps is licensed for running the app not for developers making the app. could you please clarify if the environment has premium connector. Would a user with E3 license alone would be enough to create app in that environment with Premium connector (Developing the app)
From a legal point of view yes. But from a practical point of view it will normally prompt the user in that situation to start a trial. According to the licensing guide you need a premium license to run an app with a premium connector, but not to create one.
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