TL;DR
In Power Apps vs Power Automate, pick Power Apps when people need a screen and Power Automate when work runs alone. Use both when a person starts a task that other systems finish, like a purchase request that needs approval. Power Apps builds forms and mobile apps that people fill in. Power Automate runs flows in the background and can even click through old desktop software. The two share the same data, so an app can hand work to a flow with one line of code. Microsoft lists Power Apps Premium at $20 and Power Automate Premium at $15 per user per month, as of 23 October 2026.
Key Takeaways Power Apps is for people who enter, review or update data on a screen, such as on the web, in Teams or on a phone. Power Automate is for work that runs on a trigger or a schedule, even when no one is watching. Many processes need both, because the app captures the request while a flow routes it, gets approvals and writes to other systems. Power Apps licences cover flows only within the context of the app, so standalone flows need a Power Automate licence. Plan around two hard limits: 500 to 10,000 rows for non-delegable app queries, and 30 days for any flow run. SharePoint 2013 workflows stopped on 2 April 2026 and InfoPath 2013 support ended on 14 July 2026, so many teams must choose now. One Purchase Request, Two Different Jobs Picture a buyer at a mid-sized manufacturer who needs three laptops for the field team. She opens a request form on her phone, picks the models from a list, adds a cost center and then taps Submit. Her part takes about two minutes.
Everything after that tap happens without her. The request goes to her manager in Microsoft Teams, then on to finance because the total crosses a spending limit. Once both approve, a record lands in the ERP system and the supplier receives an order email.
Those are two different jobs. The first needs a screen built for a person. The second needs a process that runs on its own for hours or days, so it still finishes after she closes the app. Microsoft sells a tool for each: Power Apps for the screen and Power Automate for the process.
This guide compares the two on what they build, how they start, what they cost and where each one breaks. Near the end, a scenario matrix sorts eight common processes, and five questions settle the ones that do not fit.
Power Apps vs Power Automate at a Glance The quickest way to see the difference is to line the two tools up on the same rows, so start with the table below. The top half of the table shows that they do different jobs, while the bottom half shows how much they share.
Dimension Power Apps Power Automate Core job Gives people a screen to enter, view and update data Runs work in the background, with no screen Who uses it Employees, field staff and approvers who open the app Nobody directly, since it works on behalf of people and systems What you build Canvas apps and model-driven apps Cloud flows and desktop flows How it starts A user opens the app and taps a button A trigger, a schedule or a button press Logic language Power Fx, an Excel-like formula language Flow designer steps plus expressions Data Dataverse and more than 1,000 shared connectors The same Dataverse tables and connectors Offline use Canvas apps can work offline on mobile Not applicable, because flows run in the cloud or on a machine AI help Copilot drafts an app from a plain-language description Copilot drafts a flow from a plain-language description RPA None Desktop flows automate Windows apps that have no API Licence basis Per user, or pay-as-you-go per active user per app Per user, or per bot for unattended desktop flows
Reading the Table Read the first row and the last row together and the pattern is plain. Power Apps is built and priced around people who use a screen. Power Automate, by contrast, is priced around the work itself: by user for cloud flows and by bot for unattended robots.
If people only need to see numbers rather than enter them, that is a reporting job for Power BI, covered in our Power Automate vs Power BI comparison. For the numbers your app collects, the new card visual in Power BI shows how a report can surface them.
What Is Power Apps and When Should You Use It? Power Apps is Microsoft’s low-code tool for building business apps that people use in a browser, inside Teams or on a phone. You design screens, connect them to data and then add logic with Power Fx. That formula language will feel familiar to anyone who writes Excel formulas. Teams already on Microsoft Fabric can also weigh it against Power BI, Rayfin and Fabric Apps , depending on who will build and maintain the app.
Use it when a person has to do something with data in front of them. A field inspector logging defects on a tablet is the classic case, and so is a help desk that needs one screen across three systems. Equipment check-outs, site audits and onboarding forms also follow the same pattern.
Copilot in Power Apps can draft a first version from a plain sentence, such as “an app to track equipment loans.” Microsoft’s Copilot app guide shows the steps. That shortens the blank-page stage, but someone still has to test the data rules and the screens.
Canvas Apps vs Model-Driven Apps Power Apps has two app types, and the choice shapes how much design work you take on. Canvas apps start from a blank screen and then give you control over every pixel. Model-driven apps, on the other hand, start from your Dataverse data model and generate the layout for you.
