Reduce Power Automate Process license costs while keeping automation scalable and compliant: effective April 21, 2026, Microsoft allows Process license capacity to be shared across multiple Power Automate workflows.
Summary
- Microsoft introduces flow groups to share Power Automate Process license capacity
- One Process license can cover up to 25 cloud flows, instead of one per flow
- Targets environments with multiple related automations that do not require isolated licensing
- No tenant activation required; feature becomes available automatically
- Immediate relevance: opportunity to reduce automation licensing spend without reducing automation scope
What is changing?
Microsoft is changing how Power Automate Process licenses can be applied to cloud flows.
Until now, organizations typically assigned one Process license per cloud flow, even when flows belonged to the same business process.
With the introduction of flow groups, Process license capacity can now be shared across up to 25 cloud flows. The flows continue to function independently, but the license capacity is pooled instead of isolated.
This change is part of the Power Platform 2026 Release Wave 1 and reaches general availability on April 21, 2026. The functionality is enabled automatically and does not require manual configuration to become available.
What is Power Automate Process licensing?
Microsoft Power Automate is Microsoft’s automation platform used to build workflows that connect applications, services, and data.
A Power Automate Process license allows cloud flows to run independently of individual user licenses, which is essential for enterprise automation scenarios.
Process licenses are typically required when workflows:
- Run autonomously without a signed-in user
- Use premium connectors
- Execute at higher volumes or on a continuous basis
- Support business-critical processes rather than personal productivity
From a commercial perspective, Process licenses are often one of the largest cost drivers in Power Automate environments once automation scales.
Power Automate Process license: included capabilities
The Power Automate Process license is a capacity-based license for autonomous, business-critical cloud flows. It is assigned per environment and per month, not per user.
| Capability | Included in Process license |
|---|---|
| Cloud flows (automated, instant, scheduled) | Yes |
| Business process flows | Yes |
| Standard connectors | Yes |
| Premium and custom connectors | Yes |
| On-premises and cloud data access (gateway) | Yes |
| Dataverse use rights | Yes |
| Administration and governance at scale | Yes |
| Attended desktop flows | No |
| Unattended desktop flows (RPA) | No |
| Microsoft-hosted machines | No |
| Task Mining / Process Mining | No |
| Copilot Studio capacity | No |
| Daily action entitlement | 250,000 actions per day |
| Dataverse database capacity (accrued) | 250 MB |
| Dataverse file capacity (accrued) | 2 GB |
| Licensing scope | Per environment, per month |
One Process license allows a bot or process to run in a single environment only. If the same bot or process is deployed in another environment, an additional Process license is required.
Important licensing consideration: shared action capacity
While sharing Process license capacity can reduce license count, organizations should also understand how usage limits apply.
A Power Automate Process license includes a daily entitlement of 250,000 actions. When Process license capacity is shared using flow groups, this daily action entitlement is shared across all cloud flows in the group, instead of being multiplied per flow.
This means:
- All flows in a flow group draw from the same daily action pool
- High-volume flows can consume capacity faster when grouped together
- Flow grouping fits best for related workflows with predictable or balanced execution patterns
This reinforces the need to group flows by business process and usage profile.
Licensing Power Automate
Microsoft offers multiple Power Automate licensing models depending on how automations are built, executed, and scaled. The overview below highlights the key subscription options and their intended use cases, from user‑based automation to capacity‑based process licensing. Besides the licensing options shown below, there are different Power Automate rights included with Copilot Studio, Power Apps, Dynamics 365, Windows, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 licenses.
Customer benefits at a glance
- Lower licensing costs by reducing the number of required Process licenses
- Better utilization of existing license capacity instead of unused per-flow allocations
- Simplified licensing model for large automation estates
- Easier scaling of automation solutions without linear cost growth
- More predictable budgeting for automation programs
What organizations should do now
- Review cloud flows currently using Process licenses
- Identify sets of related flows that support the same business process
- Validate that flows are stored in solutions, as required for flow groups
- Reassess Process license demand based on shared capacity instead of per-flow allocation
- Track licensing costs before and after flow group adoption
- Update internal documentation for audit and compliance readiness
Ready to optimize your Power Automate licensing?
Our Microsoft licensing experts are here to help you save costs and stay compliant with Power Automate licensing. Contact us today.
Sources
Learn article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/release-plan/2026wave1/power-automate/share-process-license-capacity-across-workflows.
Message Center announcement: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/#/MessageCenter/:/messages/MC1259418.
Partner page: https://www.schneider.im/software/microsoft/.
Contact our licensing experts: https://www.schneider.im/contact/.