Is dataverse "free"?

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Posted on by mrQ

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Hey guys

1st question:

I don't quite understand it. I know dataverse for teams is "free" - and by free I mean in most of the basic licensing plans included. However, I always thought (and I'm sure I also read it somewhere) that dataverse is NOT free.

But if that is true, how comes that I can create tables, can write, read, delete and do all kinds of stuff with it? I don't have a premium/per app/per user license at all. Not even a trial.

Also, when i go and check "Connectors" from within Power Apps Studio, I see no diamond icon next to it...

So I've been building my little app for quite a while already (several weeks in the making...) and I've not been prompted to pay for anything yet.

I am also managing another tenant and also there I have the same behavior.

Is it a bug? Do I misunderstand anything? Is it free? Are only some features free?

If anyone could answer this, I'd be super happy and around 80% less confused about the whole MS-Dataverse licensing topic.

2nd question

While I'm kinda certain that the answer to the first question will be "you need to pay", I might need to switch to dataverse for Teams. However, I realized that I can't make use of the pre-created "Contacts", "Accounts", or "Users" tables. Is there a way to do that? Or do I simply need to recreate them?

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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Fubar 8,354 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Dataverse is not really free. You have to have a licence to be able to use it, that licence (except for the Dev/Community version) you pay for - either directly or indirectly (bundled with another Microsoft licence that you are paying for). You can establish a Trial environment (that is 30 days) and it is most likely this that you have (or you are getting permissions from another Microsoft licence assigned to your user) - look in
https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com to see what type of environment you have, and https://admin.microsoft.com/ to check what licences you have purchased/trial and assigned to your user
If your licence doesn't give you access to something then you either need to up the licence or build from scratch.

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mrQ 482 on at

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Hi @Fubar

Thanks for your response.

That's the thing. I'm in the default environment - not dev, not trial.

And regarding the licenses I have the "E1" on one tenant and on the other the the "M365 Business Basic" license. Afaik CDS is not included in any of those plans.
However, when I check my account I can see the "Common Data Service" listed. Not sure if this is the one that enables me to use it. But if so, why do I have it if it's not included in Business Basic/E1?

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timl 36,393 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @mrQ

You're correct in that Dataverse is not free, and that "you need to pay".

One reason why this is confusing is because you don't necessarily need a licence to be able to build an app that uses a premium connector.

For example, if you were to add a connection to SQL Server (a premium connector that has a diamond next to it), you'll find that you can connect to it, even though you don't have a per user/per app license. At runtime for a published app, Power Apps will enforce the licensing rules.

In answer to your second question, can you confirm what you mean by - you can't make use of the pre-created "Contacts", "Accounts", or "Users" tables? Are you saying that they don't appear when you do a search for those, or are you saying that Power Apps reports insufficient permissions when you try to access those tables?

The last part you mention can be really confusing, because the labelling in the admin centre doesn't correlate to meaning that we expect. The link beneath provides a much better explanation.

https://forwardforever.com/microsoft-365-does-not-contain-power-platform-licenses/

Hope that's of some help.

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PJ-02050841-0 17 on at

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As per Microsoft Docs here
As Dataverse continues to grow, more Microsoft applications like Microsoft Project are using Dataverse. To enable these Microsoft applications, limited Dataverse functionality is added to select Microsoft 365 licenses
This can be the reason the "Common Data Service" License is visible in Admin Portal

For App Development, if we have access to any data source we can build the App in PowerApp Studio but if the user tries to Run the Published App by hitting the URL, it will ask for license for Premium features.
This can be confirmed from App details as shown below,

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Drew Poggemann 9,287 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @mrQ ,

This is tricky, I know. Dataverse for Teams is different than building a standard dataverse based model application or other Power App that would connect to a dataverse environment that you create. Dataverse for Teams is unique in the standpoint that this is included with the Microsoft 365 / Office 365 licensing vs purchasing a separate "Power Apps Per App" or "Power Apps Per User" plan.

See the following link which goes over the Licensing and Restrictions for Dataverse for Teams. I also detailed out licensing needed from the Microsoft 365 side in this other reply recently here.

Hope this helps clear up your question. It is a great new added capability Microsoft has provided. Some limitations of course but you can store the data in a true relational database vs. SharePoint lists or other locations...

If this helps, please mark accepted.

Thanks,

Drew

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Fubar 8,354 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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E1 contains licencing for PowerApps. Not sure about Business Basic directly, but it is giving you access to Teams which probably means you are getting Dataverse for Teams

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mrQ 482 on at

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thanks all for your responses.

That clears some doubts - especially the part:
As Dataverse continues to grow, more Microsoft applications like Microsoft Project are using Dataverse. To enable these Microsoft applications, limited Dataverse functionality is added to select Microsoft 365 licenses

@timl
Regarding my second question: yes, they don't show up. I assume that is because they're in a different environment. Just wanted to confirm whether there is really no way to access them?

Kind regards,

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mrQ 482 on at

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any updates on my 2nd question? That'd be appreciated

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timl 36,393 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @mrQ

Apologies for not getting back to you about the second question.

To connect to the accounts, users, contact tables from a different environment, you can select the target environment through the tables/entities > change environment context menu:

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davetheteamsguy 44 on at

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To further muddy the waters about Dataverse licensing, I have a question.

According to the documentation for Dataverse capabilities with Microsoft 365 licenses:

This new service plan allows select Microsoft 365 applications to take advantage of Dataverse as a platform for storing application data and use the underlying business logic tier as part of extending application capabilities. This extension also helps these applications to use Dataverse instances within the default environment. However, if you need to create a Dataverse instance within production or sandbox environments (other than the default environment), you're still required to have a premium Power Apps or Power Automate license.

A) Does this mean you just need a premium license to create a Dataverse instance in a non-default environment, or

B) Does this mean you need a premium license above and beyond your Microsoft or Office 365 E3 / E5 SKU to take advantage of the Dataverse capabilities offered with those select Microsoft 365 applications if the Dataverse is in a non-default environment?

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