Aspect Canvas apps Model-driven apps Layout control Full control over every screen and control Layout generated from forms and views Data source Any connector, such as SharePoint, SQL Server and Dataverse Dataverse Best for Task apps, mobile forms and field work Case management, CRM-style records and multi-stage processes Skill needed Power Fx and screen design Data modelling, forms and business rules
Where Power Apps Is the Wrong Tool Power Apps is a poor fit in three situations, although each one has a clear alternative.
No human input. When nobody needs to look at or change the data, an app adds a screen nobody opens. An automated or scheduled flow does the job instead.Large datasets with non-delegable queries. When a formula cannot be pushed to the data source, a canvas app works on only the first 500 rows by default, and 10,000 at most, per Microsoft’s delegation overview .Public websites. Sites for customers or partners belong in Power Pages, Microsoft’s product for external websites, rather than in an internal app.The delegation limit is especially likely to bite in production. An app tested on 300 SharePoint rows looks fine, then returns incomplete results once the list grows past the limit. The fix is to write filters the source can run, or to move the heavy query into a flow.
What Is Power Automate and When Should You Use It? Power Automate, formerly Microsoft Flow, is Microsoft’s tool for running work without a person at a screen. A flow starts on a trigger, follows the steps you define and then calls other systems through connectors.
Use it when a task repeats on a rule. Typical examples include saving email attachments to SharePoint, alerting a Teams channel when a list item changes and sending a weekly report. Routing a contract for sign-off is also a common one.
Copilot can draft a flow from a description too, as Microsoft’s Copilot flow guide shows. For example, you might type “notify finance when a new invoice lands in this folder” and get a working skeleton to refine.
Cloud Flows vs Desktop Flows Power Automate has two engines, and the deciding question is whether the target system has an API. Cloud flows call systems through connectors. Desktop flows, by contrast, drive the screen of a Windows application the way a person would, which is robotic process automation, or RPA.
Flow type How it starts Typical use Automated cloud flow An event, such as a new email or a changed record Copy attachments, sync records, send alerts Instant cloud flow A button press in an app, in Teams or on mobile Start an approval, create a document on demand Scheduled cloud flow A set time or interval Nightly data sync, weekly report emails Attended desktop flow A person starts it on their own machine Help an agent fill an old desktop form faster Unattended desktop flow Runs on a machine when no one is signed in Key invoices into a legacy ERP overnight
Power Automate for desktop runs on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server. The free version includes the designer, the recorder and more than 400 actions, per Microsoft’s desktop flow requirements . Still, triggering desktop flows from the cloud, sharing them and storing them in Dataverse all need an organization premium account.
The price gap matters as much as the technical one. A cloud flow user costs $15 a month on Power Automate Premium, while an unattended bot costs $150. So check for an API or connector before you reach for RPA. If you are weighing Microsoft’s RPA against a dedicated platform, our comparison of UiPath vs Power Automate covers that choice.
Approvals Without Building an App A document sign-off is the most common approval, and Power Automate handles it without any app. The Approvals action in Power Automate sends the request to Microsoft Teams and Outlook. The approver then approves or rejects with a comment, and the flow carries on from there.
That makes a plain document sign-off a flow-only job, since no screen is needed. Build an app only when the requester has to enter structured data that a simple form cannot capture well, such as line items, cost centers or attachments.
Where Power Automate Is the Wrong Tool Power Automate has limits of its own, and three of them push work somewhere else.
Processes that run longer than 30 days. A flow run times out after 30 days, and that includes time spent waiting on an approval, per Microsoft’s limits and configuration page.Rich data entry. A flow has no screen of its own. When people must enter or edit many fields, put an app in front of it.Heavy enterprise integration. High-volume integrations owned by developers often fit Azure Logic Apps better, as our guide to Power Automate vs Logic Apps explains.The 30-day limit catches long reviews, such as contract or capital requests that sit with a busy executive. A sturdier design stores the request status in a list. It then starts a fresh flow each time the status changes, so no single run waits for weeks.
How Power Apps and Power Automate Work Together Many business processes need both tools, because they have a human step and a background step. The app owns the moment a person is present. The flow, in turn, owns everything that has to happen after that person leaves.
Go back to the laptop request. The buyer fills the form in a canvas app, which checks that the cost center exists and the quantity makes sense. When she taps Submit, the app calls a flow and she moves on. The flow then handles the manager approval, the finance check, the ERP record and the supplier email.
