How to use Power Apps for free

In this Power Apps Tutorial, We will discuss what is the Power Apps Developer Plan and how to use PowerApps for free.

Also, We will cover these below topics:

  • How to use Power Apps for FREE
  • Benefits of using Power Apps developer plan
  • Can I sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan?
  • Sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan
  • Power Apps Developer Plan with Visual Studio Dev Essentials
  • Features of Power Apps Developer Plan
  • Capacity limits for the developer environment

How to use Power Apps for FREE

There are two ways we can access Power Apps for free.

  • Power Apps 30-day trial plan: This way, you can access Power Apps free for 30-days only, after that it will expire.
  • Power Apps developer plan: In this way, you can access Power Apps for an unlimited number of days but, you can not use it for production use, only for developments.

Power Apps 30-day trial plan

We can use Power Apps free for 30 days by using the Power Apps 30-day trial plan. You can create and run canvas apps, as well as model-driven apps using this plan. Apart from this, you can connect to Microsoft Dataverse as well as, you can connect to more than 200 other premium connectors and on-premises data.

With this plan, you can create automated workflows with Power Automate. And also, we can work with dataverse databases.

Sign up for Power Apps trial

Follow the below steps to sign up for a 30-day PowerApps trial.

Step-1: Go to this link, Then click on Try free or Start free button like below.

Power Apps 30-day trial plan
Power Apps 30-day trial plan

Step-2: In the next screen, it will ask you to provide your work or school email address. Here, you can see, I have entered the work account details.

Sign up for Power Apps 30-day trial plan
Sign up for Power Apps 30-day trial plan

Can I use personal email for Power Apps? No, you can not use your personal email address to sign up for Power Apps. You have to use your work or school account for this. Power Apps also doesn’t support .gov or .mil addresses.

Step-3: Then it will ask you to provide your mobile number to authenticate. You can do this by text message or by call.

How do you make a PowerApps trial environment
How do you make a PowerApps trial environment

Step-4: Then you can provide account details like First Name, Last Name, Country or region, Email, business phone number, etc. Then click on Next and we are ready.

Can I use PowerApps for free
PowerApps for free

This is how to sign up Power Apps 30-day trial plan and use it free for 30 days.

Power Apps Developer Plan

By using the Power Apps developer plan, you can access Power Apps free. By using the free environment, we can build and test Power Apps, Power Automate and Microsoft Dataverse also.

Actually, the developer plan in Power Apps is an up-gradation from the earlier Power Apps Community Plan.

The Power Apps Developer plan is a type of plan where it gives the user a free development environment. By using this plan, you can build and test with all Microsoft-based tools like Power Apps, Power Automate, and Microsoft Dataverse.

Note: The plan is available only for development purpose not for production use.

What are the things that the plan permits you to

  • By using Power Apps and Power Automate tools, you can build or create the apps and flows without using any formula or code.
  • You can easily collaborate and share the app solutions with other users.
  • You can easily connect to any data source by creating your own custom connectors or by using 400+ out-of-box connectors.
  • By using this, you can export the solutions that you have created in your developer environment, Save, Preview, or Publish them on Microsoft AppSource.
  • To practice the application lifecycle management, you can create more environments that will be coming soon.
  • You can specify the out-of-box common tables or build your own data schema.
  • With the Dataverse, you can usefully manage, scalable data platform including support for common business app actions.

Can I sign up for Power Apps Developer Plan?

Before starting this Power Apps Developer plan, you may think that whether can I sign up for this plan? Coming to the answer is Yes, anyone can sign up for this developer plan using their work or school email address.

Sign up for Power Apps Developer Plan

The next thing that will come to your mind is, Where and how can I sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan? Refer to the below instructions to do so.

Step-1: At first sign up the PowerApps Developer Plan by clicking the below link:

Step-2: If you’re an existing Power Apps user, you can also create a developer environment.

Step-3: Once you will click on the above link, the below screen will appear. Click on Sign in from the right top of the screen.

