How Power Platform Pay-as-you-go plan works
How Power Platform Pay-as-you-go plan works
Recently Pay-as-you-go plan is getting more attention, and it is a good moment to explain how it works.
Table of contents:
Intro
General idea of the Pay-as-you-go plan is simple: you will PAY only the usage! Thus, we do not need to think about the upfront cost and commitment for too many licenses. Sounds great!
BUT when I was learning and experimenting with Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) I noticed that we must consider not only User usage, but there are also couple meters designed by Microsoft which makes this plan let us say a tricky one.
I was so into the topic that decided to record a video about that:
Yet in the end I felt that I did not manage to explain everything what I had in my mind.
I really really hope that after watching the video and reading article you will be able to save decent amount of money and time.🤩
Setup
Pay-as-you-go is connection of your environment/s with your Azure Subscription. The connection is not direct but setup via proxy called Billing Plan:
Note:
Meters selection/configuration in the Billing Plan wizard in the moment of writing article (25.03.2026) is not explained yet in the MS docs…
When you will configure Billing Plan you can connect PRODUCTION / SANDBOX environment/s from the same REGION as what you selected in Billing Plan.
Such environment is no longer taking capacity from your tenant level Dataverse storage! That is key point.
As per above image, PRD environment is under Pay-as-you-go plan and it is no longer part of your Dataverse capacity consumption.
Following changes have really huge impact on our invoice, I will return to this thought in couple mins but first I want to explain meters.
Meters
As for now we can see 6 meters in the Billing plan configuration but in the documentation, you can find one more. I will focus on the onces which are the most interesting for me at the moment.
I think Microsoft is cooking something and this is not their last word in the regards to the Meters.
Meters are measure how you are billed for the usage so understanding them is the key to know how much you will may for the service!
Power App per-app meter
For me it is the simplest meter and one of the reasons why I was so hyped with the idea.
If User will open single App at least once per month we are getting + 10$ to our invoice. Easy as that!😍
So If I open single App 100 times I will be charged only once – 10$.
Bu if I would open once 3 different Apps I will see + 30$ in my invoice (3 Apps x 1 User).
Only unique Users are counted and number of returns / interactions with app of single User is not limited.
In my opinion it is brilliant! I could share app with 1000 Users and get Invoice for only 50 which actively user Application!🤯
➕Plus Users with Power Apps Premium & Dynamics 365 licenses that provides access to per user license are not counted.
Dataverse meter
BUT there is this 🤬 Dataverse meter… Like I mentioned environment with PAYG plan is out of the Dataverse tenant storage and usage is calculated in the following way:
Anything over 1 GB is paid! So I’m getting only 1 GB of “free” storage… But as anybody who created environment I know that as soon as I will add Dataverse db it will consume over 1 GB…
How much you will ask?
- Database – $48 per GB/month
- File – $2.4 per GB/month
- Log – $12 per GB/month
Note:
For the log consumption… please note that in one place of the documentation we see:
If auditing is turned on, any resulting log storage usage exceeding allocated capacity is counted.
And just next to that:
For any log usage: $12 per GB/month
I did not tested that and I’m not sure if we have 1GB free or not… PLEASE! let me know if you will find the answer.
Measures are done daily and value of sanpshot is multiplied by 1/30 of monthly fee…🤯
Example:
Monthly fee = Above 1GB of data for 48$
Daily snapshot cost = 48$ / 30 = 1.6$
| Day of measure | DB Storage consumed | Billing value |
| 1 | 1.13 GB | 0.208$ |
| 2 | 1.14 GB | 0.224$ |
| 3 | 1.15 GB | 0.24$ |
| 4 | 1.16 GB | 0.256$ |
Day 1 calc goes as follows:
1.13GB – 1GB (free) = 0.13GB Billed consumption
0.13GB * 1.6$ =0.208$ Daily snapshot value
Following example is taken from the real data. I created new environment and at the very begining it had 1.13GB database consumption displayed. Over the next days storage grown even thou I was not touching enviornment:
And as per documentation my Azure subscription reflected that:
Even thou this are not millions but I’m paying for the database data which are not mine! I did not created even single record in that database…
Power Automate meter
Final boss in this round which I want to touch is the Power Automate meter which in preview.
Key assumptions:
- Only PREMIUM flow runs counted
- User with assigned licenses are NOT counted (PA Premium)
- Asset assigned licenses are NOT counted (per Flow or PA Process)
Pricing:
- $0.60 per flow run for Power Automate cloud flow runs and desktop flow runs in attended mode
- $3.00 per flow run for Power Automate desktop flow runs in unattended mode
- $3.00 per flow run for Power Automate desktop flow runs with hosted robotic process automation (RPA) (preview) which includes hosted machines and hosted machine groups
It does not sounds scary but if You will consider, scheduled flow which will run daily, you need to pay 18$ extra for a single FLOW monthly!
Were 15$ and your are good to go with Power Automate Premium license for a single User. Of course, I know that you need to adjust to the scenario and business case to not do the multiplexing! but still…
License Cost Calculator
Taking under consideration of so many factors is not easy… That is why I decided to create License Cost Calculator which is a Code App:
I share the project with code of the app here:
⚠️ Shortly I plan to record video how to do the installation of above project & how to start with Code Apps.
In the Application I decided to work around idea of comparison between Pay-as-you-go with other type of licenses, which I called User Assigned Licensing (UAL). I’m aware that some of the licenses are assigned to the assets / environments but please forgive me naming convention. 😜
Key idea of the application is to support your decision process. I know it does not cover all conifguration but I’m treating that as the starting point.
Example
Here is a simple example how this App is working and why PAYG is not perfect…
Assumptions:
- My App is used by 3 Users
- In User Assigned Licensing (UAL) I’m adding Premium Plan not per App
- My DB starting point is 1.13GB and growth speed is 10MB per day
- I run daily one Power Automate Cloud Flow
- I’m also making comparison with one Premium Power Automate license active
- Forecast duration 180 days
License Cost Calculator will help me to make the proper judgment IF to use PAYG plan:
I will break it down now:
- Power Apps licensing – 60$ UAL vs 30$ PAYG per month (in my example) – win for PAYG
(but as soon I would add 2nd or 3rd App to the mix the cost would be equals or higher… ) - Power Automate – 15$ UAL vs 18$ PAYG per month, in this category UAL is already winning
- Datavase – UAL 0$ * vs PAYG from 13.54$ up to 83.76$ 🤯
* For UAL I’m making assumption that cost is based on the tenant capacity and as with single Premium license I’m getting 20GB of storage I’m saying that for UAL it is 0.
I hope you can now see that Dataverse meter is one of the factors why the PAYG is stopping to be so attractive…
Yet, in the App I added also other charts to reflect situation better and to help with decision making process:
Monthly Cost Summary
Daily Cost Comparison
Cumulative Cost Over Time
Summary
From the excitement to the confusion in my case… Pay-as-you-go plan made my head spinning… I really like the idea and flexibility behind BUT… you can judge that by yourself.
I hope tool which I’m sharing will help you to find your path and budget 😍
Let me know what you thought about PAYG, I’m really looking forward to MS Build to learn what Microsoft will do with that.