The Shared Layer: Dataverse, Connectors and Power Fx Both tools sit on the same foundation, which is why they connect so easily. Dataverse stores business data in tables, together with built-in security roles. The same connector library also serves Power Apps, Power Automate and Azure Logic Apps, with more than 1,000 entries in Microsoft’s connector reference .
Apps use Power Fx formulas, while cloud flows use expressions for the same kind of logic, such as dates, text and conditions. A practical rule follows: model the data once in Dataverse or SharePoint, then let the app and the flow read from the same tables. When that data also has to feed analytics at scale, it should land in a data lake or lakehouse rather than in Dataverse.
Calling a Flow From an App Connecting the two takes four steps, following Microsoft’s guide to using flows in apps .
Create an instant cloud flow with Power Apps as its trigger, or build it from the Power Automate pane inside Power Apps Studio. Add the flow to the app, so it appears as an object you can call by name. Call it from a button’s OnSelect property with the flow’s Run function, passing values from the screen. Show the result, such as a confirmation banner, so the user knows the request went through. In the laptop example, the Submit button needs only one formula. It passes the request ID and the amount to a flow named ApproveRequest.
// Submit button, OnSelect property
ApproveRequest.Run(txtRequestId.Text, Value(txtAmount.Text));
Notify("Request sent for approval", NotificationType.Success)Keep the inputs few and typed, because fewer inputs break less often. Passing an ID and letting the flow look up the rest is easier to maintain than passing ten fields. If the app needs an answer back, the flow can also return values with its Respond to a Power App or flow action.
What Logic Belongs in the App vs the Flow The split between app and flow decides how reliable the whole process is. The test is simple: if the work must finish after the user closes the app, it belongs in the flow.
Logic Put it in Why Field validation, such as required fields and number ranges App The user sees the error and fixes it at once Lookups for display, such as cost centers and product lists App Fast feedback while the screen is open Anything that must finish after the user leaves Flow Closing the app does not stop a flow run Writes to other systems, such as ERP, finance and email Flow One place to log, retry and audit each step Retries and error alerts Flow Run history and failure notices live in one place
This is the split Kanerika uses on delivery projects: validation in Power Fx, anything durable in the flow. It keeps apps quick, and it also stops half-finished requests when a field worker loses signal in a parking garage.
Power Apps vs Power Automate Pricing and Licensing in 2026 Licensing is where the two tools differ most, and so it is where the most expensive mistakes happen. Power Apps charges for the people who use apps. Power Automate, however, charges for the people who run flows, or for bots that run when no one is signed in.
Current Plans and List Prices The table below uses Microsoft’s published Power Apps pricing and Power Automate pricing pages, as well as the pay-as-you-go meters documentation. Treat these as list prices, since enterprise agreements and resellers often differ.
Plan List price (USD) What it covers Power Apps Premium $20 per user per month, paid yearly Unlimited apps and Power Pages sites for that user Power Apps Premium at volume $12 per user per month, paid yearly The same rights, with a 2,000-seat minimum Power Apps pay-as-you-go $10 per active user per app per month Billed through Azure, only for users who open the app that month Power Apps Developer Plan Free Building and testing, not production use Power Automate Premium $15 per user per month, paid yearly Cloud flows, attended desktop flows and 50 MB of process mining Power Automate Process $150 per bot per month, paid yearly Unattended desktop flows on your own machine Power Automate Hosted Process $215 per bot per month, paid yearly Unattended desktop flows on a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine Dataverse database capacity add-on $40 per GB per month Extra database storage
Microsoft list prices, USD, checked 23 October 2026.
Two notes change real budgets. The older per-app plan no longer appears on Microsoft’s pricing page, although the licensing FAQ still describes it at $5 per user per app. So check its availability with your reseller. The Developer Plan is changing too: from 15 November 2026, signing up no longer creates a developer environment.
Case Study
75% Lower Licensing Costs with Power Automate
Trax moved a UiPath codebase built over two years to Power Automate in 90 days, cutting annual licensing costs by 75% and migration effort by 50%.
Read the Case Study → What Microsoft 365 and Power Apps Licences Already Cover Many users already hold some rights through Microsoft 365. Those plans let people run apps and flows that use standard connectors, such as SharePoint, Outlook and Teams. Connectors to SQL Server, Azure services and Dynamics 365 are Premium, so they need a paid Power Platform licence.