Sign in Power Apps Developer Plan

Step-4: Enter your email address or email ID and then click on the Next button.

Sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan

Step-5: Type your Password and then tap on the Sign in button as shown below.

Sign up for the PowerApps Developer Plan

Step-6: Once you will sign up for the PowerApps Developer plan, then it will redirect to the Power Apps page. You can see your developer environment in the top right of the page. You can see the name will appear like “TSInfo Technologies“. This will be a Default environment.

Step-7: Suppose, there is already an existing developer environment with that same name, then the developer environment will be named “TSInfo Technologies (1)”.

how to Sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan
Access Power Apps free

This is how we can sign up for Power Apps developer plan and access it free.

Till When Power Apps developer plan subscription will be active?

If you are having question like, till when my developer plan will be active? It will not expire as long as there are active usage. Microsoft will automatically renew it. But you should not use this for production usage or it should not exceed the capacity limits provides by Microsoft. So in one way, it will never expire.

Can I use my personal email id to sign up for Power Apps developer plan?

No, we can not use our personal email id like gmail.com or yahoo.com ids to sign up for Power Apps developer plan. We can use company account or school account.

Power Apps Developer Plan with Visual Studio Dev Essentials

  • Suppose you are using the Visual Studio Dev Essential, then all the benefits have been included in this Power Apps Developer plan.
  • Click on this My Benefits and sign in it (if not signed in before).
  • Next, a confirmation page will come to tap the Confirm button (to accept terms and conditions) as in the below screenshot.
Power Apps Developer Plan with Visual Studio Dev Essentials
  • Here you can select the Power Apps tile to sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan.
PowerApps Developer Plan with Visual Studio Dev Essentials


Features of Power Apps Developer Plan

The below table represents all the functionality while working with the Power Apps Developer Plan.

FeaturesDeveloper Environment
Create and Test appsYou can create multiple apps for Development and test purposes
Share appsYes, you can easily share the app with others
Use DataverseYes, you can use dataverse
Model your data using DataverseYes, you can do this thing
Enterprise-grade administration of the environment and user policiesYes, you can use this
CONNECTIVITY
Office 365, Dynamics 365, and other connectorsYes, you can connect this
Connect to cloud-based services like Azure SQL, Dropbox, Twitter, and many moreYes, you can connect this
Use premium connectors like Salesforce, DB2, and many moreYes, you can connect this
Access on‐premises data using an on-premises gatewayYes, you can connect this
Create custom connectors to connect to your own systemsYes, you can connect this
DATAVERSE
Create and run applications In Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Teams, or Standalone using the .Net SDK or OData API.Yes, you can create these
Model your data in DataverseYes
Create a database in DataverseYes
Create and use dataflowsNo, you can not create and use data flows
MANAGEMENT
Add coworkers as environment makers and adminsYes, you can add it
Add coworkers to the database rolesYes, you can add
Supports data policies established by the Office 365 administratorYes, it supports
Establish data policies for the developer environmentYes

Capacity limits for the developer environment

The below table represents the capacity limits for the developer environments.

CapacityLimits
Flow runs/month750
Database size2GB
  • You can purchase the Power Apps Per User Plan if the capacity limit crosses. You can not expand the capacity by using add-ons to the including quantities.
  • You can follow this link to get the idea of Power Apps Pricing.
  • It does not contribute to the company’s overall quota whether the capacity of the developer environment used or not.

Also, you may like these below Power Apps tutorials:

In this Power Apps Tutorial, We discussed what is the Power Apps Developer Plan and how we can use PowerApps for free.

Also, We covered these below topics:

  • Upgradations from the earlier Power Apps Community Plan
  • Can I sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan?
  • Sign up for the Power Apps Developer Plan
  • Power Apps Developer Plan with Visual Studio Dev Essentials
  • Features of Power Apps Developer Plan
  • Capacity limits for the developer environment
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