The second rule catches more teams out. A Power Apps licence includes flows only “within the context of the app,” which means flows that serve that app and its data. A flow that runs on its own schedule for other purposes therefore needs a Power Automate licence. Our guide to Power Automate connectors shows which connectors are standard and which are Premium.
A Worked Cost Example Here is a hypothetical example, built only from the list prices above. A company rolls out one purchase-request app to 250 employees. Because the app uses a Premium connector to the ERP, every user needs a paid licence.
Power Apps Premium: 250 users x $20 = $5,000 per month, with rights to unlimited apps.Busy month on pay-as-you-go: if all 250 open the app, 250 x $10 = $2,500.Quiet month on pay-as-you-go: if 100 open it, 100 x $10 = $1,000.For a single app, pay-as-you-go costs less every month, busy or quiet, because $10 per active user never reaches the $20 seat. The math flips once a typical user needs two or more Premium apps, because two apps at $10 each already equal the $20 Premium seat. Under Premium, flows that serve only this app fall under the app-context rule, while a separate scheduled flow would need its own Power Automate licence.
Learning Curve: Power Fx vs the Flow Designer Both tools are low-code, but they ask for different skills once you move past the first build. The table shows where that effort goes.
Stage Power Apps Power Automate First working version Quick with templates or Copilot Quick with templates or Copilot Production-grade skills Power Fx, delegation, screen design, Dataverse security Expressions, error handling, connector limits, run history Who usually owns it A business analyst or app maker, with IT support An IT or automation team, especially for desktop flows
Copilot shortens the first draft for both tools, since each can build from a plain-language description. It does not shorten testing, though. Delegation warnings in apps and failure handling in flows still take practice, so plan review time before go-live.
Business users often find Power Apps easier to start with, because the screen they design is the thing they see. Flows look simple in the designer, yet they need more care with errors, retries and ownership.
Which Should You Choose? A Scenario Decision Matrix The fastest way to settle Power Apps vs Power Automate for a real process is to match it to a scenario you recognize. Each row below names the tool, or the pair, and the reason.
Scenario Choose Why Mobile safety inspection form with photos Power Apps Inspectors enter data on site, sometimes offline Alert when a SharePoint list item changes Power Automate No one needs a screen, so an automated flow fires on the change Procurement intake with approval Both The app captures line items, then a flow routes approvals and writes to the ERP Scheduled report emails Power Automate A scheduled flow sends them with no user involved Equipment or asset tracker Power Apps People look up, check out and update records Data entry into a legacy desktop app with no API Power Automate desktop flow RPA drives the old screens the way a person would Replacing an InfoPath form Both The app replaces the form, while a flow replaces the workflow behind it Invoice data extraction Power Automate with AI Builder A flow reads each invoice and then posts the fields to finance
Four of the eight rows land on Power Automate alone, two on Power Apps alone and two on both. That spread is typical, and for more flow-only patterns by department, see our collection of Power Automate examples .
Kanerika Service
Robotic Process Automation Services
Kanerika designs, builds and supports cloud and desktop flows, from attended helpers to unattended bots, with governance built in from the first release.
Explore RPA Services Five Questions for Processes That Do Not Fit When a process does not match any row, five questions usually settle it.
Does a person need to enter or review data? If yes, you need Power Apps.Must the work run with no one present? If yes, you need Power Automate.How long does it run? Anything past 30 days needs a design that restarts or splits the run.Which connectors does it touch? One Premium connector changes the licence for every user.Who will maintain it? Name an owning team, not one person, before go-live.A yes to both of the first two questions means you need both tools, with the app calling the flow. A yes to only one points to that tool alone, while the last three questions shape the design and the budget.
Why the Choice Is Urgent in 2026 Two Microsoft retirements turned this from a someday question into a deadline. SharePoint 2013 workflows were fully retired on 2 April 2026, per Microsoft’s SharePoint workflow documentation . Message Center notice MC542767 confirmed there would be no extension, and Microsoft points those workflows to Power Automate.
InfoPath 2013 reached the end of extended support on 14 July 2026, per its lifecycle page . InfoPath forms usually need both tools: Power Apps for the form and Power Automate for the routing behind it. Before rebuilding, list old forms and workflows by owner and usage, since some will turn out to be unused and can simply retire.
Common Mistakes That Raise Cost and Risk The same seven mistakes come up again and again in Power Platform rollouts. Each one is cheap to avoid at design time, but expensive to fix later.
Using an app-context flow as a standalone flow. Covered in the licensing section above.Skipping data loss prevention (DLP) policies. Without them, any maker can connect business data to a personal service. Customer records can then leave the company through a flow that IT never reviewed.Owning flows from one person’s account. When that person leaves, the flows break, so use a service account or a team. Until someone notices, approvals stall and scheduled jobs simply stop running.Running non-delegable queries on large lists. Covered under the delegation limit above.Building straight in production. Use separate environments for development, test and production instead. Otherwise a half-finished change reaches real users at once, with no tested version to roll back to.Ignoring the 30-day run limit. Covered in the Power Automate limits above.Finding a Premium connector after rollout. Covered in the licensing section above.Most of these are governance settings rather than code. That is why they belong in the first sprint, not the last one.
Talk to Kanerika
Planning a Power Platform Rollout?
Kanerika sets up environments, DLP policies and team-owned flows before the first app ships, so your rollout avoids the seven mistakes above.
Talk to an Expert → How Kanerika Delivers Power Platform Automation Kanerika is a Microsoft partner that designs, builds and governs Power Platform solutions, from a first app to enterprise RPA. Three habits shape that work.
Process first, tool second. We map each process against the decision matrix above, so the tool choice is made per process rather than per department. A sign-off that only needs a flow does not get an app, while a data-heavy intake gets both.
Governance from day one. Separate environments, DLP policies and team-owned flows go in before the first release. Retrofitting them later across dozens of live flows is slow and risky.
Migration from legacy RPA. Our RPA services team moves existing bots onto desktop and cloud flows. The UiPath to Power Automate migration practice also uses automated conversion where it fits.
Trax, a global leader in transportation spend management, shows how that plays out. Per the case study, Trax ran 16 essential business-process automations on UiPath and faced a 120-day deadline as licence fees climbed. Kanerika moved them to Power Automate in 90 days, and annual licensing costs fell by 75%, according to the Trax case study .
Watch on YouTube
UiPath to Power Automate Migration Made Simple | End-to-End Automation
Kanerika explains how UiPath automations move to Power Automate end to end, the same kind of migration behind the Trax result above.
For Power Apps vs Power Automate, the shape of the licence decides the cost as much as the features do. Per user, per app and per bot all price differently, so price the process before you pick the tool. Our UiPath to Power Automate guide covers the migration steps in detail.
Final Verdict: Power Apps, Power Automate or Both? Pick Power Apps when a person needs a screen to enter, review or update data. Power Automate is the right call when work must run on a trigger or schedule with no one watching, including RPA on old desktop systems. Use both when a person starts a process that other systems must finish, which covers most requests and approvals. So the Power Apps vs Power Automate decision comes down to the screen: people get the app, and unattended work gets the flow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Power Apps the same as Power Automate? No. Power Apps builds screens that people use to enter, view and update data, on the web, in Teams or on a phone. Power Automate runs flows that work in the background on a trigger or schedule. They share Dataverse and the same connectors, so many business processes use an app and a flow together.
Is Power Automate included in Power Apps? Partly. A Power Apps licence includes Power Automate rights only within the context of the app, which covers flows that the app triggers or that serve its data. A flow that runs on its own schedule for other work needs a separate Power Automate licence, so check how each flow starts before you count licences.
What are the limitations of Power Apps? The biggest is delegation. When a formula cannot be pushed to the data source, a canvas app works on only the first 500 rows by default and 10,000 at most. Apps also need a person to use them, Premium connectors raise licence costs for every user, and public websites belong in Power Pages instead.
What are the drawbacks of Power Automate? A single flow run times out after 30 days, including time spent waiting on approvals, so long processes need a restartable design. Flows have no screen for rich data entry. Unattended desktop bots cost $150 per bot per month, and flows owned by one person’s account break when that person leaves the company.
Can you use Power Apps and Power Automate together? Yes, and many processes need both. An app captures the request, then calls a flow with the flow’s Run function in a button formula. The flow handles approvals, writes to other systems and sends notifications after the user closes the app. Both share Dataverse and more than 1,000 connectors, so the handoff is simple.
What is the main purpose of Power Apps? Power Apps exists to give people a custom screen for business data without full software development. Teams use it for inspection forms, asset trackers, request intake and case management, on the web, in Teams or on mobile. Its purpose is human interaction with data, which is why it pairs with Power Automate for background work.
What are the types of Power Apps? There are two app types. Canvas apps start from a blank screen, give full layout control and connect to many data sources. Model-driven apps start from a Dataverse data model and generate the layout from forms and views. Power Pages is a separate product for external websites, built on the same Dataverse platform.
Can I use Power Automate without Power Apps? Yes. Power Automate works on its own with automated, instant and scheduled cloud flows, plus desktop flows for Windows applications. Flows can start from email, SharePoint, Teams or a timer with no app involved. You need a Power Automate licence for standalone flows, unless Microsoft 365 rights with standard connectors already cover them.
Is Power Automate easy to learn? The basics are easy. Templates and Copilot help a new user build a working flow quickly, and the designer shows each step visually. Production skills take longer, including expressions, error handling, connector limits and the 30-day run limit. Business users can handle simple alerts and approvals early on, while desktop flows usually need IT support.
Is Power Automate included in Microsoft 365? Partly. Microsoft 365 plans let users run cloud flows that use standard connectors such as SharePoint, Outlook and Teams. Premium connectors, including SQL Server, Azure services and Dynamics 365, need a paid Power Automate or Power Apps licence. Unattended desktop bots also need the Process plan, which lists at $150 per bot per month.
Can Power Apps trigger a Power Automate flow? Yes. You create an instant cloud flow with Power Apps as its trigger, add it to the app and call it from a button’s OnSelect property with the flow’s Run function. The app can pass values such as a request ID, and the flow can send a result back for the app to show on screen.
How much do Power Apps and Power Automate cost in 2026? At Microsoft list prices checked on 23 October 2026, Power Apps Premium costs $20 per user per month and pay-as-you-go costs $10 per active user per app. Power Automate Premium costs $15 per user per month, the Process bot $150 and the Hosted Process bot $215 per month. Yearly payment applies to most plans.
Does Power Automate require coding? No coding is needed for most flows. You pick a trigger, add actions in the designer and fill in fields, and Copilot can draft a flow from a plain description. Complex flows use expressions for dates, text and conditions, which feel like spreadsheet formulas. Error handling and retries take practice before a flow is ready for production.
What happened to SharePoint 2013 workflows and InfoPath forms? SharePoint 2013 workflows stopped working on 2 April 2026 with no extension, under Microsoft notice MC542767, and Microsoft points teams to Power Automate. InfoPath 2013 reached the end of extended support on 14 July 2026. Replacing an InfoPath form usually takes both tools, Power Apps for the form and Power Automate for the routing.
Does Power Apps require coding? Not in the traditional sense. Power Apps uses Power Fx, a low-code formula language similar to Excel formulas, to add logic to buttons and screens. Simple apps need only a few formulas, and Copilot can draft a first version. Production apps still need care with delegation, data security and testing, so some technical skill helps.
Is Power Automate discontinued? No. Power Automate is an active Microsoft product with cloud flows, desktop flows and Copilot features, and Microsoft still publishes its plans and prices. What did retire are SharePoint 2013 workflows, which stopped working on 2 April 2026. Microsoft’s guidance for those workflows is to rebuild them in Power Automate, so its role keeps growing.
Does Power Automate have a future? Yes. Microsoft keeps adding to Power Automate, including Copilot that drafts flows from plain language and desktop flows for RPA. It is also the named replacement for retired SharePoint 2013 workflows. For teams that work in Microsoft 365, it remains the default way to automate approvals, alerts and data movement between business systems.
Does Power Apps have a future? Yes. Power Apps is Microsoft’s main low-code app platform, and Copilot can draft apps from a plain-language description. It is also the natural replacement for InfoPath forms, whose 2013 version reached the end of extended support on 14 July 2026. Microsoft continues to sell Premium and pay-as-you-go plans for it, with a free Developer Plan.
What did Power Automate replace? Power Automate was formerly called Microsoft Flow, so in name it replaced that product. In practice it also replaces SharePoint 2010 and 2013 workflows, which Microsoft has retired, with SharePoint 2013 workflows stopping on 2 April 2026. Many teams also use its desktop flows in place of older RPA tools for Windows applications.
Which Power Automate is free? Power Automate for desktop is free on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server, with the designer, the recorder and more than 400 actions. Microsoft 365 plans also let users run cloud flows with standard connectors. Cloud triggering of desktop flows, Premium connectors and unattended bots all need a paid licence from Microsoft.
What is the difference between Power Apps and Power Automate? Power Apps gives people a screen to enter, review and update data, while Power Automate runs work in the background without one. Apps start when a user opens them, and flows start on a trigger, a schedule or a button press. Use Power Apps for human input, Power Automate for unattended work and both for requests.
